system-config-printer-applet

system-config-printer-applet [OPTIONS]

--help
    Displays a help message and exits, detailing command-line options.

--version
    Shows the program's version information and exits.

The system-config-printer-applet command launches a small graphical utility designed to reside in the system tray or notification area of a desktop environment. Its primary purpose is to provide quick and convenient access to printer status and configuration.

It monitors the print queues managed by the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) and can display notifications about print job status, such as successful completion, errors, or a printer being offline. When clicked, it typically launches the more comprehensive system-config-printer application, allowing users to add or remove printers, configure printer properties, and manage print jobs directly from a graphical interface. This applet enhances user experience by making printer management accessible without needing to open full system settings.

This applet primarily functions within a graphical desktop environment (e.g., GNOME, KDE, XFCE) that supports a system tray or notification area. It relies heavily on the CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) daemon being installed and actively running on the system to perform any printer management tasks. Appropriate user permissions are also necessary to interact with and modify printer configurations via the applet or the main configuration utility it launches.

It is important to note that this command initiates a graphical application designed to run in the background within a desktop session, rather than being a command-line utility for direct interaction in a terminal.

The applet serves as a convenient front-end and notification system for CUPS. All actual printer operations, such as adding printers, managing jobs, or applying settings, are handled by the underlying CUPS daemon, with the applet providing the graphical interface for these interactions.

The system-config-printer-applet is an integral component of the broader system-config-printer project. This project was initiated to offer a user-friendly graphical interface for managing printers under Linux, primarily by interfacing with CUPS. It has evolved over time to become a standard tool bundled with many popular Linux distributions (such as Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian), significantly simplifying printer setup, monitoring, and job management for end-users, moving away from purely command-line driven approaches.

system-config-printer(8), lpstat(1), lp(1), lpr(1), cancel(1), cupsd(8)