This is not a tool you can rely on for customer-facing development, but I found it invaluable nevertheless. jsPrintSetup is a small fireFox add-on that hands you a controlling object in javascript. You get FULL access to any print-related function you could think of: list printers, select default printers, print silently, control spool, headers… There’s just too much to mention. Very useful when coding a CMS that needs to print specific things to specific printers (for example, invoices on printer #1 and labels on printer #2).

Here is an example that fetches a list of printers and remembers the user’s preference for future use:

/*jshint mootools:true */
/*globals jsPrintSetup*/
(function(){
'use strict';

// only do something if the plugin is live
if ('jsPrintSetup' in this){
    var printers = jsPrintSetup.getPrintersList().split(','); // get a list of installed printers

    // no print dialogue boxes needed
    jsPrintSetup.setSilentPrint(true);

    // create a dropdown
    var printList = new Element('select#printerList', {
        events: {
            change: function(){
                Cookie.write('defaultPrinter', this.get('value'), {
                    path: '/admin/',
                    duration: 365
                });

                // save the new printer selection
                jsPrintSetup.setPrinter(this.get('value'));
            }
        }
    });

    // get default by preference if any
    var defaultPrinter = Cookie.read('defaultPrinter');

    printers.each(function(el){
        new Element('option', {
            value: el,
            text: el,
            selected: defaultPrinter === el
        }).inject(printList);

    });

    // needs 2 dom els: #printSetup and #goPrint
    printList.inject(document.id('printSetup'), 'top');

    // attach an event that prints from an element called goPrint
    document.id('goPrint').addEvents({
        click: function(){
            jsPrintSetup.print();
        }
    });
}

}).call(this);