Check if a device can print

Question

Bit of an odd question, and I'm perfectly willing to accept that this just isn't possible, but is there a way of using jQuery or just normal JavaScript to check if a device is capable of printing?

We currently have a button on our article pages that allow the user to click in order to print the page. However on some Android devices the "javascript:window.print();" function just doesn't work.

I was just wondering if there was a way of performing a check to seeing if the device supports this?

Similar problem: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9268840/determine-whether-browser-supports-printing — Billy Moat, Feb 19 '14 at 16:21
Probably not going to happen. Check this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12216551/detect-if-user-has-printing-capabilities — Rick S, Feb 19 '14 at 16:21
maybe you want read about this https://developers.google.com/cloud-print/docs/overview — Netzach, Feb 19 '14 at 16:21

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 19 '14 at 16:22

3

You can use feature detection for this:

if('print' in window){
  window.print();
} else {
  alert("Printing is not supported on this device");
}

answered Feb 19 '14 at 16:22

Rob M.

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 19 '14 at 16:22

Basically, Javascript has no way to know if the device can print. After all, this mostly depends on it being connected to a printer. But you could check if the function window.print is defined like this

if(typeof window.print == 'function') {
    //at least the function is available
}

Check if a device can print

2 Answers2