[Simon]

Where does OS X have a CUPS browser? I'm talking about a browser where you enter something like cups.myCompany.com and the CUPS server then lists all available printers and lets you chose one.

Recently I was visiting another institute that has mainly linux boxes and uses CUPS for printing. I wanted to print something and asked people for the printer name and queue to enter into Printer Setup Utility's LPD configuration pane. Nobody knew what the queue name was. But then people said to just browse their CUPS server and click on printer XYZ. I didn't know what they were talking about. Then a guy showed me how they do it on Ubuntu. He went to the printer setup panel, entered cups.theirName.com and got a whole list of printers with names, locations, options, etc. He double-clicked one and that was it. No PPD files, no queue names, nothing. So I figured since OS X uses CUPS there must be a similar browser in OS X but I couldn't find it. There seems to be a browser for AppleTalk or BT printers, but I didn't see a browser that would allow me to enter a cups server.

Any ideas?

[JKT]

Read this: macosxhints.com - Printing to shared Linux printers via CUPS

You want to enter http: //localhost:631 (without the space) in your browser to see the CUPS interface and the printers on the local network.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by JKT 

You want to enter http: //localhost:631 (without the space) in your browser to see the CUPS interface and the printers on the local network.

I know about the localhost:631 listing, but that's not what I'm looking for.

That listing shows me the printers I've already set up with Printer Setup Utility. But I'm actually interested in a listing of the printers available on the CUPS sever that I haven't already set up on my Mac. Such a listing would let me set up the printer with a simple double-click w/o having to know queue names etc.

[JKT]

Did you read the comments of the OS X Hint? Specifically the first one - the list of printers should be showing up automatically in Printer Setup Utility.

[ginoledesma]

But I'm actually interested in a listing of the printers available on the CUPS sever that I haven't already set up on my Mac. Such a listing would let me set up the printer with a simple double-click w/o having to know queue names etc.

Someone had to set this up on the CUPS Server, though. In some Linux distributions, they can advertise their printers a la Printer Sharing + Bonjour discovery in Macs, so a centralized CUPS server could pick all these up and aggregate the list. Mac OS X works in the same way in that these printers are put under "Shared". I think it's limited to AppleTalk/Bonjour-capable printers. I haven't seen SMB/JetDirect/IPP-only printers automatically get listed.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by JKT 

Did you read the comments of the OS X Hint? Specifically the first one - the list of printers should be showing up automatically in Printer Setup Utility.

Yeah, thanks for the link. I took a look at the whole page but it's really not what I was looking for.

The article and comments date back to 2003. The "Show printers connected to other computers" selection doesn't exist anymore on Tiger. Heck, "Print Center" doesn't even exist anymore in Tiger.

The point is I can enter cups.CompanyName.com:631 in Safari and see a list of all printers just like the Ubuntu folks. But that's it. What's missing is the possibility to double-click one of those entries to have that printer set up in Printer Setup Utility so that it can be used to print to. You still have to do that manually with the LPD setup though.

And that's why I'm asking for the CUPS browser on OS X. Obviously there seems to be a broadcast from the CUPS server telling the Mac what printers are available. But somehow the Mac should be able to get the details on such a printer and set it up automatically. Again, on Ubuntu that's a simple double-click.