How to connect my laptop to my printer

Please bear with me because I really don't know much about this stuff. If anyone happens to have a little extra patience to walk me through it... I would be incredibly grateful. 🙏

I recently acquired an HP printer and a Canon Pixma scanner.
I'm using an Apple laptop, but instead of macOS, I'm running Linux.
The printer didn't come with any cables or an installation CD.

How on earth am I supposed to connect the HP to my laptop???🤔

Any help at all would be appreciated.
Thank you 🙂

Did you try just plugging it in and seeing what happens?

If you're really dead set on tackling this on Ubuntu—or any Linux distro, for that matter—your best bet is probably hitting up the folks over at the tech forums www.linuxforall.com... those guys actually know their way around a terminal.

Honestly, though? You’re probably going to have a hell of a time doing this solo. Unless you've spent years tinkering with command lines, the whole process is just... different. It’s a bit more of a headache than most people expect.

The path of least resistance is definitely just sticking with Windows. It’ll save you a massive amount of frustration, and you can just follow the instructions that came with your laptop and call it a day.

Just so you know, with Linux, most drivers are baked right into the kernel and get updated whenever you run a system update, so that part isn't usually the nightmare it seems to be.
But if you still want to dive into the deep end, go ahead and reach out to the crew at the forum. 🙂

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD via Tapatalk

So here’s what Google says about it:

Setting up a local printer

Most of the time, your computer is smart enough to spot different kinds of printers on its own the second you plug them in. Usually, you just hook it up with a USB cable and call it a day.

Don't sweat deciding between a network or a local printer right off the bat because they both show up in the same window anyway.

1. First thing's first, make sure the damn printer is actually switched on.

Plug the printer into your machine using the right cable. You'll probably see some stuff happening on your screen while the OS hunts for drivers, and it might ask for your password to finish the install.

Once the system wraps up the installation, a little notification will pop up. You can select Print test page if you want to be sure it works, or hit Options if you feel like messing with more settings.

2. Now, if your printer didn't just magically appear, you've gotta go in and add it manually through your settings.

Click The icon AT The Far right of The menu bar and select system Settings.

open Printers.

Hit Add and pick your printer out of the list of Devices.

Click Forward and wait while IT searches for Drivers.

If you're feeling fancy, you can change the name, description, or where it's located, then just hit Apply.

Then you can either run a test print or just hit Cancel to move on.