Printer Operation - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 SP2 - DEPLOYMENT GUIDE 08-05-2008 Deployment Manual

Printer Operation

SUSE Linux Enterprise® supports printing with many types of printers, including remote
network printers. Printers can be configured with YaST or manually. Both graphical
and command line utilities are available for starting and managing print jobs. If your
printer does not work as expected, refer to
CUPS is the standard print system in SUSE Linux Enterprise. CUPS is highly user-
oriented. In many cases, it is compatible with LPRng or can be adapted with relatively
little effort. LPRng is included in SUSE Linux Enterprise only for reasons of compati-
bility.
Printers can be distinguished by interface, such as USB or network, and printer language.
When buying a printer, make sure that the printer has an interface (like USB or parallel
port) that is available on your hardware and a suitable printer language. Printers can be
categorized on the basis of the following three classes of printer languages:
PostScript Printers
PostScript is the printer language in which most print jobs in Linux and Unix are
generated and processed by the internal print system. This language is already quite
old and very efficient. If PostScript documents can be processed directly by the
printer and do not need to be converted in additional stages in the print system, the
number of potential error sources is reduced. Because PostScript printers are subject
to substantial license costs, these printers usually cost more than printers without
a PostScript interpreter.
Standard Printer (Languages Like PCL and ESC/P)
Although these printer languages are quite old, they are still undergoing expansion
to address new features in printers. In the case of known printer languages, the
Section 20.9, "Troubleshooting"
20
(page 455).
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