Playlist "KDE Akademy 2026"

Modernizing KDE Print Manager for the Future of Linux Printing

Mike Noe, Till Kamppeter and Tarun Srivastava

The Linux printing ecosystem is currently undergoing one of its biggest architectural transitions in decades. Since the [CUPS 2.2.x][1] series, printing has increasingly moved toward [IPP-native and driverless][2] workflows, allowing applications to print directly to discovered IPP print destinations without requiring manually created print queues, PPD files, or vendor-specific driver filters.

With the upcoming transition to [CUPS 3.x][3], legacy printer drivers and classic PPD-based queue creation will be removed entirely from CUPS itself. Non-driverless printers will instead require Printer Applications that expose printers through modern IPP interfaces. These changes significantly affect desktop printing infrastructure and require desktop environments to adapt to more dynamic, asynchronous, and network-oriented workflows.

This talk explores the ongoing modernization work in KDE Print Manager to prepare for these changes. It covers the migration away from older synchronous request handling, improvements to UI responsiveness and request lifecycle management, and the architectural challenges involved in modernizing mature desktop infrastructure software while maintaining compatibility with existing workflows.

The session will also provide an overview of how KDE Print Manager interacts with CUPS and the broader Linux printing stack, discuss the implications of the CUPS 3.x transition for KDE and Linux desktops, and highlight future directions for modern desktop printing infrastructure.

Whether you are interested in KDE internals, Linux desktop architecture, or the future of printing on Linux systems, this talk offers insight into the engineering challenges and design decisions involved in preparing KDE Print Manager for the next generation of Linux printing.

Tarun Srivastava has started the work voluntarily in the end of 2024, continued it as [Google Summer of Code 2025 project for OpenPrinting][4] (his [final report][5]) and is currently working on its completion in the [Google Summer of Code 2026][6]. His main mentor is Mike Noe, responsible for the [printing support in KDE][7], and additional mentors are Till Kamppeter, co-founder and lead of [OpenPrinting][8], and Nico Fella.

More about OpenPrinting:
- [OpenPrinting News - 25 years of OpenPrinting][9]
- [OpenPrinting in Google Summer of Code 2026][10]
- [Destination Linux #351 - Till Kamppeter and Michael Sweet][11]
- [Tech over Tea #299 - Till Kamppeter][12] ([highlight clips][13])
- [FOSDEM 2024 - OpenPrinting - We make printing just work!][14]

[1]: https://openprinting.github.io/cups/
[2]: https://openprinting.github.io/cups/drivers.html
[3]: https://openprinting.github.io/cups/cups3.html
[4]: https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-Google-Summer-of-Code-2025-Our-most-successful-one/#kde-print-manager-vs-cups-3x-by-tarun-srivastava
[5]: https://github.com/Lord-Morpheus/GSOC-2025?tab=readme-ov-file#google-summer-of-code-2025---project-summary
[6]: https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/2026/projects/tmG5Q3X8
[7]: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/print-manager
[8]: https://www.openprinting.org/
[9]: https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-25-years-of-working-full-time-for-printing-with-free-open-source-software/
[10]: https://github.com/LinuxFoundationGSoC/ProjectIdeas/wiki/GSoC-2026-OpenPrinting
[11]: https://youtu.be/CLEMiM0L2Jk
[12]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8NoAXgGIP8
[13]: https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-Tech-over-Tea-300-Brodie-interviews-Till-Kamppeter/
[14]: https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-1930-openprinting-we-make-printing-just-work-/

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