• About
  • Contact

Dagny's Desk

Dagny's Desk

Tag Archives: printer control

Take Control of Printers on OS X

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Dagny Gromer in apple mac

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apple macintosh, CUPS, os x, printer control

We recently fixed the connection from Gary’s iMac (OS X 10.10) to a network connected photo printer, a Canon iPFS 5100 which uses 17 inch wide roll paper. Gary tried to print several times which failed but left the print job “stuck” in the print queue on his computer. When we finally got the connection working, and that printer is an SOB to use but it prints really well, the old stuck print jobs came spewing out of the printer. If you have ever bought photo paper and ink, you know these items are very expensive and it’s maddening to watch them being consumed on unwanted prints.

OS X, as you likely know, has a full fledged Unix system at its core. The Unix/Linux printing system is called CUPS, and it’s pretty well hidden from the OS X user interface. But with a bit of command line magic you can recover access to it. Here’s how.

1) open Terminal, the command line interface to your iMac.

2) type in exactly the following line (or cut and paste from here) and then press return

sudo cupsctl WebInterface=yes

it will ask for an administrative password

3) close Terminal

4) open a new Safari window or tab, enter http://localhost:631

5) you now have the CUPS web interface. bookmark it.

6) click the Administration tab, then manage printers, select the one you want. You can then see and cancel print jobs.

Pages

  • About
  • Contact

Recent Posts

  • Video: Dog rescued from wreck building in Ukraine
  • Ice age wolf DNA used to trace dog ancestry
  • Uvalde shooter made online threats, no action taken
  • Supreme court strikes down NYC handgun law
  • See 5 planets at once on June 24, 2022

Recent Comments

Dagny Gromer on macOS Monterey
Dagny Gromer on Arizona is on fire!
Ric on Arizona is on fire!
Dagny Gromer on Fall color in Prescott, A…
Colorful Sisters on Fall color in Prescott, A…
RSS  Subscribe

Flickr Photos

javalina_herd-20220624-101cliff_swallow_in_flight-20220620-101-Editjuvenile_house_finch-20220620-100
More Photos
July 2022
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  
« Jun    

Archives

Posts by Category

Dagny on Twitter

My Tweets

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Dagny's Desk
    • Join 631 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Dagny's Desk
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar