A printing protocol is a protocol for communication between client devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.) and printers (or

print servers Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template Print or printing may also refer to: Publishing * Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, on ...

). It allows clients to submit one or more print jobs to the printer or print server, and perform tasks such as querying the status of a printer, obtaining the status of print jobs, or cancelling individual print jobs...

Dedicated protocols

Protocols listed here are specific for printing. * The Line Printer Daemon protocol/Line Printer Remote protocol (or LPD, LPR) is a network protocol for submitting print jobs to a remote printer. The original implementation of LPD was in the

Berkeley printing system {{Unreferenced, date=March 2010 The Berkeley printing system is one of several standard architectures for printing on the Unix platform. It originated in 2.10BSD, and is used in BSD derivatives such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD. ...

in the 2.10

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...

UNIX operating system in 1988; the LPRng project also supports that protocol. The LPD Protocol Specification is documented in RFC 1179. LPD printing normally happens over port 515. *

AppSocket HP Jetdirect is the name of a technology sold by Hewlett-Packard that allows computer printers to be directly attached to a Local Area Network. The "Jetdirect" designation covers a range of models from the external 1 and 3 port parallel print s ...

, also known as Port 9100, RAW,

JetDirect HP Jetdirect is the name of a technology sold by Hewlett-Packard that allows computer printers to be directly attached to a Local Area Network. The "Jetdirect" designation covers a range of models from the external 1 and 3 port parallel print se ...

, or Windows TCPmon is a protocol that was developed by Tektronix. It is considered as 'the simplest, fastest, and generally the most reliable network protocol used for printers' though 'it also offers no security and is often an attack vector with printers'. AppSocket printing normally happens over port 9100. * The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is an Internet protocol for communication between client devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.) and printers (or

). IPP can run locally or over the Internet. Unlike other printing protocols, IPP also supports

access control In the fields of physical security and information security, access control (AC) is the selective restriction of access to a place or other resource, while access management describes the process. The act of ''accessing'' may mean consuming ...

, authentication, and encryption, making it a much more capable and secure printing mechanism than older ones. IPP is supported b
over 98% of printers sold today
IPP printing normally happens over port 631. It is the default protocol in

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

and iOS.

Generic protocols

These protocols put the printer as similar class to remote disks, scanners and multimedia devices. This is especially true for multi-function printers, that also produce image files (scans and faxes) and send them back through the network. * Telnet is based on simply transferring data safely to/from TCP ports that are now being used for printing purposes. This approach is sometimes called raw TCP/IP, Stream, or direct sockets printing. * Server Message Block (SMB) is an application-layer network protocol for file and printer sharing originally developed by IBM in the mid-80s. It is the default method used by Windows based computers to share files and printers.

Wireless protocols

Wireless protocols is designed for wireless devices. This kind of protocol is based on one kind of printing protocols plus Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) mechanisms. In this way, printers can be used by wireless devices seamlessly. Note that the printer itself is not necessary to be wireless. * AirPrint is a feature in Apple Inc.'s macOS and iOS operating systems for printing via a wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), either directly to AirPrint-compatible printers, or to non-compatible shared printers by way of a computer running

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, Linux, or macOS. AirPrint is based on mDNS (

Bonjour Bonjour is a French word meaning (literally translated) "good day", and is commonly used as a greeting. Bonjour may also refer to: People * Laurence BonJour (born 1943), epistemologist and professor of philosophy at the University of Washington ...

, more specifically) and Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). It was originally intended for iOS devices and connected via a Wi-Fi network only, and thus required a Wi-Fi access point. However, with the introduction of AirPrint to the macOS desktop platform in 2012, Macs connected to the network via ethernet connection could also print using the AirPrint protocol—not just those connected via Wi-Fi. *

Mopria Alliance The Mopria Alliance was formed in September 2013, with the four founding members, all among the world's largest printer manufacturers, including Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual mat ...

provides a protocol which is adopted by

and available in Windows 10. It uses mDNS for service discovery and Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) for printing, just like AirPrint. * Windows devices use

Web Services for Devices Web Services for Devices or Web Services on Devices (WSD) is a Microsoft API to enable programming connections to web service enabled devices, such as printers, scanners and file shares. Such devices conform to the Devices Profile for Web Services ...

(WSD) for service discovery and Line Printer Daemon protocol (LPR) or

(RAW) for printing. Windows 10 also supports

's way.

Internet protocols

The computer and the printer usually should locate in the same local area network (

LAN Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in sp ...

) when use all of above protocols. Internet printing protocols is designed for Internet printing. * Google Cloud Print The service ended on December 31, 2020.

References

{{refs

External links

TCP/IP Printing Overview on Brooksnet website
Printing protocols Computer printing