diff --git a/pkgs/applications/printing/pappl/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/printing/pappl/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5cad364d240b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/printing/pappl/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub
+, avahi
+, cups
+, gnutls
+, libjpeg
+, libpng
+, libusb1
+, pkg-config
+, withPAMSupport ? true, pam
+, zlib
+}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  pname = "pappl";
+  version = "1.0.0";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "michaelrsweet";
+    repo = pname;
+    rev = "v${version}";
+    sha256 = "1cg06v8hxska0hnybnmfda1v4h3ifjir24nx2iqx80kb6jq0hayb";
+  };
+
+  outputs = [ "out" "dev" ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    pkg-config
+  ];
+
+  buildInputs = [
+    cups
+    libjpeg
+    libpng
+    libusb1
+    zlib
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.isDarwin) [
+    # upstream mentions these are not needed for Mac
+    # see: https://github.com/michaelrsweet/pappl#requirements
+    avahi
+    gnutls
+  ] ++ lib.optionals withPAMSupport [
+    pam
+  ];
+
+  # testing requires some networking
+  # doCheck = true;
+
+  doInstallCheck = true;
+  installCheckPhase = ''
+    $out/bin/pappl-makeresheader --help
+  '';
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  meta = with lib; {
+    description = "C-based framework/library for developing CUPS Printer Applications";
+    homepage = "https://github.com/michaelrsweet/pappl";
+    license = licenses.asl20;
+    platforms = platforms.linux; # should also work for darwin, but requires additional work
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ jonringer ];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index f0c412e5c9bd..c064ead5e4ae 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -6408,6 +6408,8 @@ in
 
   papertrail = callPackage ../tools/text/papertrail { };
 
+  pappl = callPackage ../applications/printing/pappl { };
+
   par2cmdline = callPackage ../tools/networking/par2cmdline { };
 
   parallel = callPackage ../tools/misc/parallel { };