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Web printing (feddit.it)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi!

I have setup ScanServJS which is an awesome web page that access your scanner and let you scan and download the scanned pages from your self hosted web server. I have the scanner configured via sane locally on the server and now I can scan via web from whatever device (phone, laptop, tablet, whatever) with the same consistent web interface for everyone. No need to configure drivers anywhere else.

I want to do the same with printing. On my server, the printer is already configured using CUPS, and I can print from Linux laptops via shared cups printer. But that require a setup anyway, and while I could make it work for phones and tablets, I want to avoid that

I would like to setup a nice web page, like for the scanner, where the users no matter the device they use, can upload files and print them. Without installing nor configuring anything on their devices.

Is there anything that I can self-host to this end?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I want to print from a web page: upload the file, hit print button.

In this way I can print from whatever device I want even without any driver installed or configuration.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (7 children)

CUPS already does this though, and that's where I'm getting confused. This is the entire point of CUPS. If your issue is with drivers, then you need to configure it to just print from its own driver via a spooled queue like PostScript, or maybe IPP.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CUPS/Printer_sharing

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (6 children)

I known cups can share printers and queues.

What is unclear?

I don't want to pull drivers or install cups on devices. I want to print from anywhere just uploading a file to a web page.

If I have lots of devices or just want to let somebody print from his phone/tablet without installing or configuring anything...

With cups I still need to touch the system or the device somehow to let it print.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You don't have to install drivers or CUPS on client devices. Linux and Android support IPP out of the box. Just make sure your CUPS on the server is multicasting to the LAN.

You may need to install Avahi on the server if it's not already (that's what does the actual multicasting). The printer(s) should then auto magically appear in the print dialogs on apps on Linux clients and in the printer service on Android.

On Linux it may take a few seconds to appear after you turn it on and may not appear when it's off. On Android it shows up anyways as long as the CUPS server is on.

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