Rise of the Mobile Platforms – Mobile Printing
With the popularity of mobile phones that allow immersive Internet-connected experiences, as well as the ability to view, edit, manage and print rich content, virtually every printer manufacturer now supports printing from mobile devices. The desktop-centric presentation of a custom printer driver has been replaced with very simple printer-neutral dialogue from Apple iOS and Android operating systems.
With this transition to simpler printer methodologies on mobile platforms, there has been a comparable migration in printing languages used on these platforms, including heavy use of streamable, raster-oriented formats that are encapsulated as URF, PWG Raster or PCLm serialized formats. The underlying communication protocols have been heavily Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) based, including those used by AirPrint or Google Cloud Print. Developing interoperable systems that use these technologies requires a rigorous test suites and methodologies.
In our review of the testing processes available for these technologies, we do not believe they are adequate or rigorous enough to produce fully conformant and interoperable systems. There appears to be lack of expectations from both Google and Apple to clearly guide manufacturers.
We are keenly interested in hearing from you on this topic.
You can print from mobile devices, but will the results be what you expect?
Correctly rendered test page