Java™ Print Service
The Java Print Service API, introduced in v1.4, allows printing
on all Java platforms including those requiring a small footprint,
such as a J2ME profile, but also supports the
java.awt.print.PrinterJob API introduced in J2SE v1.2.
The Java Print Service API includes an extensible print attribute
set based on the standard attributes specified in the Internet
Printing Protocol (IPP) 1.1 from the IETF. With the attributes,
client and server applications can discover and select printers
that have the capabilities specified by the attributes. In addition
to the included StreamPrintService, which allows
applications to transcode data to different formats, third parties
can dynamically install their own print services through the
Service Provider Interface.
API Specification
The Java Print Service API consists of these four packages:
javax.print:
Provides the principal classes and interfaces for the Java Print
Service API.
javax.print.attribute:
Provides classes and interfaces that describe the types of Java
Print Service attributes and how they can be collected into
attribute sets.
javax.print.attribute.standard:
Contains classes defining specific printing attributes.
javax.print.event:
Contains event classes and listener interfaces for monitoring print
services and the progress of a specific print job.
Tutorials and Programmer's Guides
The Java Print Service User Guide ( HTML | PDF ) describes the Java Print Service in more detail and demonstrates how to use the Java Print Service API to:
- Discover and select print services based on their capabilities
- Specify the format of print data
- Submit print jobs to services that support the document type to be printed.
More Information
See the Java Software websites: