Technology Brief
CUPS Printing In
Linux/UNIX For
Intermec Printers
Introduction
This technology brief describes how to print to Intermec
printers from a Linux/UNIX environment by using
the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS).
In this document you will find information on how to
download and install drivers for Intermec printers,
what solution to use depending on use case and what
setups or environments you can expect to work.
Supported Printers
The following printer models have been validated
with the Intermec CUPS driver:
PC23, PC43d and PC43t
PM43 and PM43c
PM4i, PF4i, PF2i, PX4i and PX6i
PD41, PD42 and PD43
PB21, PB22, PB31, PB32 and PB50
Other fixed printers and mobile printers are not listed in the
driver options. However, any Intermec printer using Direct
Protocol may use one of the available printers in the list.
CUPS Introduction
CUPS is a Linux/UNIX printing system
that provides main advantages:
1. Act as a print server/spooler to send print jobs and manage
print queues.
2. Enable third party drivers to convert print files to a language
that the printer can understand.
There are two methods of using CUPS for printing to an Intermec
printer. The first is to print a standard document; the second
is to send a file or a data stream containing Intermec printer
commands directly to the printer in pass-through mode.
Direct Protocol Raster Driver
When printing from a Linux/UNIX application the standard
output file format is either PostScript (PS) or PDF. This
output file is sent to CUPS, which uses the Intermec
driver to convert the PDF or PS file into a Direct Protocol
graphics file which is then sent to the printer.
Generic Pass-through Driver
The generic text driver tells the system that the print file
should be sent as-is without performing any conversion.
This is useful for systems that already generate Fingerprint
or IPL commands for label printing. Customers following
this method use the CUPS print server to manage queues,
reprint print jobs and to ensure no jobs are lost.
Supported Command Languages
The Intermec CUPS driver supports the Direct Protocol
printer command language. The driver will force the printer
to Direct Protocol if the printer is in Fingerprint.
For IPL print jobs, use the generic driver approach described earlier.
For ZSim (ZPL simulator) and ESim (EPL simulator) use
Zebras CUPS driver.
Supported Connectivity
All connectivity options supported by respective
printers should work when printing via CUPS to Intermec
printers. The following interfaces have been tested:
LPR [Queue: lp]
Telnet [Port: 9100]
Serial
USB
Parallel port (IEEE1284)
Validated Operating Systems Ubuntu Installation
The following operating systems have been validated This example shows how to install the required software packages
to work with the Intermec CUPS driver: in Ubuntu:
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS [32 bit] sudo apt-get install cups
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.0 [32 bit] sudo apt-get install automake
CentOS 6.2 [64 bit] sudo apt-get install autoconf
openSUSE 12.1 [64 bit] sudo apt-get install gcc
FreeBSD 8.1 & 9.0 [32 bit] sudo apt-get install ghostscript
sudo apt-get install poppler-utils
Other Linux/UNIX operating systems should work, sudo apt-get install netpbm
but have not been validated. The original driver is
implemented in Ubuntu 10.04 and some features may RHEL and CentOS Installation
work better in this operating system than others. This example shows how to install the required software packages
in RHEL:
Validated UNIX/Linux Applications sudo yum install cups
CUPS uses PS or PDF format as the required input allowing most sudo yum install automake
applications to work with the Intermec driver. The following sudo yum install autoconf
applications have been tested with the Intermec CUPS driver: sudo yum install glibc-devel
GIMP (image editor) sudo yum install gcc
Glabel (label design tool) sudo yum install ghostscript
Mozilla (web browser) sudo yum install poppler-utils
OpenOffice (Word-like editor) sudo yum install netpbm
LPR from command line (any document) sudo yum install netpbm-progs
Dictionary (dictionary application)
Gedit (text editor) openSUSE
All required software packages are included in the basic
System Requirements distribution of openSUSE.
There are a number of required software packages that must
be available on the host system before installing and using the Driver Download and Installation
Intermec CUPS driver. These packages contain tools to compile/ Find the Intermec Direct Protocol driver package from the
build the driver and convert PS or PDF files into bitmap images. download section for your printer from www.intermec.com
The bitmap image is used by the driver before converting the print
data to Direct Protocol commands. Download the latest driver package to a Linux/UNIX machine and
follow the steps below:
The packages listed below are required but other standard tools
may be needed by the system. All dependencies must be resolved 1. Un-pack the driver package in directory of choice:
or the driver will not compile and function properly. tar xvf cupsdriver-<x.y-zz>.tar.gz

Package Utilities Description 2. Enter the new extracted directory:

cd cupsdriver-<x.y-zz>
cups cupsd CUPS print
cupsfilter server tools
3. From there only one command is needed:
cups
./build.sh
automake automake Installation tool
autoconf autoconf Installation tool If any of the required software packages are missing there will be
warnings that dependencies have failed.
glibc-devel glibc headers glibc headers
gcc Gcc GNU tools If the command is executed successfully the driver is automatically
ghostscript ghostscript PS to PDF installed to the system and is ready to use.
ps2pdf conversion
Driver Un-installation
poppler-utils pdftoppm PDF to PNM To un-install the driver (conversion filter and printer description
conversion files), follow the steps below:
netpbm/ pgmtopbm PNM Image
netpbm-progs pnmtopnm conversion 1. Enter directory where driver package was extracted:
pnmtoplainpnm cd cupsdriver-<x.y-zz>

