Printer PPD Question

Install drivers. Configure print queue via System Preferences. Then copy the PPD located in /etc/cups/ppd/

I create (and maintain) a regular old composer package of all the PPD's for all of the printers onsite. It was a bit tedious to create (we have many many printer models) but I know I will now avoid the dreaded "Generic printer" when there is no PPD present. I find that as long as the printer gets a valid PPD at time of setup, software update will take over and keep things up to date from then on.

When I have a new machine, I deploy the PPD package out then I can easily push whatever Printer via a policy or self service.

the ppd in .gz format is normal

how are you adding the printer? lpadmin? just point it to the ppd.gz file

For network printers I will install the drivers using a package and then after creating the queue on one station I added it the JSS using Casper Admin. I can then deploy the printer to whatever station I want using a policy.

I guess you could do the same thing with local printers but I don't.

We ended up going with the script used above, thanks!

The printer info is all kept in /etc/cups. Specifically you have the printers.conf that contains all the queue information.
So just tar up that directory and the ppd directory and it should give you everything you need. Install the drivers first to be safe.

@stevewood

Will that script work if you are using paper cut to control printing and tracking of prints? Basically users must input credentials to allow a print to go through. Thanks in advance.

@achristoforatos sorry, I don't use Paper Cut so I cannot definitively answer that. How do you add printers for Paper Cut currently? If the only difference is the address format, or something like that, I'm sure you could probably use the lpadmin command to do so.

@stevewood Good afternoon,

I wanted to thank you for the great post, also, at the MacAdmins conference this last year Scott Blake did a printer setup session which was very informative.
I only have one more hurdle. How do you make a printer to be the default by scripting it? Casper allows that if you check the button for make printer default and it works flawlessly. My scripts are running good thanks to you and Scott but I cannot seem to get that to work. I have tried every command possible and I can't set the printer to default. Do you know how that is done? I would like to thank you in advance for any information that you share.

Have a very great day today my friend!

@skinford glad you were able to get something out of it!

lpadmin -d <printername>

I believe that will set your the printer to default. Test it, of course.

@stevewood Thanks, I'll give that try. When you run it the actual Printers & Scanners dialog doesn't show default like when you pick it from the list and select default. I'll test. Thank you again!

@skinford I may have given you the wrong command. lpadmin should work, but I'm seeing lpoptions referenced here:

make default printer

Scroll to the last post on that page and there appears to be some tests done. Sorry, just scanned that FR and have not tested any of hit.

@stevewood Is there a way to add spaces in the printer name? I've tried simply adding spaces, using backslash, quotes, etc.

lpadmin -p HP LaserJet M401dne -L New York -o printer-is-shared=false -v lpd://00.00.00.00 -P /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/HP LaserJet 400 M401dne.gz

Terminal shows the following:
Printer name can only contain printable characters.

If I use only spaces, terminal reads:
Unknown argument “LaserJet".

Thanks!

@Jimbo

the -p flag of lpadmin is the CUPS name of the printer. You want to use the -D flag to set the display name of the printer. Also, for the -L flag you need to quote that.

So your example becomes:

lpadmin -p HP_LaserJet_M401dne -L "New York" -D "HP LaserJet M401dne" -o printer-is-shared=false -v lpd://00.00.00.00 -P /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/HP LaserJet 400 M401dne.gz

Make sense?

@stevewood

Yes, thank you! Worked like a charm.

Can you set paper size to each tray with lpadmin? Tray 2 - A4, Tray 3 - A3, Tray 4 - B5 etc. We have a Windows print server.

lpadmin -p <printername> -L <location> -E -o printer-is-shared=false -v lpd://<ip address> -P <driver location>

lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFOutputBin=middle
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFOpt_Input_HCFTray=1Tray
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFDuplex=False
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFManualDuplex=False
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFGAFeaturesOpt=GA2

Hi Steve,

I saw many of your posts on other stuff and helped me alot.

I have a Xerox printer and I cant seem to get it to work. 

/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p <printername> -o printer-is-shared=false -v lpd://$CURRENT_USER@<printeraddress> -P /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/Xerox Versant 180 Press.gz

I am not sure if the Im using the script wrong (...Resources/Xerox (does it need backslash here?))

Xerox\\ Versant\\ 180\\ Press.gz

another info to provide is: in the folder, en.lproj folder: theres a file but not PPD or any extension. 

Is that what we use for PPD?

Any help would be appreciated!

@sudoErase 

Yes, you either need backslashes or you can use quotes to contain the path to the printer driver:

The PPD is inside of the .gz file and gets copied into /etc/cups when the printer is created. 

Hope that helps!

Steve

@stevewood Thank you for helping me with this!

Got it to work! 

But I have another printer but this one doesn't have gz or ppd. 

I have the driver installer and it installed but when I went to look for ppd or gz.

It has Unix executable file and texEdit

See the pic. "Canon iPR Sir M10 PS V2.0 US"

Is there a way to point this using a script without breaking? 

Nevermind! Got it to work :)

This worked: 

/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p Test-printer -E -v lpd://$CURRENT_USER@<ipdaddress> -P “/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/Canon iPR Svr M10 PS V2.0 US”

I thought about erasing the post but in case anyone else who is new like me, they can give this a try :)

It takes Unix 

lpadmin -p <printername> -L <location> -E -o printer-is-shared=false -v lpd://<ip address> -P <driver location>

lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFOutputBin=middle
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFOpt_Input_HCFTray=1Tray
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFDuplex=False
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFManualDuplex=False
lpadmin -p <printername> -o EFGAFeaturesOpt=GA2

I have having issues pointing ricoh IM c2500 drivers as you mentioned.  In the /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources folder, the Ricoh printer driver is not a gz or ppd file, rather it is a Document folder.  How would i use this file as the PPD file?

This was way easier to accomplish in the long run