Comment 4 for bug 844581

The spec referenced above does not explicitly state that the Printers item should be visible when no printer is attached. I suspect that this is a possible oversight in the spec.

Regardless of the spec, the UI is currently labelling non-existent hardware as attached to the system.

On these bases, I would still consider this a bug (extending to the spec if necessary).

The Printers applet is still available via System Settings if one wants to connect to a printer not physically attached to the system, e.g. network printers etc.