Using GIMP: Correcting and Touching Up Your Images - GIMP 2.6 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software - page 101

2.3.11 Printing Images
To print images from within the GIMP, you'll obviously need to connect a printer
to your computer and make sure a recent driver is installed. Generally, you
can find drivers via a Download or Support link on the printer manufacturer's
website. Gutenprint offers drivers for Linux and Mac OS X at http://gimp-
print.sourceforge.net/.
Altogether, Gutenprint has over 700 drivers available that work with
CUPS, LPR, LPRng, and other UNIX printing systems. Therefore, you can use
the GNU General Public License (GPL) released drivers not only for Linux but
also for Mac OS X. Some of the developers promise that their drivers have a
higher printing quality than that of the manufacturers.
Gutenprint used to be called Gimpprint. The name was changed to clarify
that it isn't just a plug-in for GIMP. Nevertheless, the plug-in for GIMP remains
in the assortment of drivers. Additionally, Gutenprint encompasses CUPS and
Ghostscript, and it also supports Foomatic.
After you install your driver, the operating system recognizes your
printer automatically when you plug it into the USB port. You can select your
standard printer in the print preferences (in Windows, Start menu > Devices
and Printers). Whether your printer is connected to a parallel port or a USB
port can be a factor. Older GIMP versions recognize some printers at the
parallel port only, even though the printer works flawlessly over the USB port
when accessed from within other programs. With a newer version of GIMP, it
shouldn't be a problem anymore. If you should still have any problems, you
can find help in various forums online. A list of current forums can be found
at: http://www.gimpusers.com/forums/.
Nevertheless, driver problems can arise, preventing you from printing
directly from the GIMP program. Epson printers seem to have the most
problems. But you can work around most of these problems by printing your
images from within another program, such as IrfanViewer .
The Print dialog is found in the image window under the File > Print
menu. You'll see a standard Windows print dialog to which GIMP adds an
Image Settings tab. If you installed a print program specific to your printer, a
device-dependant program window will appear that you can use to configure
your settings.
The following settings are available in the GIMP Print dialog:
• Select Printer —A drop-down list for selecting the appropriate printer if
you have more than one printer installed. This is also where you would
select the printer at the parallel port (LPT1).
• Page Range —These options are used to print specific pages of a multipage
document, such as EPS or PostScript (PS) files.
• Number of Copies —This is where you enter the number of copies you
want to print.