computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

a virtual printer is a simulated device whose

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

and

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

resemble that of a

printer driver In computers, a printer driver or a print processor is a piece of software on a computer that converts the data to be printed to a format that a printer can understand. The purpose of printer drivers is to allow applications to do printing with ...

, but which is not connected to a physical

computer printer A printer is a peripheral machine which makes a durable representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printer ...

. When a document is "printed" by a virtual printer, instead of physically printing it on paper or other material the underlying software processes the images of its pages in some other way, often resulting in a file being produced or the images being transmitted.

History

In the early 1960s the B5500 Master Control Program (MCP) operating system included virtual printers, called "Printer Backups" in the form of ''Printer Backup Tapes'' (PBT) and ''Printer Backup Disks'' (PBD). IBM's VM/370 operating system allows users to spool a virtual printer (or punch) file to another user, who can read it as input. This provides a basic means of

file transfer File transfer is the transmission of a computer file through a communication channel from one computer system to another. Typically, file transfer is mediated by a communications protocol. In the history of computing, numerous file transfer protoc ...

Functions

Typical uses of virtual printers include: * Saving a document to another format such as a

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

or multi-page

TIFF Tag Image File Format or Tagged Image File Format, commonly known by the abbreviations TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is w ...

file. * Sending documents to a fax server. * Allowing user to control certain aspects of printing not supported natively, such as printing multiple pages per sheet without border, print letterhead, watermarks etc. This output can either be saved in a file for future printing or passed to another printer. * Previewing a printed document before printing it, to save ink and paper. This functionality is also built into many GUI applications. * Allowing remote printing of documents over the Internet. At least one example of this technology creates a virtual printer on one computer which actually converts the document and sends it to a remote server, from which the file can be printed to a printer attached to a PC in a remote location. Similar technology is also being used to allow printing from devices such as

smart phones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

References

{{Reflist Computer printers Device drivers

History

Functions

See also

References