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CUPS-PDF 2.5.0

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(5) 2.85

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Adam Knight

CUPS-PDF is an open-source backend module for CUPS (Mac OS X's printing system) by Volker C. Behr that, rather than printing to a device, prints straight to PDF files.

Why use this rather than a simple "Save as PDF" in the print dialog?

Pressing return is faster.
Batch-print through the writer to convert documents to PDF.
Common save location for all generated PDFs.

What's New

Version 2.5.0:

Updated with Snow Leopard support and an uninstaller.

Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

CUPS

+1
Free

Common UNIX printing system.

CUPS-PDF User Discussion (Write a Review)

ver. 2.x:

(5)

Your rating: Now say why...

Overall:

(5)

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-2

Phoenixdownunder reviewed on 30 Nov 2011

Unfortunately CUPS-PDF is totally broken under Lion.

[Version 2.5.0]

+36

Pizzacake commented on 12 May 2010

I use cups-pdf with bonjour to print documents as pdfs from my Virtualbox windows xp virtual machine. Works great for that purpose.

[Version 2.5.0]

-3

Reaverx reviewed on 11 May 2010

Circumstantial - creates ridiculously lange files - i pass.

[Version 2.5.0]

1 Reply

+16

Fhf replied on 29 Apr 2011

For some reason it does create very large files, but you can get around that problem by opening the pdf that pdf-cups created, and in turn saving that file as a pdf. The new pdf will be about 10-30=% the size of the file that pdf-cups created. Go figure.

+544

Negritude tipped on 18 Apr 2010

How to get CUPS-PDF working in Snow Leopard:

sudo port install cups-pdf

Yes, that's right, it's available via MacPorts, and in a more up-to-date version.

[Version 2.4.6.1]

+46

chrischram commented on 05 Sep 2009

CUPS-PDF does not work under Snow Leopard. The developer is aware of the problem, but says it won't be a trivial fix. Stay tuned.

[Version 2.4.6.1]

+61

Jon55 commented on 15 Dec 2008

Ok, I had no idea you could save pages to PDF's right from OS X until reading these posts, so now, after installing CUPS-PDF, how do I uninstall it?

[Version 2.4.6.1]

Jlaro commented on 17 Nov 2007

CUPS-PDF creates ridiculously big files. For example, printing this MacUpdate page yields a 2,1 MB file with CUPS-PDF, while with Print as PDF it only comes in at 256k. Other tests show similar ratios.

Another poster said he's happy the PDF folder is no more on the desktop. How does he do it? Every time I move the cups-pdf folder from my desktop CUPS-PDF creates another one to put the files.

OS X 10.4.11

[Version 2.4.6.1]

1 Reply

Chris.h commented on 26 Mar 2009

You can change the directory that CUPS-PDF prints to by typing in terminal:

sudo nano /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf

and editing the line "Out ${HOME}/Desktop/cups-pdf/"

Change the Desktop/ portion to whatever you want.

"Out ${HOME}/Documents/pdfs/" maybe?

When you are done, hit ctrl+o to save the file and ctrl+x to exit.

-1

Beweis reviewed on 10 Nov 2007

Great stuff. Perfect not to have this folder on desktop anymore. The resulting PDFs work perfect in my local copyshop. Files created with the standard PDF routine don't work

[Version 2.4.6.1]

+149

JimW commented on 10 Nov 2007

Works even better now - i.e. documents in Documents folder and with Leopard. Thanks

[Version 2.4.6.1]

-2

ahknight (developer) commented on 09 Nov 2007

Version 2.4.6.1 works on Leopard.

[Version 2.4.6.1]

-2

Phoenixdownunder had trouble on 05 Feb 2012

Actually there is a solution using the 2.6.1B cups-pdf development version in macPorts. To install, the following rather esoteric procedure is necessary. Install Xcode. Download and and install macPorts. In Terminal, run sudo port -v self update, then sudo port install cups-pdf. Then attempt to create the new printer as per usual. Print a short document to cups-pdf and it will disappear. Thats fine. It will be sitting in /opt/local/var/spool/cups-pdf/username. IN FINDER, type command-shift G and type in /opt/local/var/spool/cups-pdf, make an alias of the USERNAME folder and drag that to your desktop/Dock/Home directory for future reference. I found it convenient to rename the alias to cups-pdf. Please note that this SEEMS to work for Lion and Lion Server 10.7.2 and 10.7.3 but remains totally beta and untested elsewhere. This was our solution for a Company dependent on cups-pdf. Not needed for Snow Leopard. Note that this is cups-pdf not cups.

[Version 2.5.0]

bwenning had trouble on 22 Mar 2007

Thanks for this great software!!!

While it works wonderfully as is, I would very much like to utilize the ability to change the output folder (instead of the default "cups-pdf" folder on the desktop).

I've followed up with the original documentation pointed to, and scoured the web, but I can't for the life of me seem to find any help in locating "/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf" on my macbook pro, ANYWHERE!

Please help - any thoughts would be much appreciated!!!

Thanks!

BW

[Version 2.4]

1 Reply

Mac0852 commented on 23 Mar 2007

The other thing to keep in mind is that when making changes to the .conf file and saving you will be asked for your administrator username and password. It actually asked me twice before finishing the save.

+28

prokos_j had trouble on 15 Jan 2006

This is works perfectly other than it will over-write files with the same name in the same directory without warning you first. If you are printing from Safari you won't get a chance to see what the name is until it's in the directory.

[Version 2.0]

1 Reply

-4

Steve Copley commented on 14 Mar 2006

If you edit...

/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf

and set the 'Label' option to 1 it should solve your overwriting problem

i.e.

### Key: Label
## label all jobs with a unique job-id in order to avoid overwriting old
## files in case new ones with identical names are created; always true for
## untitled documents
## 0: label untitled documents only, 1: label all documents
### Default: 0

Label 1

Best regards

Steve C.