How To Share Printer On Network In Linux

Printing is an everyday job for us. Projects, office work, homework, etc. The basic fact is that we almost require printing every day. Now, what if we require sharing printer connected to our home Linux machine. So I decided to write a guide about it which is fairly simple. So, let’s start.  

Add Your Printer To Computer

​First basic thing is to install or add your printer. Connecting printer in Linux machine is very simple as almost all Linux distros have printer supports. Open the printer app from your app menu and look if the printer has been added.

adding printer to linux

If the printer is already added or configured, it will be listed quickly on the opening printer app. If not, go to Openprinting and install your driver and again launch your printer option. Your printer should now be listed under add option, click forward on your printer config. Add the description and done. Open printer driver page has a vast variety so it is very unlikely that you don’t find your printer.    

Print anything to check your printer.​Now as the printer is added let’s share it so you can access it on other systems. It is also simple. Right-click on your printer and select the shared option.

printer properties in linux

Here it is done. You have successfully shared your printer on a network in Linux. Now you will need to access it on other systems. Here is how to do it.  

Accessing A Printer On Another Computer

I assume you are on LAN or somehow connected to your system from which we have shared our printer. Now here is what you have to do. Again open the printer tool as we did earlier and hit the ADD button. Your shared printer will be listed under the network printer. Click the remote hostname with the preferred printer, forward and fill out the description as we did earlier, apply and done. Voila! Print now!​

share a printer on network in linux

If your printer is not listed, click on a find network printer. Enter the IP address of the printer and hit find. URI would be automatically filled. Again do as the old-time fill description and apply. Done!  

Conclusion

Printing is nowadays very easy on Linux based distros. You can print anywhere using a network shared printer in your favorite distros. Drivers are also no more a problem nor the old-time configuring problems. Go print the world of your dreams(just kidding, print what you need, save papers, save trees :). Happy printing.

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5 Comments Text
  • Printing is NOT easy on Linux distros. For example, the published driver for the common Epson Work Force (and other) printers does not work on Ubuntu. Worse, we have to configure the printer to start with. Microsoft and Mac got us all used to plug ‘n play, and that’s what we expect from Linux distros that claim to be “user friendly.” I’ve now tried a half dozen of the top rated. Either they did not find my wifi network in the first place, or, wired or not, they could not find my printer, even when I typed in the host address for the configuration tool provided. In the one instance when I got recognition and response, the driver (apparently) spit blank page after blank page out of my printer in response to a print command, stoppable only by shutting down the printer. When Linux grows up (but that’s been promised for years) it will be an awesome competitor for MS and Mac. In the meantime, it’s a royal pain in the ass. (And no, I’m not a Microsoft shill; I hate Microsoft; that’s why I keep trying to make Linux work!)

  • I had no problem with my Brother mfc-j470dw via usb or wifi even from my ipad. But my wifi board in the printer seems to be super non responsive even hangs the printer firmware So trying to share it from my main Mint 20.1 box. So far I have it marked shared on my main box and set up on my No2 box also mint 20 looks great only hick No 2 box seems to print into /dev/nul.

  • Me again. What about firewall blocking? What ports need to be opened? this is so so convoluted and a wast of time when it fails to work out of the box and we need security.

  • The given procedure to share printer on network in Linux is very nicely explained in this article which is very effective for the printer as well as Linux users.

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