Print to standard printer from Python?

Question

Is there a reasonably standard and cross platform way to print text (or even PS/PDF) to the system defined printer?

Assuming CPython here, not something clever like using Jython and the Java printing API.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there is no standard way to print using Python on all platforms. So you'll need to write your own wrapper function to print.

You need to detect the OS your program is running on, then:

For Linux -

import subprocess
lpr =  subprocess.Popen("/usr/bin/lpr", stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
lpr.stdin.write(your_data_here)

For Windows: http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_how_do_i/print.html

More resources:

Print PDF document with python's win32print module?

How do I print to the OS's default printer in Python 3 (cross platform)?

Answer 2

This has only been tested on Windows:

You can do the following:

import os

os.startfile("C:/Users/TestFile.txt", "print")

This will start the file, in its default opener, with the verb 'print', which will print to your default printer.Only requires the os module which comes with the standard library

Answer 3

To print to any printer on the network you can send a PJL/PCL print job directly to a network printer on port 9100.

Please have a look at the below link that should give a good start:

http://frank.zinepal.com/printing-directly-to-a-network-printer

Also, If there is a way to call Windows cmd you can use FTP put to print your page on 9100. Below link should give you details, I have used this method for HP printers but I believe it will work for other printers.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpj06165

Answer 4

You can try wx library. It's a cross platform UI library. Here you can find the printing tutorial: http://wiki.wxpython.org/Printing