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Web printing
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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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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.
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.
I am saying that CUPS requires zero drivers or anything else from clients. It advertises the printer on the network, a device sees it, and submits a job. That's it. Exactly what you are describing doing with a web form, except CUPS already does all of this.
Sounds like you're not sure how it works.
It still requires the device to be capable to print...
And the user to find the printer select it and so on. And must expose more ports on the network beside 443...
So, indeed cups is a great solution, but not to the problem I want to solve.
I do use cups in fact for the trusted part of the network, driverless printing for windows and Linux. Android doesn't even need cups since it picks up the printer directly from the printer itself (AirPrint or whatevee that's called).
Just going to say it again: IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) via CUPS solves for all of this, but you seem destined for a specific thing you want to do and don't actually need help with your current issues, so not sure why you posted here.
Ok, I have a web browser on a locked down device and nothing else: how do I print a pdf or a photo using IPP?
I have: a camera, a browser, a file manager (kind of, think of an iPhone or some stock android business device) and I need to print a photo taken with the camera or a pdf file sent to me via email or WhatsApp?
The device is connected to the WiFi guest network with limited internet access (if any) and as only available service a server with port 443 open (a reverse proxy on that, captive portal and such).
In my experience, there is no way to print via cups in this configuration. Maybe I am wrong?
Well if you're talking about isolated networks, that's a different story, and not in your post. That's a completely different scenario than what you posted about.
In that case, you could also use port forwarding and IPP via CUPS to achieve the same result without needing to build a web form. If you're unfamiliar with CUPS, try enabling the WebUI and setting it up from there, but there is an option to allow printing from the internet, meaning it's enabling IPP and accepting requests from outside the source network it's hosted on (not the global internet, because surely you have a firewall on the edge router of your home network), effectively creating a bridge between your two networks for this specific purpose and only using that one port for printing.