cupsfilter(8) — Linux manual page

cupsfilter(8)                  OpenPrinting                 cupsfilter(8)

NAME         top

       cupsfilter - convert a file to another format using cups filters
       (deprecated)

SYNOPSIS         top

       cupsfilter [ --list-all ] [ --list-filters ] [ -D ] [ -U user ] [
       -c config-file ] [ -d printer ] [ -e ] [ -i mime/type ] [ -j job-
       id[,N] ] [ -m mime/type ] [ -n copies ] [ -o name=value ] [ -p
       filename.ppd ] [ -t title ] [ -u ] filename

DESCRIPTION         top

       cupsfilter is a front-end to the CUPS filter subsystem which
       allows you to convert a file to a specific format, just as if you
       had printed the file through CUPS. By default, cupsfilter
       generates a PDF file. The converted file is sent to the standard
       output.

OPTIONS         top

       --list-all
            Do not actually run the filters, just print all of the
            filters used with the source and destination MIME media types
            to stdout.

       --list-filters
            Do not actually run the filters, just print the filters used
            to stdout.

       -D   Delete the input file after conversion.

       -U user
            Specifies the username passed to the filters. The default is
            the name of the current user.

       -c config-file
            Uses the named cups-files.conf configuration file.

       -d printer
            Uses information from the named printer.

       -e   Use every filter from the PPD file.

       -i mime/type
            Specifies the source file type. The default file type is
            guessed using the filename and contents of the file.

       -j job-id[,N]
            Converts document N from the specified job. If N is omitted,
            document 1 is converted.

       -m mime/type
            Specifies the destination file type. The default file type is
            application/pdf. Use printer/foo to convert to the printer
            format defined by the filters in the PPD file.

       -n copies
            Specifies the number of copies to generate.

       -o name=value
            Specifies options to pass to the CUPS filters.

       -p filename.ppd
            Specifies the PPD file to use.

       -t title
            Specifies the document title.

       -u   Delete the PPD file after conversion.

EXIT STATUS         top

       cupsfilter returns a non-zero exit status on any error.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       All of the standard cups(1) environment variables affect the
       operation of cupsfilter.

FILES         top

       /etc/cups/cups-files.conf
       /etc/cups/*.convs
       /etc/cups/*.types
       /usr/share/cups/mime/*.convs
       /usr/share/cups/mime/*.types

NOTES         top

       CUPS printer drivers, filters, and backends are deprecated and
       will no longer be supported in a future feature release of CUPS.
       Printers that do not support IPP can be supported using
       applications such as ippeveprinter(1).

       Unlike when printing, filters run using the cupsfilter command use
       the current user and security session. This may result in
       different output or unexpected behavior.

EXAMPLE         top

       The following command will generate a PDF preview of job 42 for a
       printer named "myprinter" and save it to a file named
       "preview.pdf":

           cupsfilter -m application/pdf -d myprinter -j 42 >preview.pdf

SEE ALSO         top

       cups(1), cupsd.conf(5), filter(7), mime.convs(7), mime.types(7),
       CUPS Online Help (http://localhost:631/help)

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright © 2020-2024 by OpenPrinting.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the CUPS (a standards-based, open source
       printing system) project.  Information about the project can be
       found at ⟨https://github.com/openprinting/cups⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/openprinting/cups⟩ on 2025-08-11.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-08-07.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

2024-04-25                         CUPS                     cupsfilter(8)

Pages that refer to this page: mime.convs(5),  mime.types(5),  filter(7)

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