Free printers software for linux

Print Plug-In provides a basic printing capability for The GIMP.
The current release supports PostScript, PCL (HP LaserJet and DeskJet), and ESC/P2 (EPSON Stylus Color) printers. The PostScript printer drivers handle PPD (PostScript Printer Description) files if you have them.
Using the Print Plug-In:
The Printer option provides selections for many common printers. Currently the print plug-in supports the following printers:
- PostScript printers
- HP DeskJet 500, 500C, 520, 540C, 600C, 660C, 68xC, 69xC, 850C, 855C, 855Cse, 855Cxi, 870Cse, 870Cxi, 1100C, 1120C, 1200C, and 1600C printers
- HP LaserJet II, III, IIIp, IIIsi, 4, 4L, 4P, 4V, 4Si, 5, 5FS, 5L, 5P, 5SE, 5Si, 6L, 6P printers
- EPSON Stylus Color, Color Pro, Color Pro XL, Color 400, Color 500, Color 600, Color 800, Color 1500, Color 1520, and Color 3000.
The Output Type option controls whether the printed output is in color or B&W (grayscale). This option is silently forced to B&W for grayscale images and B&W-only printers.
The Media Size option controls the size of the output. By default images are printed to fit the page and are automatically rotated to fill the largest area possible.
The Media Type option tells the printer what type of media is being used (Plain, Coated, etc). Not all printers support the media type option.
The Media Source option tells the printer which paper tray to print from. Not all printers support the media source option.
The Resolution option controls the resolution of the output. Not all printers support the resolution option.
The Orientation option controls whether the output is automatically rotated for maximum page coverage (Auto) or set to a specific orientation (Portrait or Landscape).
The Scaling option controls how large the printed image is. The default is to scale to a percentage of the printable area of the page. You can also specify an image resolution in pixels-per-inch (PPI) by clicking on the PPI radio button. The image is centered by default, however you can adjust the position of the image on the page by dragging the preview image.
The Brightness option controls the overall printed image brightness. A brightness of 100 is usually good for most B&W and PostScript printers, while most inkjet printers need a brightness between 100 and 120 for acceptable results.
Printing to a File
If you want to print to a file, select File from the Printer list. A file chooser dialog is displayed when you press the Print button. Warning, when you print to a file any existing file will be silently overwritten by this release of the plug-in!
Layered Images
Like most plug-ins, the print plug-in only reads the image from the active layer. If you want to print a composite of all visible layers you need to merge the layers (CTRL-M) and then print.
Supported Printers/Features
Most of the printer drivers in the print plug-in use the highest supported resolution for a printer, with the following exceptions:
- EPSON Stylus Color 600, 800, 1520, and 3000 - Currently the driver only supports 720 DPI printing in "compatibility" mode. This makes the drivers extremely slow compared to the Windows and Mac drivers. Unfortunately, I cannot provide optimized drivers (nor drivers for 1440x720) because of our NDA with EPSON.
- EPSON Stylus Photo, Photo Ex, Photo 700 - Currently the driver only supports 720 DPI printing in "compatibility" mode. This makes the drivers extremely slow compared to the Windows and Mac drivers, and you dont get the use of the light cyan and magenta inks (again, because of NDA restrictions.)

