I need to generate postscript output from odt and odp documents.
Version: 24.2.7.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 420(Build:2)
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 6.17; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Ubuntu package version: 4:24.2.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.4
Calc: threaded
and a driverless printer (Brother 3170). This used to be easy (other OS, earlier version of LO): use the GUI to specify “print to file,” then specify “printer language” (PostScript). But now “print to file” only allows print to pdf. Am I missing something?
I meet the same difficulty with an old printer which understands only PostScript. Recent CUPS versions no longer output PS.
A possible workaround is to print to file (as PDF) and use utility pdftopsto convert PDF to PS. But I am afraid that when you send the result to the printer with lpr, the printing subsystem translates back again to PDF because my printer does not accept the file. However I need to investigate more.
There’s a reason CUPS stands for Common Unix PAIN System. 
Actually, it’s the Openprinting (Freedesktop) people that decided PDF is the future and PS is obsolete. Luckily, PDF bases heavily on PS and mostly[0] can be converted with relative ease, don’t need a full PS interpreter for that.
If you have CUPS installed, it has replaced lpr with its own, so the first thing to check is if you can make it turn PS output back on again through some configuration option, additional filter or PPD, what-have-you. See if there’s a “generic PostScript” driver, for example. Or downgrade, then lock, CUPS to the last version that still supports PS.
If you can’t make CUPS play ball, you may have to bypass or remove CUPS entirely, and do it the old-fashioned way: With the old lpr and lpd and a printcap file that specifies to apply a filter that outputs PostScript. You lose the fancy configuration CUPS gives you, but printing might function again.
This does not help OP; I have no idea how to make Libreoffice add the “print to PS” option back in. Though it too might take its cue from CUPS.
[0] As long as the file is pure PDF and not, say, has javascript embedded. Much of the PDF spec says “look this up there in the PS spec”.
pdftops is an interesting idea, but it adds yet another tool to the workflow for one particular project I’m working on, which involves hundreds of eps figures. Also, pdftops has its own limitations and problems. Besides, as I use LO 24.x some concerning issues emerge–its user interface, especially for printing, differs from previous versions, and current online documentation diverges from what one actually encounters when using the program e.g. the “Print” interface, where the documentation refers to items that don’t appear in the GUI, the GUI contains items that aren’t mentioned in the documentation (what is this “Brochure” radio button in the Print interface?), and the nomenclature used in the GUI’s prompts and button labels differs from what one reads in the documentation . Maybe these things will be fixed in some future version, but for now I’m glad that OpenOffice (which can generate ps files) still works.
Dont use Suggest a Solution for something which is mere comment. You can comment other posts by clicking on the callout icon blow it. This “callout” icon looks like an oval with a SW-pointing arrow or spike.