HP Printer Application

hp-printer-app implements printing for a variety of common PCL printers connected via network or USB. Features include:

A single executable handles spooling, status, and server functionality.
Multiple printer support.
Each printer implements an IPP Everywhere™ print service and is compatible
with the driverless printing support in Android™, Chrome OS™, iOS®, Linux®,
macOS®, and Windows® 10/11 clients.
Each printer can directly print "raw", Apple/PWG Raster, and/or PNG files.
Each printer automatically recovers from out-of-media, power loss, and
disconnected/bad cable issues.

Note: Please use the Github issue tracker to report issues or request features/improvements in hp-printer-app:

https://github.com/michaelrsweet/hp-printer-app/issues

Requirements

hp-printer-app depends on:

A POSIX-compliant "make" program (both GNU and BSD make are known to work),
A C99 compiler (both Clang and GCC are known to work),
PAPPL 1.1 or later.
CUPS 2.2 or later (for libcups).

Installing

hp-printer-app is published as a snap for Linux. Run the following command to install it and start the server:

sudo snap install core         (if you haven't already done so)
sudo snap install avahi        (some Debian-based distros)
sudo snap install hp-printer-app
sudo snap connect hp-printer-app:raw-usb
sudo snap start hp-printer-app.hp-printer-app-server

A package file is included with all source releases on Github for use on macOS 10.14 and higher for both Intel and Apple Silicon.

If you need to install hp-printer-app from source, you'll need a "make" program, a C99 compiler (Clang and GCC work), the CUPS developer files, and the PAPPL developer files. Once the prerequisites are installed on your system, use the following commands to install hp-printer-app to "/usr/local/bin":

make
sudo make install

You can change the destination directory by setting the prefix variable on the second command, for example:

sudo make prefix=/opt/hp-printer-app install

Basic Usage

hp-printer-app uses a single executable to perform all functions. The normal syntax is:

hp-printer-app SUB-COMMAND [OPTIONS] [FILES]

where "SUB-COMMAND" is one of the following:

"add": Add a printer
"cancel": Cancel one or more jobs
"default": Get or set the default printer
"delete": Delete a printer
"devices": List available printers
"drivers": List available drivers
"jobs": List queued jobs
"modify": Modify a printer
"options": Lists the supported options and values
"printers": List added printer queues
"server": Run in server mode
"shutdown": Shutdown a running server
"status": Show server or printer status
"submit": Submit one or more files for printing

You can omit the sub-command if you just want to print something, for example:

hp-printer-app somefile.pcl

The options vary based on the sub-command, but most commands support "-d" to specify a printer and "-o" to specify a named option with a value, for example:

hp-printer-app -d myprinter somefile.pcl: Print a file to the printer named
"myprinter".
hp-printer-app -o media=na_letter_8.5x11in picture.jpg: Print a picture to a
US letter sheet.
hp-printer-app default -d myprinter: Set "myprinter" as the default printer.

See the hp-printer-app man page for more examples.

Running the Server

Normally you'll run hp-printer-app in the background as a service for your printer(s), either using the Snap package or the systemd service file:

sudo systemctl enable hp-printer-app.service
sudo systemctl start hp-printer-app.service

You can start it in the foreground with the following command:

sudo hp-printer-app server -o log-file=- -o log-level=debug

Root access is needed on Linux when talking to USB printers, otherwise you can run hp-printer-app without the "sudo" on the front.

On macOS you run the "HP Printer Application" program from the launcher, either manually or as a login item. An icon is shown in the menu bar that provides access to the web interface and printers.

Supported Printers

The following printers are currently supported:

HP LaserJet printers with PCL 5 language support
Most HP DeskJet, OfficeJet, and Photosmart printers
Laser printers with PCL 5 support from Canon, IBM, Lexmark, Kyocera, Ricoh,
Xerox, etc.

Standards

Through PAPPL, hp-printer-app implements PWG 5100.14-2013: IPP Everywhere™ for each printer, and has a partial implementation of PWG 5100.22-2019: IPP System Service v1.0 for managing the print queues and default printer.

Legal Stuff

This software is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0. See the files "LICENSE" and "NOTICE" for more information.