PostScript::MailLabels are modules for creating PostScript files of mailing address labels.
Flexible enough to tackle other printing tasks, basically anything requiring a set fields be printed on a regular grid. Also creates PostScript(tm) code for calibrating and testing mailing label printing.
The module has three distinct output modes. In my experience, printing mailing labels is a matter of tweaking parameters to get them all to fit properly on the page. This module is designed with this in mind.
The first output is the calibration sheet. This is a pair of annotated axes, either in inches or centimeters, centered on the page and covering the whole page in X and Y directions. The intent is for you to output this page first, and simply read off the relevant page dimensions directly.
The second output is the label test. This output is a series of boxes drawn on the page, meant to outline the edges of all the mailing labels. Take this sheet and line it up with a sheet of labels to see if they actually match perfectly. If not, tweak the parameters until they do. Note that sometimes you will get a message at the bottom of the sheet saying ``Bottom gap too large, last row cannot be printed.
This means that the printable area of your printer is too small to utilize the last row of labels. I have this problem. But I handle it for you. Note also the arrows on the test sheet. As you hold the test sheet over a sheet of labels, hold it up to the light and slide the test sheet so that the boxes match the edges of the labels. If you slide in the arrow direction, that is a positive adjustment.
The other direction is negative. If the edges of some boxes come out dashed, that means that the non-printing border cuts off the end of the label, so I will adjust the printing area appropriately. Dont try to line up the dashed lines with label edges - it wont work. Just line up the solid lines.
The third output is the labels themselves. By default, I have set up a US-centric address definition :
firstname, lastname, street address, city, state, zipcode
But with version 2.0, you can now create your own definition. You can define new fields, and you can define how those fields land on a label. You can also control the fonts on a per-field basis. Not the size, yet - later pilgrim.
Parameters you can set :
Paper size, orientation, borders on the printable area (many printers will not print right up to the edge of the paper), where the labels live on the page and how big they are, overall x-y shift of page, whether or not to print PostNET barcode, font, fontsize, units (english or metric), which Avery(tm) product code to use, and where the first label starts.
This last needs explanation. If you have a partially used sheet of labels, you might want to use it up. So you count the missing labels, starting at the upper left, and counting across, and then down. For example, if I have 3 columns of labels, label five is the second label in the second row.
If you have an Avery(tm) product that I havent defined, send me the specs and Ill add it.
Also, if there is another brand of labels that you use, send me the relevant data and Ill add that as well. I suspect that there must be some other vendor in Europe, but I dont know who that would be.
When setting up the addresses, I check to see if they will fit on the label. If not, I try to shorten them semi-intelligently until they fit. This part could use quite a bit more work, if done right it probably merits a module all its own.
Briefly, for the name line, I start trimming the ends off the first name, and leave the last name alone.
For the street, I look for things like Road or Avenue and nuke those first, then I trim the street name from the right.
Enhancements:
- Parentheses are now escaped in the generated PostScript code.

LPRng is an Enhanced Printer Spooler.

The LPRng software is an enhanced, extended, and portable implementation of the Berkeley LPR print spooler functionality. While providing the same interface and meeting RFC1179 requirements, the implementation is completely new and provides support for the following features: lightweight (no databases needed) lpr, lpc, and lprm programs; dynamic redirection of print queues; automatic job holding; highly verbose diagnostics; multiple printers serving a single queue; client programs do not need to run SUID root; greatly enhanced security checks; and a greatly improved permission and authorization mechanism.

The source software compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX systems, and is compatible with other print spoolers and network printers that use the LPR interface and meet RFC1179 requirements.

SVR4 LP and LPSTAT Emultation

LPRng provides emulation packages for the SVR4 lp and lpstat programs, eliminating the need for another print spooler package. These emulation packages can be modified according to local requirements, in order to support vintage printing systems.

Security and Authentication

For users that require secure and/or authenticated printing support, LPRng supports Kerberos V, MIT Kerberos IV Print Support, and PGP authentication. LPRng is being adopted by MIT for use as their Campus Wide printing support system. Additional authentication support is extremely simple to add.

Licensing, Commercial Support, and Y2k Compliance

LPRng is Open Source Software, and the current public distribution is available from the listed FTP and Web Sites. LPRng is distributed under the GPL or Artistic license. Licenses and support agreements for users who do not want to use the terms of the above licenses may be obtained from AStArt Technologies which provides commercial support and enhancements for the LPRng and other network software. AStArt provides network and system consulting services for UNIX and NT systems, as well as real time and network software.

The LPRng software has no known Year 2000 data dependencies. Where necessary, dates are generated using values relative to the UNIX Epoch, and will be consistent to 2034 at a conservative estimate. Details are available in the Y2K Compliance file in the source distribution.