Well you are right, but we don’t even need that! Wait what? Then how are we going to use the printer then? We will see how in our next section! How To Send A File To Printer In Linux & Mac?įora computer running Linux or Mac (which uses POSIX APIs), calling a printer from Python is easy! Why is that?īecause in Linux & Mac, all the hardware are accessible as files! So if we want to access a printer connected to the computer, we just need to use lpr file. But how do we do that for a Mac OS or a Linux? After all these OS do not have Win32 APIs right? Now that was the case for printing in Python using a Windows computer. That is all there is to it for printing a file using Python code in Windows! And to do that, we will use the WritePrinter( ) API of the win32print library! Now once the raw print test is done, we get into the real crux of our problem. We can do that by using the StartDocPrinter API of the Win32print Python module. What we do next is to send a simple raw print test command. After that we will first open the printer using the OpenPrinter API from the library.

The first thing we need to do is to import our win32 module’s win32print library. I will explain to you what is happening here. Now there is a lot going on over here But do not worry. Win32print.WritePrinter(p, 'Print Me Puhleeezzz!') Job = win32print.StartDocPrinter(p, 1, ('Test Raw text to test the Printer's Raw text printing!', None, 'RAW')) P = win32print.OpenPrinter(your_printer_name) So how will our Python code to send files to a printer on Windows look like? Take a look at it for yourself! The Code import win32print

Go ahead and install win32 module on your Windows computer using the command: pip install win32 Now it all makes sense right?! So we will use just this module in Windows to access our printer. Because it was written to give access to the Win32 APIs of Windows OS. Now the Python Win32 module is one that is used to give access to the Windows OS API! Got that? Hence the name “Win32”. But this also means that if you want to access an hardware like a printer, you need it as well! Right? Because these APIs will give you access to the hardware on which the OS is running.

You know, to use any hardware from an application program, you need to have OS APIs. Wait a minute! What is this win32 module? Python Win32 Module So if you are using Windows OS, then you will need to use a special Python module called win32. Alright? How To Send A File To Printer In Windows? So how do we go here? Shall we start by taking a look at each OS? I think that is a good way to do this I guess. Now that should be good for most cases right? Great! Then without further ado, let us start right away!

Win32 python install