Netatalk is used to communicate from TCP/IP to AppleTalk printers and vice versa. The Netatalk distribution FAQ is at: http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk. Also, The University of Melbourne web site http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/appletalk/ has additional tutorial and installation information. In addition, Anders Brownworth's Web page http://thehamptons.com/anders/netatalk/ has a useful collection of information for Linux users.
The University of Michigan doesn't seem to be doing anything more for netatalk, and Adrian Sun has continued development. You'll find his updates at ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/users/asun/testing/ He has improved netatalk considerably over the last UMich version. Documentation on netatalk is, unfortunately, almost non-existent.
There are a couple of very active mail lists for Netatalk: netatalk-admins@umich.edu and linux-atalk@netspace.org.
After you have installed and gotten netatalk working you can use the following AppleTalk configuration file to print from a Macintosh to an LPRng printer.
Your 32 Character Printer Name:\
:pr=|/your/path/to/lpr -Pprintername:\
:op=username.for.printing:\
:pd=/your/path/to/ppd/files/yourprinter.ppd:
Examples:
Student Printers:\
:pr=|/usr/bin/lpr -Pstudent:\
:op=root:\
:pd=/var/spool/lpd/student/HP4000.PPD:
HP 2500c:\
:pr=|/usr/bin/lpr -Php2500c:\
:op=root:\
:pd=/var/spool/lpd/hp2500c/HP2500.PPD: