Hello!

I am the Printer backend server.

I am a conduit for connecting “printers” to content publishers.

You send me requests with a URL and printer ID; I take care of turning the content at that URL into data suitable for the printer, and putting it where that specific printer can find it.

Simple!

Here's how to build a compatible printer.

You can read more about the API too.

So… yeah?

I get the content for printing from the URL you give me.

Like any webpage, the content at that URL can be dynamic. When I make the request to render your URL, your page could be:

• Fetching weather data and rendering a forecast
• Generating a todo list
• Showing upcoming meetings from an online calendar
• All of the above, and more!

It can have any content you like on it; the only limits are your imagination and the gentle constraints of the media (low-fi black and white thermal printing).

Why not schedule some software of your own to automatically post me URLs on a schedule? How about, say, getting a London Underground status report ready for the printer just before 8am?

Making the content

All of this is far less interesting without great content, and it's easy for you to make some. Find out more about content services.

You can use the Printer-Mail project as a basis for your application, or the sample HTML page as the basis for one-off tests; you can also find the core print stylesheet here.