diff --git a/pkgs/misc/cups/drivers/foomatic-db/default.nix b/pkgs/misc/cups/drivers/foomatic-db/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..26cbc2942475
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/misc/cups/drivers/foomatic-db/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+{ lib
+, stdenv
+, fetchFromGitHub
+, cups
+, cups-filters
+, ghostscript
+, gnused
+, perl
+, autoconf
+, automake
+, patchPpdFilesHook
+}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  pname = "foomatic-db";
+  version = "unstable-2022-10-03";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    # there is also a daily snapshot at the `downloadPage`,
+    # but it gets deleted quickly and would provoke 404 errors
+    owner = "OpenPrinting";
+    repo = "foomatic-db";
+    rev = "2a3c4d1bf7eadc42f936ce8989c1dd2973ea9669";
+    hash = "sha256-in0/j1nAQvM0NowBIBx3jj5WVMPIfZAeAk1SkuA3tjA=";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [ cups cups-filters ghostscript gnused perl ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoconf automake patchPpdFilesHook perl ];
+
+  # sed-substitute indirection is more robust
+  # against characters in paths that might need escaping
+  postPatch = ''
+    sed -Ei -e 's|^(S?BINSEARCHPATH=).+$|\1"@PATH@"|g'  \
+      -e 's|^(DATASEARCHPATH=).+$|\1"@DATA@"|g' configure.ac
+    substituteInPlace configure.ac  \
+      --subst-var PATH  \
+      --subst-var-by DATA "${placeholder "out"}/share"
+  '';
+
+  preConfigure = ''
+    mkdir -p "${placeholder "out"}/share/foomatic/db/source"
+    ./make_configure
+  '';
+
+  # don't let the intaller gzip ppd files as we would
+  # have to unzip them later in order to patch them
+  configureFlags = [ "--disable-gzip-ppds" ];
+
+  # make ppd files available to cups,
+  # use a package-specific subdirectory to avoid
+  # conflicts with other ppd-containing packages
+  postInstall = ''
+    if ! [[ -d "${placeholder "out"}/share/foomatic/db/source/PPD" ]]; then
+        echo "failed to create share/foomatic/db/source/PPD"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    mkdir -p "${placeholder "out"}/share/cups/model"
+    ln -s "${placeholder "out"}/share/foomatic/db/source/PPD"  \
+      "${placeholder "out"}/share/cups/model/foomatic-db"
+  '';
+
+  # Comments indicate the respective
+  # package the command is contained in.
+  ppdFileCommands = [
+    "cat" "date" "printf"  # coreutils
+    "rastertohp"  # cups
+    "foomatic-rip"  # cups-filters or foomatic-filters
+    "gs"  # ghostscript
+    "sed"  # gnused
+    "perl"  # perl
+  ];
+
+  # compress ppd files
+  postFixup = ''
+    echo 'compressing ppd files'
+    find -H "${placeholder "out"}/share/cups/model/foomatic-db" -type f -iname '*.ppd' -print0  \
+      | xargs -0r -n 64 -P "$NIX_BUILD_CORES" gzip -9n
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "OpenPrinting printer support database (free content)";
+    downloadPage = "https://www.openprinting.org/download/foomatic/";
+    homepage = "https://openprinting.github.io/projects/02-foomatic/";
+    license = lib.licenses.free;  # mostly GPL and MIT, see README in source dir
+    maintainers = [ lib.maintainers.yarny ];
+    # list printer manufacturers here so people
+    # searching for ppd files can find this package
+    longDescription = ''
+      The collected knowledge about printers,
+      drivers, and driver options in XML files.
+      Besides the XML files, this package contains
+      about 6,600 PPD files, for printers from
+      Brother, Canon, Epson, Gestetner, HP, InfoPrint,
+      Infotec, KONICA_MINOLTA, Kyocera, Lanier, Lexmark, NRG,
+      Oce, Oki, Ricoh, Samsung, Savin, Sharp, Toshiba and Utax.
+    '';
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 088bea97441a..ecfd91fd865c 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -36319,6 +36319,7 @@ with pkgs;
 
   epson-workforce-635-nx625-series = callPackage ../misc/drivers/epson-workforce-635-nx625-series { };
 
+  foomatic-db = callPackage ../misc/cups/drivers/foomatic-db {};
   foomatic-db-engine = callPackage ../misc/cups/drivers/foomatic-db-engine {};
 
   gutenprint = callPackage ../misc/drivers/gutenprint { };