Google Cloud Printing will be available when the next version of its Chrome browser, version 9, is launched.
“Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world,” says Google.
Apps, says the search giant, will no longer rely on the local operating system (and drivers) to print but use Google Cloud Print to submit and manage print jobs.
Apple’s AirPrint and HP’s ePrint technology are gunning for the same ease of use as the three company’s in their own separate ways try to eradicate the need for printer drivers and long set up processes.
In Google’s case, Google Cloud Print is responsible for sending the print job to the appropriate printer, with the particular options the user selected, and providing job status to the app. Users will be able to print directly from services like Gmail without having to run separate drivers.
In a move that seems to suggest it was designed specifically for its Chrome OS operating system available to the public in mid-2011, users won’t have to install any further software to print from their devices and as Chrome the browser and Chrome OS have the same approach, their PC or Mac to.
But like HP and Apple’s system, Google Cloud Print won’t be available to everyone from day one.
Users associate printers with their Google Account via the service. Printers are treated in much the same way as documents are in Google Docs. Therefore, it is very easy to share printers with your coworkers, friends, and family anywhere in the world.
In addition to associating printers with a user's Google Account, the capabilities of each particular printer model are stored so they can be shown to the user to select appropriate options when submitting a print job. Once the service receives a print job, it sends it to the printer. It also receives regular updates on the status of the print job, which it makes available to the app.
“The ideal experience is for your printer to have native support for connecting to cloud print services. Under this model, the printer has no need for a PC connection of any kind or for a print driver,” says Google.
Google is still waiting for printer company’s like Kodak, Canon, Epson, and HP to jump on board.The downside is that the PC must be powered on and connected to the Internet in order for print jobs to get to the proxy (and hence the printer). Not ideal compared to HP’s and Apple’s proposition.
At the moment Google’s Cloud Printing service is still just a theory
From the Google Blog: What is Google cloud Printing ?
Introduction
This page includes links to all the current design documents and protocol specifications related to Google Cloud Print. Although Google Cloud Print is not yet available, we are publishing these in-progress documents to obtain early feedback from the community and industry. When we have more to share, we'll publish it here.
What is Google Cloud Print?
In Google Chrome OS, all applications are web apps. Therefore, in designing the printing experience for Google Chrome OS, we want to make sure printing from web apps is as natural as printing from traditional native apps is today. Additionally, with the proliferation of web-connected mobile devices such as those running Google Chrome OS and other mobile operating systems, we don't believe it is feasible to build and maintain complex print subsystems and print drivers for each platform. In fact, even the print subsystems and drivers on existing PC operating systems leave a lot of room for improvement.
Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world.
This goal is accomplished through the use of a cloud print service. Apps no longer rely on the local operating system (and drivers) to print. Instead, as shown in the diagram below, apps (whether they be a native desktop/mobile app or a web app) use Google Cloud Print to submit and manage print jobs. Google Cloud Print is then responsible for sending the print job to the appropriate printer, with the particular options the user selected, and providing job status to the app.
Google Cloud Print Components
Here's a brief summary of each component in the diagram above.
Applications
Any type of application can use Google Cloud Print, including web apps (such as Gmail) and native apps (such as a desktop word processor or an Android/iPhone app). These apps call Google Cloud Print APIs. They can use these APIs to collect the necessary data to show their own user interface for custom print options or simply use the common print dialog that Google Cloud Print will provide (see the section on "User Interface," later in this page). There are also APIs for querying print job status. We will have more details to share about which Google web apps will integrate with Google Cloud Print in the coming months. Additionally, when the APIs are available, third-party app developers will be able to use Google Cloud Print in their web, desktop, and mobile apps as well.
Google Cloud Print Service
Google Cloud Print is a web service offered by Google. We expect other entities to provide their own cloud print services as well. Users associate printers with their Google Account via the service. Printers are treated in much the same way as documents are in Google Docs. Therefore, it is very easy to share printers with your coworkers, friends, and family anywhere in the world. No need for complex network setups to make print sharing work! In addition to associating printers with a user's Google Account, the capabilities of each particular printer model are stored so they can be shown to the user to select appropriate options when submitting a print job. Once the service receives a print job, it sends it to the printer. It also receives regular updates on the status of the print job which it makes available to the app.
