Printing With Cups (Common Unix Printing System); What Is Cups; What Is Linuxfoundation - Ricoh Aficio SP C430DN Technical Information

M065/M066 Correspondence White Paper Ver. 3.0
For more information about Unix Filter, please refer to the announcement about Unix Filter release.

2-3 Printing with CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System)

The PPDs of the MFPs/LPs on Linux Foundation started to be posted on February 22nd, 2005.
By distributing PPDs on Linux Foundation, potential customers, who print under UNIX/Linux
environment, will have interest in Ricoh's devices. That will contribute to expansion of MFP/LP sales
and capture TDV.

2-3-1 What is CUPS?

CUPS stands for "Common UNIX Printing System" which has become popular printing system in Linux
environment.
CUPS stands for "Common UNIX Printing System" which has become popular printing system in Linux
environment. CUPS covers the both Berkeley commands and System V
commands, which means customers can use it without any confusion. CUPS provides effective and
reliable printing system.
CUPS supports;
IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) native, which supports authentication, access control and encryption
lpd, SMB (=supports printers connected to Windows network)
Browsing network connected printers.
PPD (PostScript Printer Description) can be implemented in CUPS, which enables customers to use
printers' unique features and device options.
As CUPS has GUI, even UNIX/Linux users can use printers just like Windows OS easily.
After the first CUPS version released in 1999, it is adopted in many Linux distribution packages since
CUPS is free software provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License and GNU Library
General Public License.
For more details, please refer to

2-3-2 What is LinuxFoundation

Linux Foundation is an official site to support and help with printing under open source free operating
systems like GNU/Linux and the BSDs or under commercial UNIX-like systems such as Solaris and
OS X.
For supporting unique features and device options of each printer, CUPS needs each PPD of printer
venders. So, LinuxFoundation.org has been distributing PPDs of several manufactures' printers. Most
of Linux distribution package vendors are using to obtain printers' PPDs to bundle them into their
distribution package.
Posting PPDs on Linux Foundation should be the right way to promote this machine to UNIX/Linux
users.
For more details information, please refer to
http://www.cups.org/
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/
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