Recently I wanted to print a document from my Chromebook. Unfortunately my printer is an older Ricoh laser printer that isn’t supported by Chrome OS so I thought I ran out of luck. After some googling I learned about PPD files. According to Wikipedia a PPD file is:
PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files are created by vendors to describe the entire set of features and capabilities available for their PostScript printers.
A PPD also contains the PostScript code (commands) used to invoke features for the print job. As such, PPDs function as drivers for all PostScript printers, by providing a unified interface for the printer’s capabilities and features.
Getting a ppd file for your printer
First of all use your search engine to search for a combination of your printer model or make and “ppd”:
Download the specific PPD file for your printer and start configuring.
Configuration
You will need the IP adress of your printer. If you don’t know this and you’re feeling lazy just download Fing from the Android Play Store, use it to scan your network and determine the IP address. A hostname would be even better since the IP address might change in the future. I just assigned a static address to the printer in my router.
In Chrome OS go to settings > advanced > printing
In the window that appears fill out the necessary fields. Be sure to select Appsocket (TCP/IP)
And click Add
In the next window just select the PPD file you downloaded earlier:
And presto, printing is enabled.