User Interface
As mentioned earlier, Google is developing a common print dialog (web UI) that apps can use to allow the user to select the printer and appropriate print options. Similarly, the printer/job status and management UI will enable users to view which printers they have registered (or have been shared with them), print job status, etc. We will have more details to share about these UIs in the coming months.
Printers
And, finally, the number one question people ask is, "How do the printers communicate with Google Cloud Print?" The answer is, "It depends on whether the printer is a cloud-aware printer or a legacy printer."
Cloud-aware Printer
The ideal experience is for your printer to have native support for connecting to cloud print services. Under this model, the printer has no need for a PC connection of any kind or for a print driver. The printer is simply registered with one or more cloud print services and awaits print jobs. Cloud-aware printers don't exist yet, but one of our main goals in publishing this information at an early stage is to begin engaging industry leaders and the community in developing cloud-aware printers and the necessary open protocols for these printers to communicate with cloud print services. We believe cloud printing has tremendous benefits for end users and for the industry and is essential, given the rapid shift toward cloud-based applications and data storage. We also believe that the only way that the benefits of cloud printing can be realized is if the protocols are open, freely implementable, and, when possible, based on existing industry standards. We expect there to be multiple cloud print services, and users should have a choice in which services they use and which printers they can connect to a service. Stay tuned for more details. We are confident that cloud-aware printers will soon be a reality.
Legacy Printer
Every printer in existence today falls into this category. (This situation will change, of course, when someone—perhaps you?—updates the firmware to make the printer cloud-aware.) This category includes printers connected directly to PCs (for example, via USB cable) as well as networked printers (Ethernet or WiFi). This category also includes the recent crop of "web-connected" printers that provide users with access to certain web services (such as maps and movie tickets) directly from the on-printer LCD. While these are "web connected," they are not cloud-aware printers in the way we describe above because they don't know how to talk to a cloud print service to get print jobs, etc. We want users to be able to print to legacy printers via Google Cloud Print. This is accomplished through the use of a proxy, a small piece of software that sits on a PC where the printer is installed. The proxy takes care of registering the printer with Google Cloud Print and awaiting print jobs from the service. When a job arrives, it submits the print job to the printer using the PC operating system's native print stack and sends job status back to the printer.
Currently, we are developing a proxy for Windows and will support Mac and Linux later on as well. To help users avoid the trouble of having to install yet another piece of software on their PCs, we will distribute the proxy with Google Chrome. So, by simply installing Google Chrome on their PC and enabling the feature (it is off by default), users will be able to print via Google Cloud Print. An obvious downside to this approach is that the PC must be powered on and connected to the Internet in order for print jobs to get to the proxy (and hence the printer). This current requirement is why we are excited about working with the industry to build native support for cloud print services into their printers. We are also hoping some clever folks in the community will build proxies-in-a-box (like routers with print server abilities) so users get all the benefits of the proxy without needing to leave their PC powered on.
Google Chrome OS printing
Google Chrome OS will use Google Cloud Print for all printing. There is no print stack and there are no printer drivers on Google Chrome OS!
When users print from a web app that directly integrates with Google Cloud Print, then that works as described earlier with no involvement from Chrome OS. When users are printing a web page that is not making use of Google Cloud Print (such as a boarding pass, movie tickets, a magazine article, etc.), the app that is printing is the Google Chrome browser on Chrome OS. In this case, Google Chrome on Chrome OS is a native app that uses Google Cloud Print and common print dialog. The content to be printed is uploaded to the Google Cloud Print along with the job ticket information and then sent to the printer. More details are in the design document.
Design Documents
The following design documents describe key system components of Google Cloud Print:
Source: http://code.google.com/intl/es-ES/apis/cloudprint/docs/overview.html
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