Use Google Cloud Print printers as local

I don't have a printer but some colleagues and friends share theirs with me since Google Cloud Print. The added benefit of using this service is that I don't need drivers for the devices. Printing from Chrome or Android is a bit of a chore, but I need to be able to do it from my Linux notebook.

Uploading the file to Drive and then printing seemed like a prehistoric act, so I looked for how to install those printers to use them as if they were local from any program or application on my machine. It was quite simple and with an unexpected treat, I can also upload the files in PDF format directly to Drive.

In the blog of Ignacio García is the way to do it, that I transfer here. It worked for me on my Xubuntu 14.04 and as I read on the developer page supports the most popular distributions.

In my case the steps are few and include incorporating the author's repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: simon-cadman / cups-cloud-print sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install cupscloudprint

Once installed it is necessary to run the configuration script. It is in English but very understandable. It guides you so that Google authorizes the application to access your printers in the cloud and you can choose the name of them. It allows incorporating more than one Google Cloud Print account, very useful in case of using different identities for work or personal desire:

sudo /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py

Once the operation is finished, everything appears as local, both the printer and the option to send in PDF to Drive. The two "local printers" seen in the image are actually the cloud:

Google Cloud Print desde linux

Google Cloud Print desde linux


17 comments, leave yours

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  1.   clown said

    share their printers, it is very safe ...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVe-Fx9zph0

  2.   eliotime3000 said

    Now I will see how to do the same but with Windows so as not to have to constantly install the printer driver.

  3.   Alfonso said

    When putting the command "sudo /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py", I get this "sudo: /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py: command not found". I don't know where the error is.
    Any idea?
    Thanks for sharing and greetings.

    1.    yukiteru said

      "Sudo: /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py: command not found"

      The message cannot be clearer. The command or file you are trying to execute does not exist, that is, it is not installed.

    2.    alex said

      Try prepending the python command, eg:

      sudo python /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py ", I get this" sudo: /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py

      regards

      1.    alex said

        I was wrong in the previous comment, I happened to copy and paste from your comment hehe!

        Try prepending the python command, eg:

        sudo python /usr/lib/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py "

        regards

      2.    Alfonso said

        With that command I get this: "[Errno 2] No such file or directory"

  4.   toño said

    GREAT TIP, MAN, YOU ARE MY IDOL FOR THIS DAY !!!!!

  5.   Azureus said

    Great, thank you very much for this, I had a multifunctional stop because I was lazy to install the utilities and drivers.
    By the way, what happened to the useragent thing in the comments? I did not have much that I had configured in my file: c

    1.    Alfonso said

      I will try, thanks Alex

    2.    Ulceration_ said

      Recently a bug was reported for the plugins that showed the user-agent with which you could poison the head of the browser and do some "evil" things with it. It may be that the guys have removed that plugin or it stopped working, you never know.

      regards

      1.    elav said

        Exact! 😀

  6.   diukx said

    I walked with this code. I have deeping which is a version of UBUNTU.
    sudo /usr/share/cloudprint-cups/setupcloudprint.py

    1.    Alfonso said

      I don't hang out with any of them. I have ubuntu 14.04. With that he asks me for an account and a Google code, which I have no idea what it is.

      1.    ever said

        Alfonso ... to be able to use the Google Cloud Print service you have to have a Gmail account, just like to be able to use any other Google service ... that simple

      2.    Alfonso said

        I'll put the Diukx command and then the google account as eVer says, let's see what happens.

      3.    Alfonso said

        Now, it's done. Thank you.