Use A4 paper by default for printing with CUPS and AirPrint
When you try to set up a self-hosted AirPrint print server with Linux and CUPS, your iPhone or iPad may only allow you to print in Legal and Letter sizes, instead of your-preferred A4.
You can set up the following steps to make sure that your iPhone or iPad uses the A4 size by default.
- Open
/etc/cups/cupsd.conf
, then set or add (if not exists)DefaultPaperSize A4
(instead ofDefaultPaperSize Letter
). - Change the value on
/etc/papersize
toa4
(instead ofletter
). - Open your printer’s PPD file on
/etc/cups/ppd
, then modify the following values toA4
(instead ofLetter
):
*DefaultPageSize: A4
*StpDefaultPageSize: A4
*DefaultPageRegion: A4
*StpDefaultPageRegion: A4
*DefaultImageableArea: A4
*StpDefaultImageableArea: A4
*DefaultPaperDimension: A4
*StpDefaultPaperDimension: A4
- Delete the CUPS cache directory with
sudo rm -rf /var/cache/cups
. Just to make sure things working right due to an old bug. - Try to reopen the Print menu on your iPhone or iPad.
If that is still not working
Some printers may only print A4 papers properly if the page size values are adjusted.
- On your printer’s PPD file on
/etc/cups/ppd
, Change all occurences ofPageSize[595.000 842.000]
toPageSize[595.275590551181 841.889763779528]
. - Delete the CUPS cache directory with
sudo rm -rf /var/cache/cups
. Just to make sure things working right due to an old bug. - Try to reopen the Print menu on your iPhone or iPad.