So here's my question: is there a big difference between LPD
printing vs
AppleTalk printing? Is one clearly a better choice than the other?
We had
always chosen IP/LPD printing because it was less "chatty" than
AppleTalk or
Bonjour, but maybe they are better options....
AppleTalk is deprecated and has been replaced with Bonjour. Both are
auto-discovery protocols.
LPD is a static protocol (that is, the printers are defined
manually). In CUPS, IPP is favored over LPD, because it provides more
features than the antiquated LPD protocol[1].
I've had problems with LPD using CUPS before. In CUPS the controlling
cupsd daemon passes LPD jobs to the LPD daemon. Launchd though won't
launch the LPD daemon and jobs die as a result. My work-around has
been to print directly to printers using LPD (configured by selecting
IP printing).
In my environment I prefer setting print queues to LPD and turning off
Bonjour/AppleTalk at the printer so we can prevent unauthorized users
from accessing private printers. There is a CUPS feature to password
protect print queues, but I don't know if this feature is implemented,
even in Leopard.
