How can I print to PDFCreator Server from unix clients?

Learn how to configure your Windows Server to allow printing from non windows clients with LPR/LPD.

Note

This guide is based on Windows Server 2016 with installed and configured PDFCreator Server.

Configuration on your Server

  • Open the Windows server manager and click “Manage” and select “Add Roles and Features”.

  • In the wizard, click “Next” until you reach the menu “Server Roles”.

    • Enable “Print and Document Services” in “Roles” and click “Add Features” in the new window.

    • Click “Next”.

  • Click on “Role Services” or simply click through the following dialogs until you reach “Role Services”.

    • Enable the “LPD Service” and click “Next”.

  • In the next dialog (“Confirmation”) click “Install” to complete the configuration on your server.

You can now print to all PDFCreator Server printers via LPD.

Configuration on client machines

  • Activate the LPR Port Monitor (Only needed on Windows systems).

Hint

on Windows: open Windows Features using the command optionalfeatures OR Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off enable and install “LPR Port Monitor” from the tab “Print and Document Services”

  • Install a postscript printer on the client machines.

Note

It’s important to use a postscript printer, since the clients will have to preprocess the printjobs for PDFCreator Server. A suitable driver on Windows would be the Microsoft PS Class Driver. A suitable driver on Ubuntu is the Generic PostScript Printer Foomatic/Postscript driver.

  • Add an LPR port to the postscript printer.

Hint

on Windows: In “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Devices and Printers” right click the printer and select Printer Properties -> Ports -> Add Port… -> LPR Port. On Ubuntu: Open Printers -> New Printer and select the option LPD/LPR Host or Printer.

  • For the port configuration use the following parameters:

    • Hostname/Server IP: IP or Hostname of the server. (For example: 192.168.1.1)

    • Queue Name/Name of printer or print queue on that server: Name of a PDFCreator Server printer (For example: PDFCreatorServerPrinter)

Caution

Please make sure that your PDFCreator Server printer name does not contain any spaces or special characters.

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