• Using Internet printer protocols, people can now use printers thousands of miles away.The printer image by vin5 from Fotolia.com
  
  The rise of wireless and networked communications between computers has led to a parallel rise in the need for broad, cross-platform protocols, or sets of rules, for the operation of printers across those networks. Three primary protocols have grown up over these systems.
  
  

Line Printer Daemon protocol

• The Line Printer Daemon (LPD) protocol is the protocol most often used by current computer systems. Also called the Line Printer Remote (LPR) protocol, it was originally developed by and for university and business environments to allow computers access to remote printer servers over TCP/IP networks. LPD/LPR benefits from being platform independent, meaning that a variety of different computer systems can all access the same printers via the same methods.
  
  

Internet Printing Protocol

• The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is a more modern and more robust set of protocols than the LPD/LPR protocols. It features many of the same capabilities, such as common communication formats over TCP/IP networks, along with additional control, administration and security capabilities. IPP is currently in version 1.1, though teams are working on version 2.
  
  

Common Unix Printing System

• Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is actually an IPP-based modular printing system designed for use in Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X. It was developed independently of any computer system, but was eventually bought by Apple Inc. for use in its OS X 10.2 systems.