22.1. Introduction to Printing on Linux
Like other operating systems, Linux can print directly to attached printers or indirectly to printers connected to another system on a network. Any program that wishes to print runs a command like lpr to submit a job to the print server daemon, which adds the job to a queue for the specified printer. When the printer is ready, the daemon opens the appropriate parallel port or USB device file and sends it the print job data. If the printer is attached to another system on the network, the daemon connects using the appropriate protocol and sends it the job for queuing and printing.
Almost all Linux programs submit print jobs in one of two formats—plain text, or PostScript. Because most consumer-grade printers ...
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