This command will create a symbolic link to the file thesis. The simplest way to print in linux is to cat a file to the printing device, like this sudo cat myfiletoprint. Sometimes you may want to print files from the command line, especially when you have lots of them. Im trying to convert a pdf document to grayscale, because i need the printer to recognize each page containing colors or not. The lpstat p command displays the status of a printer while lpstat p d also lists available printers. This name is a symbolic link to the device, and may vary. To print to pdf on linux, choose print to file instead of a regular printer. Print pdf from command line cupspdf, lpr p pdf tero. The ultimate a to z list of linux commands linux command. Print pdf from command line cups pdf, lpr p pdf posted on 20111110 by tero karvinen after installing cups pdf, you can print to file with lpr p pdf. Open the same web page in konqueror, for example, and no problem. A pdf of the printed page will then be available under your home folder, in a directory named pdf. That was true in 2007 when we recorded that episode. Your printer may be another device name, for instance lp0.
Way back in episode 2 of the podcast, we mentioned that, linux provides the ability to create print pdf files directly from almost any application, but not from within firefox. Printing from the linux command line network world. In this a to z list of linux commands, we have tried to include as many commands as possible which can be run using bash. Convert pdf to grayscale format for printer from linux. The tools are easily launched from settings in the gui or by invoking systemconfig printer on the command line. What this command does is read the file myfiletoprint. Use the p option to specify one of a number of available printers. For most linux distros, bash bourne again shell is the default commandline interface or shell used to execute these commands. To print a document on the default printer, just use the lp command followed by the name of the file you want to print. Both fedora linux and ubuntu linux contain easy printer setup tools. Fedora maintains an excellent wiki for answers to printing issues. The lpoptions command will show the settings of your default printer.