Making an old USB printer support Apple AirPrint with a Raspberry Pi

Originally published at: Making an old USB printer support Apple AirPrint with a Raspberry Pi | Boing Boing

I might have to pick up a $15 Pi zero to try this. Right now our “airprint” printer hangs off our mac server using Handyprint . But this setup requires the server to stay logged on which is often times isn’t the case because of automated updates.

I did pretty much this based off a common howto years ago. Like probably a decade. Let’s see, I put it on Model B and later moved it to a B+, so that puts it before 2014. You can call it ‘airprint’ but it used to be called zeroconf and avahi. This was before Apple took over CUPS. I’ve updated the software as time went on and it’s gained more functionality. My kids use it to print from their iPads and I an my spouse use it to print from Linux and Windows machines around our home. Mine isn’t wireless as I much prefer wired connections whenever possible, but that’s a matter of choice and convenience.

@michaelditullio You don’t need much of a processor for this. I’m still running mine on a B+ after all of these years. The original ZeroW should be quite sufficient (the zero makes no sense if you want a networked device as all the adapters add up to the cost differential to the full sized board. Unless you need a tiny board, I guess. But it’s a print server, so that’s not likely. :slight_smile: Hit me up if you run into problem, I’d be glad to help if you need it.

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I do that on my LAN. Initially with a RPI1, but I switched to a RPI2 just for the extra USB ports.

I think there’s supposed to be some changes in Bullseye from Buster, but I haven’t checked that yet.

eta: I did that mainly because Windows’ USB drivers are slowly turning to shit.

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