Applications use the existing queues for printing from the command line. In applications, printer options are not configured directly, but rather through the existing queues.

To print from the command line, enter the command lp -d color filename, where filename is the name of the file to print. The -d option can be used to specify the queue explicitly. -d color specifies that the queue named color should be used.

The cups-client package includes some command-line tools to print with CUPS, such as the lp program, so commands like the one mentioned above can also be used with CUPS (see Section 5.7. “Command-Line Tools for the CUPS Printing System”). However, to be able to enter print commands, the print dialog in KDE must be set to ‘Print through an External Program (generic)’ — see Section 5.8.2. “Quick Configuration of a Client Machine”.

In addition, graphical printer dialog programs, such as xpp or the KDE program kprinter, allow selecting a queue and modifying standard CUPS options and printer-specific options in the PPD file by means of graphical selection menus. To use kprinter as the default print dialog for various applications, enter the print command kprinter or kprinter --stdin in the print dialog of the applications. Subsequently, whenever you enter the application-specific print command, the kprinter dialog is displayed after the print dialog of the application, allowing you to specify the queue and other options. When using this approach, make sure there is no conflict between the settings in the print dialog of the application and those in kprinter. If possible, print settings should only be specified in kprinter.