A network printer is a hardware device that is connected directly to the network. A network printer transfers data directly over the network to the output device. The printer or network connection hardware has its own system name and IP address.

Network printers often have software support provided by the printer vendor. If your printer has printer vendor-supplied software, then use the printer vendor software. If the network printer vendor does not provide software support, Sun supplied software is available. This software provides generic support for network-attached printers. However, this software is not capable of providing full access to all possible printer capabilities.

For step-by-step instructions on setting up a network printer, see Chapter 3, Setting Up Printers (Tasks).

After you set up print servers and print clients, you might need to perform these administration tasks frequently:

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform these printer administration tasks, see Chapter 4, Administering Printers (Tasks).

Setting definitions for the printers on your network is an ongoing task that lets you provide a more effective print environment for users. For example, you can assign printer descriptions for all your site's printers to help users find where a printer is located. Or, you can define a class of printers to provide the fastest turnaround for print requests.

For information on setting up printer definitions, see Chapter 2, Planning Printers on Your Network (Tasks).

Depending on your site's requirements and the types of printers you have on the network, you might have to set up and administer printer-specific features of the LP print service. For example, you can assign different print wheels, filters, and forms to different printers. For background information and step-by-step instructions on how to set up character sets, print filters, forms, and fonts, see Chapter 5, Managing Character Sets, Filters, Forms, and Fonts (Tasks).

Although the LP print service is designed to be flexible enough to handle most printers and printing needs, the LP print service does not handle every possible situation. You might have a print request that is not accommodated by the standard features of the LP print service. Or, you might have a printer that does not quite fit into the way the LP print service handles printers.

You can customize the LP print service in the following ways:

For detailed descriptions and step-by-step instructions on customizing the LP print service, see Chapter 6, Customizing the LP Print Service (Tasks).