The Printer Working Group (PWG) is a Program of the IEEE Industry Standard and Technology Organization (ISTO) with members including printer and multi-function device manufacturers, print server developers, operating system providers, print management application developers, and industry experts. Originally founded in 1991 as the Network Printing Alliance, the PWG is chartered to make printers, multi-function devices, and the applications and operating systems supporting them work together better. The PWG enjoys an open standards development process. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the development of our documents and standards, serve as editors, and participate in interoperability tests. Members may additionally serve as officers in the various working groups. Voting Members approve the documents and standards for publication and may serve as officers of the PWG.

Workgroups

The PWG has two active workgroups: the Internet Printing Protocol workgroup and the Imaging Device Security workgroup. The Internet Printing Protocol workgroup develops and maintains the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) and maintains the

Printer MIB Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * J ...

Job Monitoring MIB Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

Finishers MIB Finisher may refer to: * Finisher (wrestling), a move in professional wrestling * ''The Finisher'' (series), also known as ''Vega Jane'', a book series by David Baldacci ** ''The Finisher'' (novel), the first book in the series * '' The Finisher ...

, and various PWG-specific MIBs used via the

Simple Network Monitoring Protocol Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: * Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

(SNMP). IPP is supported by almost all network printers, is the basis of the various driverless printing standards including AirPrint,

IPP Everywhere IPP may refer to: Organisations * Independent Power Producer, electric power generator * India Pride Project, recovering stolen Indian artefacts * Istituto per la Protezione delle Piante (Institute of Plant Protection), Italy * Max-Planck-Insti ...

Mopria The Mopria Alliance was formed in September 2013, with the four founding members, all among the world's largest printer manufacturers, including Canon, HP, Samsung, and Xerox. According to their mission statement, "the Mopria Alliance provides ...

, and Wi-Fi Direct Print Services, and is used by various print spoolers including CUPS. The Imaging Device Security (IDS) workgroup develops and maintains security-related standards and best practices, and has a liaison with the Common Criteria organization in order to develop and maintain the current Hardcopy Device (HCD) Collaborative Protection Profile (cPP).

History

In February 1990, the IETF Network Printing Protocol working group was chartered. In August 1990, the working group published RFC 1179: Line Printer Daemon Protocol to document the prevalent network printing protocol at the time. In 1991, a consortium of printer and network manufacturers (Insight Development, Intel, LAN Systems, Lexmark and Texas Instruments) formed the Network Printing Alliance (NPA). Later members included QMS, Kyocera, GENICOM, Okidata, Unisys, Canon, IBM, Kodak, Adaptec, Tektronix, Digital Products, Pennant Systems, Extended Systems and NEC. In 1993, the NPA was reformed as the Printer Working Group and added HP, Compaq, Microsoft, Xerox, Xircom, Farpoint Communications, Zenith, Castelle,

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

, 3M,

Cirrus Logic Cirrus Logic Inc. is an American fabless semiconductor supplier that specializes in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits (ICs). Since 1998, the company's headquarters have been in Austin, Texas. The company's audio processo ...

, Amp, National Semiconductor and Ricoh. In January 1994, the IETF Printer MIB working group was chartered. This working group published a series of SNMP MIB RFCs from 1995 through 2004, at which point development and maintenance of printer-related MIBs transitioned to the Printer Working Group. In March 1997, the IETF Internet Printing Protocol working group was chartered. This working group published a series of IPP RFCs from 1999 through 2005, at which point development and maintenance of IPP transitioned to the Printer Working Group. In September 1999, the IEEE formalized an alliance with PWG as part of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO). Since then, the PWG has published over 60 standards and informational documents related to printing and printers. In March 2015, the IETF published a new IPP RFC developed by the PWG IPP workgroup - RFC 7472: IPP over HTTPS Transport Binary and the ipps URI Scheme. In January 2017, the IETF published updates to the core IPP RFCs (RFC 2910, 2911, 3381, and 3382) developed by the PWG IPP workgroup - RFC 8010: Internet Printing Protocol/1.1: Encoding and Transport and RFC 8011: Internet Printing Protocol/1.1: Model and Semantics. In June 2018, the IETF published these RFCs as Internet Standard 92.

References

{{reflist Information technology organizations Computer printers Working groups