* Package name    : gutenprint-printer-app
  Version         : Didn't see a tagged release
  Upstream Contact: https://openprinting.github.io/
* URL             : https://github.com/OpenPrinting/gutenprint-printer-app
  License         : Apache-2.0
  Programming Lang: C
  Description     : Gutenprint Printer Application


Printer Application for printing with the Gutenprint printer driver. This allows high-quality printing on a wide range of inkjet, lasre, and dye-sublimation printers, especially inkjets from Epson and Canon, PCL laser printers (both monochrome and color), and dye-sublimation photo printers. This driver is especially recommended for photos and fine-art printing. It is also an alternative to the Ghostscript Printer Application for PCL 4/5c/e laser printers.
Please also include as much relevant information as possible.

Rationale:
I have an old printer connected via USB to an RPi3 which serves as print
server for my local network. The printer can either be used with
printer-driver-escpr or printer-driver-gutenprint. I see in my logs the
following message:

Reading that issue it seems that this program will be needed to continue
to operate my printer in the future.

I CCed debian-printing@lists.debian.org but am not subscribed to that
list, so if you address me there, I kindly ask you to CC me.

Best regards,
Martin

Hi Martin,

yes, though the future is not that near. At the moment you are running
cups v2 with probably printer-driver-gutenprint. When cups v3 is
ready for production (maybe end of this year), you need to use a printer
application in case your printer does not support IPP Everywhere.
At least for Forky I am trying to make both cups v2 and cups v3 available
and either of them can be used. So you might need to buy a new printer
before cups v2 is gone :-).

   Thorsten

Hi Thorsten,

that's good to hear, if v2 will be available in forky I'm at least safe
until approx. 2030. :)

Best regards,
Martin

Thorsten Alteholz <debian@alteholz.de> wrote to Martin:

If you do make CUPS 3 uploads to experimental before then, I would be happy to take them for a spin.

Also, I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I have reservations about IPP printers—they are much more capable and versatile, but that comes with a consequence; "driverless" is really a misnomer. Modern printers and page description languages take away much of the job done by a host computer's software, and they instead do those functions (like rasterization) using software *on the printer*. Thus they usually require much more proprietary software to be tied to the product which may include a full-blown real-time operating system. From a software freedom point of view they do muddy the waters—even many consumer printers nowadays have wireless features too!

This shift in the architecture of consumer printers is concerning—it seals the fate that printing with free software is only going to get harder, not easier. I know you didn't have this in mind when you said it, but if the day really were to come that I had to buy an IPP printer, and the options aren't better than they are now, it would be a very sad setback for me.