2. Execute the following command:

sudo make uninstall
Add Network Printer Driver Configuration
Adding a network printer is a manual process and the host Once the printer is added it is ready to use for printing from any
address/port of the printer must be known and available. application. To enable remote configuration of the printer there are
1. Open printer management tool a number of settings added to the Intermec driver as shown below:
2. Choose add printer
3. Select network interface/protocol Configuration Details
4. Enter port/queue
Print Method Ribbon (TTR)
Socket/IP: 9100 (default)
No Ribbon (DT)
LPR: lp
5. Select manufacturer Intermec Media Type Media With Gaps
6. Select printer model/driver Continuous Fix Len
7. Enter name/location of the printer Continuous Var Len
8. Print a test page to validate Black Mark
Print Speed 4-12 IPS
Add USB Printer
Media Sensitivity Very Low Very high
Some operating systems will automatically detect and install USB
(print quality setting)
printers without user interaction. When a printer is not detected or
automatically installed the printer must be added manually. Darkness 5 95 [steps of 5]
1. Open printer management tool (print quality setting)
2. Choose add printer Print Resolution 203, 300, 406 dpi
3. Select USB printer (Intermec)
Start Adjust Retract label before print
4. Select manufacturer Intermec
5. Select printer model/driver Stop Adjust Align label after print
6. Enter name/location of the printer Color Mode Black/White
7. Print a test page to validate Gray
Dithering Threshold for color setting (0-1)
Add Serial Printer
Adding a serial port printer is a manual process and the serial port
settings on the printer must be known. A common setting in all printers is the size of the actual media/
1. Open printer management tool paper used for printing. There are pre-defined media size formats
2. Choose add printer to choose from. If the pre-defined formats do not match the media
3. Select serial port printer used then a custom setting can be used.
4. Enter serial port settings
Baud rate Another standard setting supported in the driver is to print
Data bits multiple copies for one print job.
Parity
Stop bits Configuring the printer settings in the driver will not apply the
Handshake protocol settings to the printer until a print job is sent.
5. Select manufacturer Intermec
6. Select printer model/driver Note that not all applications enable all the settings in the printing
7. Enter name/location of the printer dialog box. Some are very basic and allow only media size changes.
8. Print a test page to validate Most test page features ignore settings so test pages may not look
as expected.
Hardware handshake is recommended for serial port printing to
ensure no data loss in the binary transfer of the print file. Using a command line tool to print a print job is the most
predictable way to achieve proper result.
Print Quality Known Issues
Host applications vary in their configuration capabilities. Here are The option to choose a printhead resolution in the driver is
some guidelines for creating the highest-quality label: currently not scaling the print buffer to a different size.
For printing graphics and images, greyscale may produce the
highest quality label. References
For printing bar codes where readability is most important, To learn more about CUPS and how it works, see the official CUPS
choose black and white. web site: www.cups.org

Experiment with dithering, thresholds and thermal management Summary

settings to achieve the results you require. CUPS is a standard tool for Linux/UNIX printing and the Intermec
CUPS driver implementation is based on standard Direct Protocol
Limitations/Considerations commands. Any combination of Linux environment and Direct
A few considerations to remember when using CUPS to print to Protocol printer should work. Installation and configuration
Intermec printers: instructions may vary between different operating systems and
For PS or PDF output, Direct Protocol is the language to use may require experimentation to arrive at the optimal settings for a
Not all printers have been tested but all should work as long as given application.
they use Direct Protocol
Only the operating systems in this document have been validated The CUPS driver implementation for Intermec printers is based on
The print quality is an important parameter that needs to be open source code allowing the customer or partner to adjust the
tweaked based on application and actual image printed on the label driver to optimize printing for their system.
Post-printing features like the cutter are not supported by
the driver
RFID printing is not supported
All printers will display all configuration settings, even if the
printer does not support the setting itself.
Features like clean printhead and self-test page in the driver
dialog windows may be shown as active but have no function.
Printing a test page when using a generic driver will not work
and will send garbage to printer and require a reboot.
CentOS 6.3 and possibly other OS versions use a different path
for the driver files; /usr/share/cups/model/.
In this case the .ppd driver files must be manually copied from
the /user/share/cups/model/intermec/ directory.

North America South Latin America Media Sales Customer Service

Corporate Headquarters
6001 36th Avenue West
Everett, Washington 98203
Phone: (425) 348 2600
Fax: (425) 355 9551
North Latin America
Headquarters Office
Mexico
Phone: (+52) 55 52 41 48 00
Fax: (+52) 55 52 11 81 21
Headquarters Office EMEA: (+31) 24 372 3167 and Support
Brazil USA: (513) 874 5882 Toll Free NA: (800) 755 5505
Phone: (+55) 11 3711 6776 http://intermec.custhelp.com Toll in NA: (425) 356 1799
Fax: (+55) 11 5502 6780 EMEA: intermec.custhelp.com
Sales
Europe, Middle East Toll Free NA: (800) 934 3163 Internet
& Africa Toll in NA: (425) 348 2726 www.intermec.com
Headquarters Office Freephone ROW:
Reading, United Kingdom 00800 4488 8844 Worldwide Locations
Phone: (+44) 118 923 0800 www.intermec.com/locations
Fax: (+44) 118 923 0801 OEM Sales
Phone: (425) 348 2762
Asia Pacific
Headquarters Office
Singapore
Phone: (+65) 6303 2100
Fax: (+65) 6303 2199

2014 Honeywell International Inc.

612234-B 12/14