CUPS-PDF

This page is not maintained any longer. The most recent version of cups-pdf can be found here.

This software is designed to produce PDF files in a heterogeneous network by providing a PDF printer on the central fileserver.

WARNING: This is a Beta release. No warranty of any kind is granted!

Installation (on a SuSE 8.1 Linux system - paths may differ on other platforms):

Compile cups-pdf.c and move the binary to /usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf
[ e.g. by calling "gcc -O9 -o /usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf cups-pdf.c" ]
Copy the file cups-pdfgen to /usr/lib/cups/filter/cups-pdfgen and make sure it is executable
Copy the file PostscriptColor.ppd.gz to /usr/share/cups/model/PostscriptColor.ppd.gz

Now after restarting CUPS you will be able to choose "Virtual Printer (PDF Printer)" when setting up a new printer in CUPS.
To set up a queue for other UNIX clients you should select Postscript as vendor and the Color Printer as model for your new printer; queues that get their input from samba or netatalk (i.e. Windows / OS/2 or MacOS) can be set up as raw queues. On the Windows, OS/2 or MacOS system choose a color postscript driver for that network printer (the drivers for Minolta Page Works or HP DesignJet printers do a good job).

Once you print to the new device a directory /var/tmp/cups-pdf will be created and all converted PDF files will be placed in subdirectories named after the owner of the print job. In case the owner cannot be identified (i.e. does not exist on the server) the output is placed in the subdirectory all/ ).
To change the main path, edit the variable CUPSPDFDIR in the very top of the 'cups-pdfgen' script.

The files "cups-pdfgen" and "cups-pdf.c" are freely available and may be copied and redistributed by anyone as long as the origin and original author are displayed in the header.
The file "PostscriptColor.ppd.gz" is a modified version of the "Postscript.ppd.gz" that comes with CUPS 1.1.15 that is able to handle color output.

Here are all three files in one archive for downloading: cups-pdf-0.2_beta4.tar.gz

Version history:

cups-pdf.c :
cups-pdfgen :

02/14/2003 : 0.2 - script re-located to /usr/lib/cups/filter/cups-pdfgen
02/12/2003 : 0.1 - first beta release

03/19/2003 : 0.5 - adapted to work with Gentoo's 'su' command
02/16/2003 : 0.4 - change nobody's files to -rw-rw-rw-
02/14/2003 : 0.3 - slashes in the title are acceptable now
02/13/2003 : 0.2 - several bugfixes and enhanced security
02/12/2003 : 0.1 - first beta release

I welcome any questions, hints, comments or suggestions.
Volker C. Behr

cups-pdf.c :	cups-pdfgen :
02/14/2003 : 0.2 - script re-located to /usr/lib/cups/filter/cups-pdfgen 02/12/2003 : 0.1 - first beta release	03/19/2003 : 0.5 - adapted to work with Gentoo's 'su' command 02/16/2003 : 0.4 - change nobody's files to -rw-rw-rw- 02/14/2003 : 0.3 - slashes in the title are acceptable now 02/13/2003 : 0.2 - several bugfixes and enhanced security 02/12/2003 : 0.1 - first beta release

This page is not maintained any longer. The most recent version of cups-pdf can be found here.

WARNING: This is a Beta release. No warranty of any kind is granted!

Last change : Friday, 07-Mar-2014 15:33:17 CET