10. Printing. Fedora Fedora 17

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Chapter 10.

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Printing

Despite the increasing availability of electronic services, there are are still times when it is necessary or desirable to print documents. Fortunately, Fedora makes printing easy. This chapter covers connecting to a single printer and connecting to an existing print server. Like many other aspects of

Fedora, printing can be configured by a graphical program or with command-line tools. In this chapter, the focus is primarily on the graphical program, with some discussion of the basic command-line tools.

10.1. Adding a Single Printer

Most users need to connect to a single printer, often connected to the computer by a USB cable, although some printer models have built-in network cards for wired or wireless connection to your local network.

10.1.1. Adding a USB printer

10.1.1.1. Adding a USB printer in Gnome

For a USB printer, Fedora makes the setup as easy as possible: simply plug the USB cable into the computer. You'll be prompted to install print drivers if they aren't already installed, and Fedora detects which ones you need in most cases.

Click Install to begin installing the drivers. You may also need additional packages apart from the print drivers. If you are asked to confirm installation of these packages, click Continue to install them. You are then asked to authenticate. Type in the password for the root account and click Authenticate.

When this process completes, the printer is installed and ready for use.

10.1.1.2. Adding a USB Printer in KDE

The KDE printing applet automates the installation of many printer models. Simply plug the printer in and in a few seconds it is added to the system. The printer information is set automatically. If you want to change the settings, go to KMenu

→

Favorites

→

System Settings and then click on Printer

Configuration. If prompted for a password, enter the root password. USB printers appear under the

Local Printers section.

10.1.2. Adding a network printer

In some cases, the printer might not be in reach of a USB cable, or it might be shared by several different computers. One way to solve this is to print over the network. Some printer models come with built-in or optional network cards for either wired or wireless connection. This allows the printer to be anywhere with a network connection, even if it's in a different room.

10.1.2.1. Adding a network printer in Gnome

Even if the printer is on your local network, connecting is still easy. To start, open the printing configuration. In GNOME, this is under Activites

→

Applications

→

System Tools

→

Other

→

Printing. Click the Add button and enter the root password when prompted. Enter the URI for the printer in in Enter device URI text box if known, or else expand Network Printer for more options.

The Find Network Printer will search the specified Host for printers. After the printer has been selected, click Forward.

The system may ask for a printer driver. The drivers for many popular printers are already available.

Select the make for the printer and click Forward. Then select the model, and if there are multiple

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