Add a standard repository, if you haven't already.
Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian etch main
Get cups-pdf
Add a printer using the cups web-based configuration (the wizard does not work).
That's it! You should now have a printer in your printers list that will generate a PDF file in the ~/PDF folder. This auto-generates a filename and puts the file in ~/PDF. One thing you need to beware of is that the auto-generated filename may be the same as an earlier auto-generated filename and, in that case, this method will overwrite the first file without any warning.
In order to change the settings to give each printout a unique identifier, you will need to edit the cups-pdf configuration file. If you wish to take a backup of the file first, which is good practice, type:
sudo cp /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf.bak
Now, edit the configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf
Look for the setting “Label”
Uncomment it, and change its value to “1″, so that the line reads
Label 1
Save the changes (Ctl+O), then exit (Ctl+X)
You should not need to restart cups for the changes to take effect, but, if you want to:
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
In cups-pdf.conf, you can change output path etc if you should wish to do so.