PAPPL: New Linux Printing Framework Discussion

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In reference to This Week in Linux Episode 98 and talked about on other podcasts and such. What is the unique competitive advantage of PAPPL over CUPS? I am struggling to find the answer here.

According to Michael Sweet’s Github, there is this line here: " My hope is that PAPPL will accelerate the adoption of IPP Everywhere™ and make it easier for people to support other IPP-based licensing programs like AirPrint™ and Mopria®."

@EricAdams and I talked about this for quite some time and our opinion of IPP Everywhere is that it is feature lacking and removes printer options. These are options in which we both find valuable so this statement makes us scratch our heads a bit. I truly don’t understand the benefit here. Maybe IPP as the lowest common denominator for just getting a printer to work but the Gutenprint appears to be a far more comprehensive and flexible system.

If I had my wish, it would be that options would be more intuitive on printing functions. Specifically for me, I want to see more robust, intuitive options for printing to different sizes like A2, A1 and A0. Printing to A4 and A3 sizes are very straight forward and don’t seem to be a problem at all.

That said, I can very easily use Plotters in Linux, just as easily as Windows, anyway but I only work with HP at this point, so perhaps the IPP is to target a broader range of printers. I also want to note that I am one of those people that use printers regularly.

Here are a couple reference links:

This Week In Linux Episode 98

PAPPL: New Linux Printing Framework github.com,

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I have pretty simple printing needs. Everything I print is US Letter, black and white. The fanciest I get is when I do duplex front and back. I have a pair of Brother laser printers that connect to my wifi. One is about a decade old, but still kicking.

I feel like I’m finally at a place where I don’t really have to worry about printing in Linux - every distro I’ve tried in the last year or so has detected my printers and worked exactly as expected with no need for extra driver downloads or USB dongles (something I can’t say for Windows with any certainty).

For me, personally, this seems like a solution in search of a problem. CUPS works for me just fine. But I don’t begrudge those who need something fancier supported in Linux.

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Maybe there is something I am missing… isn’t PAPPL basically a driver for CUPS? Some simpler/cleaner way to write a printer driver? I thought it actually depends on CUPS, not that it replaces it. Don’t take my word for it though… I don’t know much. :slight_smile:

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Oh, I completely misunderstood what it was. You’re right - CUPS is a requirement for PAPPL, looks like it just builds on it.