| CUPS | Common UNIX Printing System (www.cups.org). It is a portable and extensible printing system for UNIX. CUPS uses IPP/1.1 to provide a complete, modern printing system for UNIX that can be extended to support new printers, devices, and protocols while providing compatibility with existing UNIX applications. The Unified Linux Driver package is based on the CUPS printing support. |
| CUPS backend | Backend is a special program that communicates directly with printers and allows printer drivers to send data using any type of connection transparently. Backend plays the role of a data pipe between the printer driver and the printer itself. |
| CUPS filters | Print jobs sent to the CUPS scheduler are filtered before sending them to a printer. Some filters convert job files to different formats that the printer can understand. Others perform page selection and ordering tasks. CUPS provides filters for printing many types of image files, HP-GL/2 files, PDF files, and text files. CUPS also supplies PostScript and image file Raster Image Processor ("RIP") filters that convert PostScript or image files into bitmaps that can be sent to a raster printer. |
| CUPS printer driver | The printer driver in CUPS is a special filter program that converts CUPS raster data into the appropriate commands and data required for a printer. CUPS raster data consists of a stream of raster page descriptions produced by one of the RIP filters. |
| CUPS scheduler | Like most printing systems, CUPS is designed around a central print scheduling process that dispatches print jobs, processes administrative commands, provides printer status information to local and remote programs, and informs users as needed. The scheduler (or spooler) is a HTTP/1.1 server application that handles HTTP requests. Besides handling printer commands via IPP requests, the scheduler also acts as a full-featured web server for documentation, status monitoring, and administration. The CUPS scheduler on a local system can be usually accessed at http://localhost:631 address. |
| IPP | Internet Printing Protocol. IPP is an application level protocol that can be used for distributed printing using Internet tools and technologies. The Internet Printing Protocol defines extensions to the HyperText Transport Protocol 1.1 [RFC2616] to provide support for remote printing services. IPP defines a standard protocol for printing as well as managing print jobs and printer options like media size, resolution, and so forth. Like all IP-based protocols, IPP can be used locally or over the Internet. Unlike other protocols, however, IPP also supports access control, authentication, and encryption, making it a much more capable and secure printing solution than older ones. |
| MFP | Multi Functional Peripheral. A device combining printer, scanner and fax machine in a single case. All the components of the device are controlled through common interface (usually parallel port or USB). |
| MFP port | I/O port on a computer that is used for communication with printer or MFP device. Usually this is a parallel port or USB port. |
| PCL | Pinter Control Language. Hewlett-Packard created the PCL printer language to provide an economical and efficient way for application programs to control a range of printer features across a number of printing devices. PCL commands are compact escape sequence codes that are embedded in the print job data stream. |
| PostScript | PostScript is a programming language optimized for printing graphics and text (whether on paper, film, or CRT is immaterial). It is a page description language. It was introduced by Adobe in 1985. The main purpose of PostScript was to provide a convenient language in which to describe images in a device independent manner. This device independence means that the image is described without reference to any specific device features (e.g. printer resolution) so that the same description could be used on any PostScript printer without modification. |
| SANE | Scanner Access Now Easy (http://www.sane-project.org). SANE is an application programming interface (API) that provides standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware. While SANE is primarily targeted at a UNIX environment, the standard has been carefully designed to make it possible to implement the API on virtually any hardware or operating system. The Unified Linux Driver package is based on the SANE scanning support. |
| SANE backend | A driver that implements the SANE API |
| SANE frontend | An application that uses the SANE interface. |