Editing CUPS (section)

== User interface tools ==
Several tools exist to help set up CUPS.

=== CUPS web-based administration interface ===
[[File:OpenPrinting CUPS screenshot.webp|thumb|CUPS web-based interface]]
[[File:OpenPrinting CUPS managing printer screenshot.webp|thumb|Printers information in CUPS web-based interface]]

On all platforms, CUPS has a web-based administration interface that runs on [[TCP and UDP port|port]] [[List of TCP and UDP port numbers|631]].<ref name="AdminPort">{{cite web|url=http://www.cups.org/sam.html#4_4|publisher=CUPS Software Administrators Manual|title=Managing Printers from the Web|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041225043927/http://www.cups.org/sam.html#4_4|archive-date=December 25, 2004}}</ref> It particularly helps organisations that need to monitor print jobs and add print queues and printers remotely.

CUPS 1.0 provided a simple class, job, and printer-monitoring interface for web browsers.

CUPS 1.1 replaced this interface with an enhanced administration interface that allows users to add, modify, delete, configure, and control classes, jobs, and printers.

CUPS 1.2 and later provide a revamped web interface which features improved readability and design, support for automatically discovered printers, and better access to system logs and advanced settings.

=== GNOME ===
[[File:GNOME Settings (Printers) screenshot.png|thumb|left|GNOME Settings as of version 40]]

In [[GNOME]] starting from GNOME 3, CUPS printing has been handled in the Settings application, which is part of the [[GNOME Core Applications#Configuration|GNOME Core Applications]]. The GUI can add CUPS printers and manage CUPS printers and queues.<ref>{{cite web |title=Handling printing in GNOME Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 |url=https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/using_the_desktop_environment_in_rhel_8/getting-started-with-gnome_using-the-desktop-environment-in-rhel-8#handling-printing_getting-started-with-gnome |website=Red Hat Customer Portal |publisher=Red Hat |access-date=12 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Before GNOME 3, the [[GNOME]] Print Settings (formerly called CUPS Manager) were used to perform these tasks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/gnome-cups-manager.1.html|title=gnome-cups-manager|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140915052227/http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/gnome-cups-manager.1.html|archive-date=September 15, 2014}}</ref>

GNOME's [[widget toolkit]] [[GTK+]] included integrated printing support based on CUPS in its version 2.10, released in 2006.

=== KDE ===
[[File:Printers configuration on KDE Plasma 6 screenshot.webp|thumb|Printers configuration on [[KDE Plasma 6]]]]

The KDEPrint framework for [[KDE]] contains various [[graphical user interface|GUI]] tools that act as CUPS [[front end processor (program)|front ends]] and allows the administration of classes, print queues and print jobs; it includes a printer wizard to assist with adding new printers amongst other features.<ref name="KDE01">{{cite web|url = http://printing.kde.org/|title = KDEPrint Homepage|access-date = April 2, 2008|last = printing.kde.org Webmaster|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080509132047/http://printing.kde.org/|archive-date = May 9, 2008|df = mdy-all}}</ref> KDEPrint first appeared in KDE 2.2.

KDEPrint supports several different printing platforms, with CUPS one of the best supported. It replaced a previous version of printing support in KDE, ''qtcups'' and is backwards compatible with this module of KDE. {{As of | 2009}} ''kprinter'', a [[dialogue box|dialogue-box]] program, serves as the main tool for sending jobs to the print device; it can also be started from the [[command line]]. KDEPrint includes a system to pre-filter any jobs before they are handed over to CUPS, or to handle jobs all on its own, such as converting files to [[Portable Document Format|PDF]]. These filters are described by a pair of Desktop/[[XML]] files.

KDEPrint's main components include:

* a Print Dialog box, which allows printer properties to be modified
* a Print Manager, which allows management of printers, such as adding and removing printers, through an Add Printer Wizard
* a Job Viewer/Manager, which manages printer jobs, such as hold/release, cancel and move to another printer
* a CUPS configuration module (integrated into KDE)

=== Mac OS X ===
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[File:printersetup.png|thumb|right|Screenshot of Printer Setup Utility]] -->

In Mac OS X 10.5, printers are configured in the Print & Fax panel in [[System Preferences]], and in printer proxy applications which display the print queues and allow additional configuration after printers are set up. Earlier versions of Mac OS X also included a [[Printer Setup Utility]], which supplied configuration options missing from earlier versions of the Print & Fax preference pane.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}

=== PrinterSetup ===
The PrinterSetup system can manage CUPS queues. It takes the approach of assigning a text file to describe each print queue. These 'PrinterSetupFiles' may then be added to other text files called 'PrinterSetupLists'. This allows logical grouping of printers. {{As of | 2009}} the PrinterSetup project remains in its infancy.<ref name="Lucid Information Systems">{{cite web|url=http://www.lucidsystems.org/printersetup/moreinformation.php|title=Printer Setup is in a prototyping phase|work=Lucid Information Systems|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828092855/http://www.lucidsystems.org/printersetup/moreinformation.php|archive-date=August 28, 2008}}</ref>

=== Red Hat Linux/Fedora ===
[[File:Fedora-CUPS-gui.png|thumb|Fedora provides a print manager that can modify CUPS-based printers]]

Starting with Red Hat Linux 9, Red Hat provided an integrated print manager based on CUPS and integrated into [[GNOME]]. This allowed adding printers via a user interface similar to the one [[Microsoft Windows]] uses, where a new printer could be added using an ''add new printer wizard'', along with changing default printer properties in a window containing a list of installed printers. Jobs could also be started and stopped using a print manager, and the printer could be paused using a [[context menu]] that pops up when the printer icon is right-clicked.

[[Eric S. Raymond|Eric Raymond]] criticised this system in his piece ''The Luxury of Ignorance''. Raymond had attempted to install CUPS using the Fedora Core 1 print manager but found it non-intuitive; he criticised the interface designers for not designing with the user's point of view in mind. He found the idea of printer queues not obvious because users create queues on their local computer but these queues are actually created on the CUPS server.

He also found the plethora of queue-type options confusing as he could choose from between networked CUPS (IPP), networked Unix ([[Line Printer Daemon protocol|LPD]]), networked Windows ([[Server Message Block|SMB]]), networked Novell ([[NetWare Core Protocol|NCP]]) or networked [[JetDirect]]. He found the help file singularly unhelpful and largely irrelevant to a user's needs. Raymond used CUPS as a general topic to show that user-interface design on Linux desktops needs rethinking and more careful design. He stated:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html|title=The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528112951/http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html|archive-date=May 28, 2010}}</ref>

<blockquote>The meta-problem here is that the configuration wizard does all the approved rituals (GUI with standardized clicky buttons, help popping up in a browser, etc. etc.) but doesn't have the central attribute these are supposed to achieve: discoverability. That is, the quality that every point in the interface has prompts and actions attached to it from which you can learn what to do next. Does your project have this quality?</blockquote>

=== ESP Print Pro ===
[[Easy Software Products]], the original creators of CUPS, created a GUI, provided support for many printers and implemented a PostScript [[Raster image processor|RIP]]. ESP Print Pro ran on Windows, UNIX and Linux, but is no longer available and support for this product ended on December 31, 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.easysw.com/discontinued.php|title=Easy Software Products' ESP Print Pro|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619184222/http://www.easysw.com/discontinued.php|archive-date=June 19, 2009}}</ref>