apple/cups

Health v2 · maintenance only

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2167 stars · 477 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Apple CUPS is the standards-based open source printing system shipped with macOS and iOS, built on the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). It provides printer and print job management via System V/Berkeley command-line tools, a web admin interface, and a C API, supporting local and network printers.

Use cases

• set up and manage printer queues on macOS or Linux
• share a printer over the network with IPP
• print from the command line with lpr/lp
• administer printers through a web interface
• develop custom printer drivers or filters with the CUPS API
• print to USB or network printers from iOS and macOS

When to choose

• you need a standards-based IPP print server on macOS, iOS, or UNIX-like systems
• you want command-line and web-based printer administration
• you need to share printers across a network or the internet
• you are developing printer drivers or print-related software against a C API

When to avoid

• you need the actively developed CUPS version for non-Apple operating systems (use OpenPrinting CUPS)
• you need printing on Windows
• you want a modern GUI-first print management experience

Facets

application · maturity maintenance

http-server cli gui networking operating-systems developer-tools hardware self-hosted cross-platform c ipp printing-system printer-drivers ppd snmp print-server apple printing macos ios linux

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="apple/cups")