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Writing your own CUPS printer driver in 100 lines of Python (2018)

https://behind.pretix.eu/2018/01/20/cups-driver/
87•todsacerdoti•4h ago

Comments

roywashere•2h ago
Pretix is a very interesting piece of open source software for selling event tickets. It’s nice to see them venturing out to writing printer drivers for ticket printers! All the best for them.
behnamoh•2h ago
https://gimp-print.sourceforge.io/ which uses CUPS helped me resurrect an old Canon printer for which the company refused to provide updated drivers on macOS.

I was about to throw it in the recycling/trash, but I just couldn't accept that a perfectly fine hardware was crippled because the software was not updated to work on the latest macOS versions. Perplexity pointed me to Gutenprint and it worked wonderfully! The only thing that doesn't work is the scanner functionality.

asveikau•1h ago
Many years ago I remember Windows support vanished on a bunch of printers at the 32 to 64 bit transition. That was around the time I learned how printing on Linux and BSD worked, to save a printer or two.
saltcured•1h ago
This takes me waaaaaaaay back to when I did my first bit of practical low-level programming. I wrote a little C program that translated PNM bitmaps into the wire format for my dusty 24-pin Epson dot matrix printer. I don't remember the details, but I used it with some plugin system involving Ghostview to print postscript documents from my first Linux system in the early 90s.
whycome•42m ago
Is there an LLM specifically for this use case scenario?
a-ungurianu•7m ago
I’m not clear what you’re asking with this question.

Do you mean a LLM to write printer drivers? For that I think any of the coding LLMs should be able to help

Or do you mean using an LLM to do the raster -> FGL format translation? While I’m sure it might be possible, feels like an awful waste of resources, and when it comes to printers, you kinda want the guarantee that what comes out is the same that comes in.

userbinator•28m ago
However, the license of the BOCA driver forbids using their driver to control printers of other vendors.

Since this is a printer, I interpret those the same way as "you're not allowed to use third-party ink": I don't care.

In defense of shallow technical knowledge

https://www.seangoedecke.com/shallow-technical-knowledge/
2•ingve•2m ago•0 comments

Fast vector sum without CUDA

https://veitner.bearblog.dev/very-fast-vector-sum-without-cuda/
1•timmyd•5m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Should I take an internship or learn skills and build?

1•yamirghofran•6m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I Built Food Trucks Near Me

https://food-trucks-near.me/how-it-works
1•nicojuhari•6m ago•0 comments

Microsoft Turns GitHub Copilot into Full AI Coding Agent

https://investors.catenaa.com/news/microsoft-turns-github-copilot-into-full-ai-coding-agent
1•DocFeind•7m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do you plan, estimate, and delegate engineering work?

2•kwakubiney•10m ago•0 comments

XTide86 a tmux and nvim powered terminal IDE

https://github.com/logicmagix/XTide86
1•logicmagix•10m ago•1 comments

My breakthrough in photorealistic person-specific AI image generation

https://www.mypicnow.com
2•mypicnow•17m ago•1 comments

Lou Montulli: The Man Who Invented the Cookie

https://martinkihn.com/2019/10/21/lou-montulli-the-man-who-invented-the-browser-cookie/
1•handfuloflight•17m ago•0 comments

Tiberius Aerospace unveils Sceptre; a 150 km 155 mm round

https://www.calibredefence.co.uk/tiberius-aerospace-unveils-sceptre-a-150-km-155-mm-round/
1•rbanffy•20m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Blox Fruits Catalog – A Trading Hub for Roblox Players

https://www.bloxfruitscatalog.com
1•incendies•22m ago•0 comments

Initial support for calling Mojo from Python

https://forum.modular.com/t/initial-support-for-calling-mojo-from-python/1514
2•melodyogonna•24m ago•0 comments

How to debug large, distributed systems: Antithesis (2024)

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/antithesis
1•tanelpoder•25m ago•0 comments

A curated list for "Hardcore Software"

https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/109-bibliography
1•rbanffy•25m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Convert JPG, PNG, WebP to AVIF – Free Web Tool

https://pngtoavif.com
1•tobelyan•27m ago•0 comments

Why Silicon Valley's Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed with Hobbits

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/books/tolkien-musk-thiel-silicon-valley.html
3•mmooss•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Octelium – L7-Aware ZeroTrust Remote Access ZTNA over WireGuard and K8s

https://github.com/octelium/octelium
2•geoctl•29m ago•2 comments

Noah's Mausoleum (Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Mausoleum_(Nakhchivan,_Azerbaijan)
1•thunderbong•33m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)

6•david927•35m ago•5 comments

Find the right movie to watch using Amphytheatre

https://www.amphytheatre.com
2•alanke19•36m ago•2 comments

Without Roots: The Political Consequences of Collective Economic Shocks

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/without-roots-the-political-consequences-of-collective-economic-shocks/1BA32999CD907689CA66A6CB06B8519B
2•Traces•36m ago•0 comments

What if you got a device that cured ADHD like Modafinil with o side-effects?

https://www.nionneuroscience.com/
1•PatrikSlachta•38m ago•2 comments

FreeBSD: The Report of My Death Was an Exaggeration

https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/the-report-of-my-death-was-an-exaggeration/
9•fork-bomber•38m ago•0 comments

Scheming Reasoning Evaluations

https://www.apolloresearch.ai/research/scheming-reasoning-evaluations
2•matthberg•45m ago•0 comments

Beware the Complexity Merchants

https://chrlschn.dev/blog/2025/05/beware-the-complexity-merchants/
10•kiyanwang•46m ago•5 comments

Microsoft will stop accepting new third-party print drivers in Windows (2023)

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/microsoft-will-stop-accepting-new-third-party-print-drivers-in-windows/
2•w3ll_w3ll_w3ll•47m ago•0 comments

Deep Dive: How JPMorgan Is Reengineering Banking at Scale

https://www.fintechwrapup.com/p/deep-dive-how-jpmorgan-is-reengineering
2•siroj•47m ago•1 comments

Judges Weigh Taking Control of Their Own Security Amid Threats

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/trump-judges-security-marshals-6e080ac6
4•layer8•47m ago•1 comments

Why People Quit – and How Great Managers Make Them Want to Stay

https://kimmalonescott.medium.com/why-people-really-quit-and-how-great-managers-make-them-want-to-stay-d332dbf0d7b3
1•kiyanwang•49m ago•1 comments

Idea: A competitive Tetris variant using a single grid

1•amichail•51m ago•1 comments