Printing out files in PDF from any application using Cups-PDF

Saturday, September 11, 2010 Cups-PDF , PDF , Softwares , Softwares-Tutorials , Tutorials 0 Comments

Both Windows and Mac OS X support exporting various file formats to PDF, by creating a virtual printer that actually exports files as PDFs. The same functionality can be achieved on Linux using a very useful package 'Cups-PDF'. Cups-PDF can be found in the repositories of most of the distributions, if not you can get it from the official website. I will be using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx in this demonstration.

Go to the package manager of your distribution and search for Cups-PDF and install it. In Ubuntu you can either use Synaptic Package Manger to download Cups-PDF or you can simple open terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install cups-pdf

Once Cups-PDF is installed on your distribution, it will add a virtual printer to your operating system. Now to print a file to PDF, simply open your application software and click on the print option you will see a printer named PDF in the list along with your other printer (if any). Now, print the file using PDF printer it will put the generated PDF to the PDF folder present in your home.

Note: If the printer is not added in your distribution automatically after downloading the Cups-PDF you may need to add the printer manually. Add a printer via the add printer wizard, add a local printer select Generic under the Manufacturer field, and choose postscript color printer as Model.