KNOWLEDGE BASE

Chromebook Printing
Explained

Google Cloud Print is no more.
Native CUPS printing on Chromebooks has improved.
3rd party software providers have started supporting Chromebooks.
In this guide we try to make sense of the print options on Chromebooks

Background

When Chromebooks first launched there was only one supported method of hooking up your printer to your Chromebook: Google Cloud Print.

Since then, thankfully, the printing options have widened but it’s still confusing and complex.

We take a quick tour through the options, regardless of whether you are a home, education, or enterprise user of Chromebook printing.

Google Cloud Print has gone

The promised land of printing: no print servers on-premise, platform-neutral (worked on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac).

Save for a multitude of reasons, it isn’t a big hit with Enterprise and Education users.

in case you missed the quiet announcement, Google Cloud Print officially died on January 1st 2021

Google should be applauded for trying to bring printing into the 21st century. It’s a shame it didn’t scale for enterprise.

Chrome OS CUPS (a.k.a. native printing)

In early 2017, the Chrome OS team introduced the CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) into Chrome OS.

CUPS is an Apple open source project which provides the backbone for printing on Mac OS and most Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu). In that regard, it’s tried and tested, well developed and maintained, respected, and flexible.

This was seemingly a smart move by the Chrome OS team, who were responding to grumbles with Cloud Print. Except that, unlike on Mac and Linux, Chrome OS doesn’t have quite the same level of flexibility to install extra drivers. For example, we had a cheaper Dell laser printer and needed a custom driver, which was very difficult to install (we know, we tried – for hours) and gave up.

It feels like CUPS was included to provide extra printing options for home users, those with ‘legacy’ (non-Cloud Print compatible, or USB printers) to help Chrome OS get to the mainstream.

Further improvements like printer auto-discovery and configuration have helped home users, but it’s not perfect. Administrators who are used to Windows print management solutions will be disappointed with the admin options provided within G Suite.

Recent (2021) administration improvements include better policy support (duplex, color) and further deployment options. 

If you’re an administrator who needs to track printing you will be disappointed.

Printer vendor apps in the Chrome Store

Several printer vendors were quick to introduce app-based printing solutions aimed primarily at home users to the Chrome Store.

HP Print for Chrome was one of the early examples of a print stack ported from Windows/Mac to run on Chrome OS. Excellent work HP! The app is hugely popular – with millions of weekly users and provides all of the functionality that home users on Windows and Mac have come to expect. HP also includes administration options via G Suite, using configuration files.

Expect more printer-vendor driver solutions to appear in the Chrome Store over time. Vendors seem to be catching up with the popularity of Chromebooks and have identified an opportunity to improve the reliability and features. According to Google at I/O ’19 Chromebooks now account for 21% of all laptops sold in the US, showing consistent year-on-year growth.

3rd party solutions – such as directprint.io

Designed for administrators looking for advanced configuration, logging, audit, budgeting, cost, and policy control.  3rd party solutions from //directprint.io, Printerlogic, Papercut, and some others are now available for Chrome OS.

If you have a mixed-vendor printer environment (HP, Xerox, Brother, etc), you need a 3rd party universal solution.

  • Manage more than 20 printers?
  • Want to know who’s printing?
  • Want to enforce budgets/mono/duplex/paper/toner saving or secure print?
  • User and group-based (teachers/students) deployment of printers?
  • Need professional support?

Our advice to Education and Enterprise admins:

Look for a solution that doesn’t involve deploying anything on-premises (servers, management stations).

Home users:

directprint.io also has free home user versions of our printer drivers – see the ‘Related’ tab on the store for more information: //chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wifi-printer-driver-for-c/hhcgnlnhaapiekdelngjichnccjfkbnc

External print servers /Cloud connectors/Intermediate Windows PCs/other hacks

To get a single non-cloud printer working with your Chromebook, you have options. You could scale this for a SOHO environment up to a few printers (don’t call us for support!).

Build a CUPS server using a raspberry PI so that you can connect a ‘legacy’ printer via network or USB to the server. Remember to turn on printer advertising in CUPS so that Chrome OS Native printing picks up the new printer on the local network.

//pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-print-server/

This option is a bit hacky but if you have a printer that doesn’t work with the other solutions and you have time on your hands to get technical with printer configuration, this may just work. YMMV.

Summary

Enterprise and education users:

  • Consider how much control and insight you need and whether a single vendor solution will work for you long-term.
  • Consider whether you have ‘legacy’ (non Cloud) printers that you need to bring additional value out of before swapping out.
  • If you have a managed print service contract, speak to your provider about transitioning from a Windows-centric print infrastructure to a Chromebook-friendly one.

Home users, go with what works! Life is too short to spend time on printers…

Good luck! Contact us if you need advice at help@directprint.io

//directprint.io is a print management solution designed for Chromebooks and Windows.

Article by David Jenkins, Founder directprint.io. Cloud Print, Chrome OS, Chrome are trademarks of Google Mac OS and CUPS are trademarks of Apple.

Chrome OS CUPS (native printing)
Advantages
  • Software is built into Chrome OS – nothing to install.
  • Reliable local network printing/tried & tested.
  • Works with some USB printers.
Disadvantages
  • If your printer is not supported you can’t install a new driver.
  • Limited administration options.
  • Limited policy enforcement – color/duplex only.
  • No print audit trail.
Printer vendor apps in the Chrome store e.g. HP Xerox, etc
Advantages
  • Reliable local network printing.
  • Works with some USB printers.
  • HP app supports admin configuration of printers.
Disadvantages
  • Only works with printers from the vendor – no good in mixed printer environments.
  • No print reporting or policy enforcement for administrators.
3rd party solutions e.g. directprint.io, Printerlogic, Papercut etc
Advantages
  • Works with many printer vendors.
  • Advanced features for administrators – including configuration, cost-saving, and audit.
Disadvantages
  • Typically has a license cost.
  • The free home version from directprint.io – see below.
External print servers/Cloud connectors/using a PC and other various hacks
Advantages
  • Can be a quick fix for a non Cloud compatible printer.
  • OK for advanced user in a home environment.
Disadvantages
  • Not an enterprise solution, requires servers and maintenance – reliability issues will likely generate support calls.