PrintLib - Printing System

PrintLib (formerly "Printer Plugin") prints real documents, not screenshots.

Text is printed as vector text, PDF files are printed in vector quality, and every element is placed in millimeters. Your prints stay sharp at any printer resolution, exactly like a document printed from a word processor: no blurry captures of the screen, no pixelated text.

Compose receipts, reports, invoices, certificates, tickets and forms with a few lines of C#, then send them to a printer or save them as a PDF file, with the same code on every platform.

REAL DOCUMENTS, IN VECTOR QUALITY

• Vector text with any installed font, size, color and style (bold, italic, underline, strikeout), on a single line or wrapped inside a rectangle with horizontal and vertical alignment.

• PDF printing in vector quality: print whole PDF files or single pages, fit to page, fill the page, at actual size or at a custom size. A raster mode is available for printer drivers that handle transparency badly.

• PDF as a template: print a PDF page as a background and add your own text and images over it (certificates, forms, tickets).

• Millimeter coordinates: the layout is the same on every printer, whatever its DPI.

• Multi-page documents mixing text, images and PDF pages.

EXPORT TO PDF

• Save any document to a PDF file instead of printing it: same drawing code, with searchable text and vector PDF pages. Ideal for reports and receipts, or to keep a copy of everything you print.

PRINT WHAT UNITY RENDERS

• Print a Camera, a uGUI / TextMeshPro Canvas, a RenderTexture or the whole screen, rendered at print resolution (300 DPI by default), not at screen resolution.

• Print any Texture2D (Read/Write not required) or image file from disk.

NATIVE PRINTING ON 4 PLATFORMS

• Windows (64 and 32 bit): silent printing on any installed printer, printer list and default printer, printer settings dialog. No Visual C++ Redistributable needed.

• macOS (Apple silicon and Intel): silent printing through the system print service (CUPS), printer list and default printer.

• iOS: AirPrint. The user picks a printer once, then your app prints on it without dialogs, and the printer can be remembered between sessions.

• Android: the system print dialog, with preview and printer selection.

• Also works in the Unity Editor on Windows and macOS.

FULL CONTROL OF THE PRINTER

• Paper format (20 standard formats, A and B series, North American formats, envelopes) or a custom paper size, orientation, color or monochrome, copies, DPI and double-sided printing.

• Print jobs: follow every job (queued, printing, completed, cancelled) with an async/await call, pause, resume or cancel it.

• Printer status: paper out, paper jam, offline, door open, toner low… On macOS, network printers are asked directly for a reliable status.

BUILT FOR REAL PROJECTS

• Capabilities: check at runtime what the current platform supports (Printer.Supports) and adapt your code and your UI.

• Readable errors: every failure tells you why (printer not found, file not found, password-protected PDF…), including the message of the operating system.

• Tested on real printers, on all supported platforms.

• Also an easy-to-use wrapper of the Windows printing API (GDI+, print spooler) and of CUPS / Core Graphics on macOS.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

• C# source code of the whole API, native plugins for Windows and macOS, native sources for iOS and Android.

• Two demo scenes: text, images and job status (with "Save as PDF"), and PDF printing with all its options.

• A complete user manual with an API reference organized by topic, showing what is available on each platform.

• AI assistant skills: ready-made instructions that teach AI coding assistants how to use PrintLib, so you can just ask them to "add a print button".

REQUIREMENTS

• Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer.

• Windows 10/11, macOS, iOS, Android.