How to add or modify Printer settings in CentOS/RHEL using GUI

Add a printer to system

Start the printing configure application. Click the “Applications” on the panel, then go to “System Settings ->Printing” and click, a “printer configuration” windows will pop up. Also, you can start the application from text command “system-config-printer”.
Add a printer to OS. Click the “New” button on the tool bar, an “add a new print queue” windows will pop up, and click “Forward”.
Enter the name on “Queue name” windows, click “Forward”.
In the drop down list of queue type, there are 6 queue type as follow:

Locally-connected, a printer connect to the system by parallel or USB interface
Networked CUPS (IPP) , a printer connect to a machine in a network that can be accessed through IPP(Internet Printing Protocol). Like Linux
Networked UNIX (LPD), a printer connect to a UNIX system in a network that can be accessed by TCP/IP.
Networked Windows (SMB), a printer connect to a Windows system in a network that can be accessed by SMB(Samba) network
Networked Novell, a printer connect to a Novell system in a network that can be accessed by Novell Network.
Networked JetDirect, a printer connect to a JetDirect instead of computer in a network choose “Locally-connected” type for example, and select the device listed. Commonly, printer on Linux listed as “/dev/lp0”, etc. Click “Forward”.

Select a manufacturer in the “manufacturer” drop down list. For example, select “HP”, and a model list will show up, select a printer model in the list. And Click Forward”, then “Finish”.
Test the printing configuration. After finish, a message box will prompt for testing. Click “Yes”, and check the printer output. If the output is correct, Click “Yes”,if not, Click “No” and the error log will show up.

Modify Existing Configuration

After printer setup, you can change some printer attributes by modifying the configuration. Also you can choose a printer as default if you configure many printers in your system.

Start the “Printer configuration” Application, configured printers will be listed, select one of these and click “Edit” in the tool bar. “edit a print queue” will pop up.
There are 5 tab windows in “edit a print queue”, you can modify any of these. They are explained as follow:

Queue name, edit the queue name and description of the queue.
Queue type, change the connect type of the, or connect to another printer.
Queue options, change the layout of printing paper, like the margin.
Queue driver, change the printer driver.
Driver options, advanced driver options. E.g. “Prerender postscript”, if some non-ASCII character can’t be printed correctly, please check this option.

Edit any of this option and click “OK”.

Set Default Printer

Start the “Printer configuration” application, select one of the printer in the queues, then click “Default” in the tool bar.

Start the “Printer configuration” application, select one of the printer in the queues, then click “Edit” in the tool bar.
Click “Sharing..” button on the bottom of windows, then check “this queue is available to other computers”. If you want to forbid some computers to connect to the sharing print, click “Edit” on the right, and edit the advanced options.

View and Cancel Print Jobs

After configuring the printing system, a printer icon will be added to the right panel. Double click the icon, and all printing and printed queue will be listed in the windows. If you want to cancel a printing queue, select it and click “Edit->Cancel Printing”.

Service

On CentOS/RHEL Linux, CUPS depends on the service “cups”, so ensure it is running when using a printer. To check the status of cups, use command “service cups status”.

Log and Confighuration files

The configuration file of CUPS is locate at /etc/cups/cupsd.conf. By default the log files of CUPS is located at /var/log/cups. check the logs for errors if CUPS doesn’t work as expected.

Command line tools

Setup: To use printer configuration in text mode, run command “system-config-printer-tui” and setup as described before. Printing commands: lpr to print a file, lprm to cancel a print job.