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System Administration Guide

The LP Print Service

The LP print service is a set of software utilities that allows users to print files while they continue to work. Originally, the print service was called the LP spooler. (LP stood for line printer, but its meaning now includes many other types of printers, such as laser printers. Spool is an acronym for system peripheral operation off-line.)

The print service consists of the LP print service software and spooler, which includes the Sunsoft Print Client software; any print filters you may provide; and the hardware (the printer, system, and network connections).

See Chapter 45, LP Print Service Reference Information for background information about the LP print service.

Other LP print service topics covered in this part and their chapter references are described below.

Managing Network Printers

A network printer is a hardware device that provides printing services to print clients without being directly cabled to a print server. It has its own system name and IP address, and is connected directly to the network.

Network printers often have software support provided by the printer vendor. If your printer has printer vendor supplied software it is strongly advised that the printer vendor software be utilized. If the network printer vendor does not provide software support, the Sun supplied software is available. This software provides generic support for network printers and is not capable of providing full access to all possible printer capabilities.

See Chapter 41, Setting Up Printers (Tasks) for step-by-step instructions on setting up a network printer.

Administering Printers

After you set up print servers and print clients, there are a number of administration tasks you may need to perform frequently:

See Chapter 42, Administering Printers (Tasks), for step-by-step instructions on how to perform the printer administration tasks.

Setting Definitions for Printers

Establishing definitions for the printers on your network is an ongoing task that lets you provide a more effective print environment for users. For example, you can assign printer descriptions for all your site's printers to help users find where a printer is located, or you can define a class of printers to provide the fastest turnaround for print requests.

See Chapter 40, Planning Printers on Your Network (Overview) for information on setting up printer definitions.

Administering Character Sets, Filters, Forms, and Fonts

Depending on your site's requirements and the types of printers you have on the network, you may have to set up and administer printer-specific features of the LP print service. For example, you can assign different print wheels, filters, and forms to different printers. See Chapter 43, Managing Character Sets, Filters, Forms, and Fonts (Tasks) for background information and step-by-step instructions on how to set up and administer character sets, print filters, forms, and fonts.

Customizing the LP Print Service

Although the LP print service is designed to be flexible enough to handle most printers and printing needs, it does not handle every possible situation. You may have a printing request that is not accommodated by the standard features of the LP print service. Or you may have a printer that does not quite fit into the way the LP print service handles printers.

You can customize the LP print service in the following ways:

See Chapter 44, Customizing the LP Print Service (Tasks), for detailed descriptions and step-by-step instructions to customize the LP print service.