A printing protocol is a protocol for communication between

client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...

devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.) and

printers 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 * Jam ...

(or print servers). It allows clients to submit one or more

print job In computing, a print job is a file or set of files that has been submitted to be printed with a printer. Jobs are typically identified by a unique number, and are assigned to a particular destination, usually a printer. Jobs can also have options ...

s to the printer or print server, and perform tasks such as querying the status of a

printer 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 * James ...

, 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 The Line Printer Daemon protocol/Line Printer Remote protocol (or LPD, LPR) is a network printing protocol for submitting print jobs to a remote printer. The original implementation of LPD was in the Berkeley printing system in the BSD UNIX opera ...

/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 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 LPRng is a printing system compatible with the Berkeley printing system. It provides printer spooling and network print server functionality using the Line Printer Daemon protocol. It is an open-source project hosted on SourceForge and implement ...

project also supports that protocol. The LPD Protocol Specification is documented in RFC 1179. LPD printing normally happens over port 515. * AppSocket, 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 ser ...

, or Windows TCPmon is a protocol that was developed by

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent ...

. 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 The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is a specialized Internet protocol for communication between client devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.) and printers (or print servers). It allows clients to submit one or more print jobs to the p ...

(IPP) is an

Internet protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. IP h ...

for communication between client devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.) and printers (or print servers). IPP can run locally or over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. 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 Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicati ...

, and

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

, 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 and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

Generic protocols

These protocols put the printer as similar class to remote disks, scanners and multimedia devices. This is especially true for

multi-function printer An MFP (multi-function product/printer/peripheral), multi-functional, all-in-one (AIO), or multi-function device (MFD), is an office machine which incorporates the functionality of multiple devices in one, so as to have a smaller footprint in a ...

s, that also produce image files (scans and faxes) and send them back through the network. *

Telnet Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet control i ...

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 Server Message Block (SMB) is a communication protocol originally developed in 1983 by Barry A. Feigenbaum at IBM and intended to provide shared access to files and printers across nodes on a network of systems running IBM's OS/2. It also provides ...

(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 Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manu ...

(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 AirPrint is a feature in Apple Inc.'s macOS and iOS operating systems for printing without installing printer-specific drivers. Connection is via a wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), either directly to AirPrint-compatible printers, or to non-compatible shar ...

is a feature in

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

operating systems for printing via a

wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and bus ...

(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 Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

, or macOS. AirPrint is based on

mDNS In computer networking, the multicast DNS (mDNS) protocol resolves hostnames to IP addresses within small networks that do not include a local name server. It is a zero-configuration service, using essentially the same programming interfaces, pac ...

(

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

(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 Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

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 Android and available in

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

. It uses

for service discovery and

(IPP) for printing, just like

. *

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 ...

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

(LPR) or

(RAW) for printing.

also supports

's way.

Internet protocols

The computer and the printer usually should locate in the same local area network ( LAN) when use all of above protocols. Internet printing protocols is designed for Internet printing. *

Google Cloud Print Google Cloud Print is a discontinued Google service that allowed users to print from any Cloud Print-aware application ( web, desktop, mobile) on any device in the network cloud to any printer with native support for connecting to cloud print ...

The service ended on December 31, 2020.

References

{{refs

External links

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