Print Wirelessly With Your Pi

Breathe new life into an old printer by using your Raspberry Pi as a wireless print server

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Wireless printing has made it possible to print to devices stored in cupboards, sheds and remote rooms. You don’t have to own a shiny new printer for this to work; old printers without native wireless support don’t have to end up in the bin, thanks to the Raspberry Pi.

The setup is simple. With your Pi set up with a wireless USB dongle, you connect your printer to a spare USB port on the computer. With Samba and CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) installed on the Raspberry Pi, all that is left to do is connect to the wireless printer from your desktop computer, install the appropriate driver and start printing.

CUPS gives the Raspberry Pi a browser-based admin screen that can be viewed from any device on your network, enabling complete control over your wireless network printer.

01 Check your printer works

Before starting, check that the printer you’re planning to use for the project still works and has enough ink. The easiest way to do this is to check the documentation (online if you can’t find the manual) and run a test print.

02 Detect your printer