I occasionally need to set up a printer manually (e.g. when pushing out a printer with Munki), however as the printer is AirPrint compatible, the manufacturer often doesn’t provide a standalone driver to download. Or, sometimes the AirPrint driver is just what I want – with none of the other crap that the full driver package includes.

When doing this, the tricky part is finding the PPD that CUPS automatically retrieves from the printer as it’s not in /Library/Printers/PPDs.

For my future reference, these PPDs are saved in /private/etc/cups/ppd/ – and you can find out what PPD any given printer is using via the lpstat command – e.g.:

[kai@Hobbes ~]$ lpstat -l -p
printer HP_Color_LaserJet_MFP_M283fdn is idle.  enabled since Tue  6 Apr 14:21:19 2021
	Form mounted:
	Content types: any
	Printer types: unknown
	Description: HP Color LaserJet MFP M283fdn
	Alerts: toner-low-warning
	Location: Automatica HQ
	Connection: direct
	Interface: /private/etc/cups/ppd/HP_Color_LaserJet_MFP_M283fdn.ppd
	On fault: no alert
	After fault: continue
	Users allowed:
		(all)
	Forms allowed:
		(none)
	Banner required
	Charset sets:
		(none)
	Default pitch:
	Default page size:
	Default port settings: