dlazesz/driverless-print-and-scan

Simple REST API for driverless printing (IPP or CUPS) and scanning (eSCL) for network printers and scanners

Driverless Printing and Scanning REST API

A simple REST API for scanning (eSCL) to JPEG or PDF and printing (with IPP or CUPS) a PDF from anywhere (eg. via a webbrowser) with ease

Motivation

I could not find a simple web app running on a server that could initiate a printing and scanning process from other machines without installing anything on the client machines. So I had to write my own on top of almost 10 years old standards (IPP and eSCL)... Et voilà!

Motto:

"So tonight I'm gonna print and scan like it's nineteen ninety-nine!" (refering to Prince)

Requirements

• Python 3
• A server (ipptool in PATH or CUPS with the printer driver properly installed)
• An IPP capable printer and/or an eSCL capable scanner
• A WSGI server

Example setup

1. Setup your printer in CUPS on the server (if the CUPS option is chosen)
2. Make a virtual environment: sudo virtualenv -p python3 /var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv
3. Clone the repository: sudo git clone https://github.com/dlazesz/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/driverless-print-and-scan
4. Modify the PRINTER variable in printrest.py to the appropriate name and SCANNER_IP variable in scanrest.py
5. Install requirements in the virtual environment source /var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/bin/activate; pip install -r requirements.txt
6. Set user permissions: sudo chown -R user:www-data /var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv
7. Create the WSGI file:

   from printrest import app
   
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       app.run()

8. Setup a WSGI server. I do not recommend uwsgi because of its numerous quirks
   • Example in apache:

     <VirtualHost *:80>
     
         WSGIDaemonProcess printrest threads=5 python-path=/var/www/printrest_venv/lib/python3.5/site-packages
         WSGIScriptAlias /print /var/www/printrest_venv/printREST/print.wsgi
     
         <Directory /var/www/printrest_venv/printREST>
             WSGIProcessGroup printrest
             WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
             Order deny,allow
             Allow from all
         </Directory>
     </VirtualHost>

   • Example in Gunicorn + Nginx + Systemd:
     • Create Systemd unit sudo mcedit /etc/systemd/system/printREST.service with the following content:

       [Unit]
       Description=Gunicorn instance to serve printREST
       After=network.target
       
       [Service]
       User=sammy
       Group=www-data
       WorkingDirectory=/var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/driverless-print-and-scan
       Environment="PATH=/var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/bin"
       ExecStart=/var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/bin/gunicorn --workers 2 --bind unix:printREST.sock -m 007 wsgi:app
       
       [Install]
       WantedBy=multi-user.target

     • Start and enable the Systemd service sudo systemctl start printREST && sudo systemctl enable printREST
     • Add location to Nginx:

       location /print {
           # Do not forget to add password protection!
           include proxy_params;
           proxy_pass http://unix:/var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/driverless-print-and-scan/printREST.sock;
           client_max_body_size 100M;  # 1MB is the default upload limit! 
       }
       

     • Restart Nginx sudo systemctl restart nginx
9. Navigate to http://yourserver.com/print
10. Print from anywhere to your printer without installing drivers
11. Profit!

The same goes for the scanner setup

License

This program is licensed under the LGPL 3.0 license.

driverless-print-and-scan's Issues

Issues with setup/installation

1. "sudo git clone https://github.com/dlazesz/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/driverless-print-and-scan" fails with "repository does not exist". https://github.com/dlazesz/driverless-print-and-scan.git does not appear to have the proper files to support setting up the virtualenv, i.e, /var/www/driverless_print_and_scan_venv/bin/activate
2. Is it correct to assume that "Step 7: Create the WSGI file:" refers to /var/www/driverless_print_and_Scan_venv/printREST.py ?
3. Is it correct to assume that "Add location to Nginx:" refers to /etc/nginx/nginx.conf?

Thank you for your time and efforts.