Configure printers

To output well-formatted reports, verify that the required printer is available to your server and supported by your system.

Execute the printerinfo command to list the available printers.

Not all available printers are supported. The supported printers must be graphical printers.
  • On Windows®, a Windows printer driver for the printer in question must be installed (unless you are using the driverless option, see below).
  • On UNIX™, the printer must support Postscript, or a converter from Postscript to the printer's native language (typically a ghostscript backend) must be installed and configured. We recommend use of the Postscript Printer Description (PPD) file for your brand of printer.
  • On any platform, you can use driverless, server-side silent printing if the printer is reachable over the network at TCP port 9100, and supports both the PJL and the Postscript language.

Plain text printers or bar code printers with proprietary control languages are not supported.

Search the internet for Windows drivers for some brands of thermal transfer bar code printers when the vendor does not provide a driver, as others have specialized in providing such drivers.

Do not use dot matrix printers in graphical mode, even if the drivers exist. The speed is typically too slow, and the print results are poor.

UNIX and CUPS

  • CUPS should be used if available. Direct the browser to http://host:631. Always make use of the "print the test page" option during the installation.
  • If CUPS is not available and the printer is listed in printerinfo but does not work, test if any other graphical application (such as OpenOffice or FireFox) can print to that printer.