Windows 8 Supports Printing from HTML 5 and XAML
Printing is one of the most commonly used functions on a computer, either
desktop or laptop. Windows 8 team has spent a lot of time.
In a
blog
published by Windows 8 team, printing system of Windows 8 has been reimagined
and rethought from scratch. From the blog:
In Windows 8 we've introduced a new
printer driver architecture, which we call version 4, or v4. The v4
architecture produces smaller, faster printer drivers, and it supports the idea
of a print class driver framework--a system that allows people to install their
printers without having to locate a driver for that device, in many cases.
As you've probably guessed, V4 is the
fourth iteration of the printer driver architecture in Windows. V3 was the
architecture used from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, and it's actually still fully
supported in Windows 8 for device compatibility reasons. So if you only have an
existing driver available for your current printer, then it should still work
in Windows 8. Versions 1 and 2 were the driver architectures for Windows 1.0
through Windows ME.
As a developer, I am more interested in learning about accessing
print functionality from my code.
In current Windows, we need to use GDI+ or
XPS to support printing. Now printing is reinvented in Windows 8 and developers
can access print functionality from HTML 5/JavaScript and XAML/C# apps.
Some of the new improved printing features include
- Fewer printer drivers now support more printers
- Printer sharing is much easier now.
- Hard drive space required for supporting printers is reduced in
Windows 8 from 768 MB in Windows Vista, 446 MB in Windows 7 to 184 MB only.
- Improved printer dialog
- Much improved rendering process