printer

Capacitor Printer Plugin

Capacitor plugin for seamless printing on Android and iOS. Supports base64, files, HTML, PDFs, and web views.

Features

The Capacitor Printer plugin is one of the most complete printing solutions for Capacitor apps. Here are some of the key features:

• 🖥️ Cross-platform: Supports Android, iOS and Web.
• 🖨️ Base64 Printer: Print base64 encoded files.
• 🖨️ File Printer: Print files from the device.
• 🖨️ HTML Printer: Print custom HTML content.
• 🖨️ PDF Printer: Print PDF files.
• 🖨️ Web View Printer: Print web view content.
• ⚔️ Battle-Tested: Used in more than 100 projects.
• 📦 CocoaPods & SPM: Supports CocoaPods and Swift Package Manager for iOS.
• 🔁 Up-to-date: Always supports the latest Capacitor version.
• ⭐️ Support: Priority support from the Capawesome Team.
• ✨ Handcrafted: Built from the ground up with care and expertise, not forked or AI-generated.

Missing a feature? Just open an issue and we'll take a look!

Use Cases

The Printer plugin is typically used whenever an app needs to send content to a printer, for example:

• Receipts and invoices: Print HTML-formatted receipts or invoices directly from your app.
• Documents: Print PDF documents or other files stored on the device.
• Server-generated content: Print documents received from an API as base64 encoded data.
• Reports and summaries: Print the current web view content, customized with a print style sheet.

Compatibility

Plugin Version	Capacitor Version	Status
8.x.x	>=8.x.x	Active support
7.x.x	7.x.x	Deprecated
6.x.x	6.x.x	Deprecated

Demo

A working example can be found here.

Android	iOS

Guides

• Exploring the Capacitor Printer API

Installation

This plugin is only available to Capawesome Insiders. First, make sure you have the Capawesome npm registry set up. You can do this by running the following commands:

npm config set @capawesome-team:registry https://npm.registry.capawesome.io
npm config set //npm.registry.capawesome.io/:_authToken <YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>

Attention: Replace <YOUR_LICENSE_KEY> with the license key you received from Polar. If you don't have a license key yet, you can get one by becoming a Capawesome Insider.

Next, you can use our AI-Assisted Setup to install the plugin. Add the Capawesome Skills to your AI tool using the following command:

npx skills add capawesome-team/skills --skill capacitor-plugins

Then use the following prompt:

Use the `capacitor-plugins` skill from `capawesome-team/skills` to install the `@capawesome-team/capacitor-printer` plugin in my project.

If you prefer Manual Setup, install the plugin by running the following commands and follow the platform-specific instructions below:

npm install @capawesome-team/capacitor-printer
npx cap sync

Android

Proguard

If you are using Proguard, you need to add the following rules to your proguard-rules.pro file:

-keep class io.capawesome.capacitorjs.plugins.** { *; }

Variables

If needed, you can define the following project variable in your app’s variables.gradle file to change the default version of the dependency:

• $androidxDocumentFileVersion version of androidx.documentfile:documentfile (default: 1.1.0)
• $androidxPrintVersion version of androidx.print:print (default: 1.1.0)

This can be useful if you encounter dependency conflicts with other plugins in your project.

Configuration

No configuration required for this plugin.

Usage

The following examples show how to print a file from the device, a base64 encoded file, custom HTML content, a PDF document, and the web view content.

Print a file from the device

Present the printing user interface to print a file stored on the device, for example a file the user previously downloaded. Only available on Android and iOS:

import { Printer } from '@capawesome-team/capacitor-printer';

const printFile = async () => {
  await Printer.printFile({
    mimeType: 'application/pdf',
    path: 'content://com.android.providers.downloads.documents/document/msf%3A1000000485',
  });
};

Print a base64 encoded file

Print a file that is only available as a base64 encoded string, for example a document received from an API. Note that large files can lead to app crashes, so it's recommended to use the printFile(...) method instead whenever possible. Only available on Android and iOS:

import { Printer } from '@capawesome-team/capacitor-printer';

const printBase64 = async () => {
  await Printer.printBase64({
    name: 'My Document',
    data: 'JVBERi0...',
  });
};

Print custom HTML content

Print custom HTML content, for example a receipt or invoice rendered by your app. Only available on Android and iOS:

import { Printer } from '@capawesome-team/capacitor-printer';

const printHtml = async () => {
  await Printer.printHtml({
    name: 'My Document',
    html: '<h1>Hello World</h1>',
  });
};

Print a PDF document

Print a PDF document stored on the device. Only available on Android and iOS:

import { Printer } from '@capawesome-team/capacitor-printer';

const printPdf = async () => {
  await Printer.printPdf({
    name: 'My Document',
    path: 'content://com.android.providers.downloads.documents/document/msf%3A1000000485',
  });
};

Print the web view content

Print the current content of the web view. You can use a print style sheet to customize the print output:

import { Printer } from '@capawesome-team/capacitor-printer';

const printWebView = async () => {
  await Printer.printWebView({
    name: 'My Document',
  });
};

API

• printBase64(...)
• printFile(...)
• printHtml(...)
• printPdf(...)
• printWebView(...)
• Interfaces
• Type Aliases

printBase64(...)

printBase64(options: PrintBase64Options) => Promise<void>

Present the printing user interface to print files encoded as base64 strings.

Attention: Large files can lead to app crashes. It's therefore recommended to use the printFile method instead.

Only available on Android and iOS.

Param	Type
options	PrintBase64Options

Since: 7.1.0

---

printFile(...)

printFile(options: PrintFileOptions) => Promise<void>

Present the printing user interface to print files.

Only available on Android and iOS.

Param	Type
options	PrintFileOptions

Since: 7.1.0

---

printHtml(...)

printHtml(options: PrintHtmlOptions) => Promise<void>

Present the printing user interface to print a html document.

Only available on Android and iOS.

Param	Type
options	PrintHtmlOptions

Since: 5.0.0

---

printPdf(...)

printPdf(options: PrintPdfOptions) => Promise<void>

Present the printing user interface to print a pdf document.

Only available on Android and iOS.

Param	Type
options	PrintPdfOptions

Since: 5.1.0

---

printWebView(...)

printWebView(options?: PrintOptions | undefined) => Promise<void>

Present the printing user interface to print the web view content.

You can use a print style sheet to customize the print output (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_media_queries/Printing).

Param	Type
options	PrintOptions

Since: 5.0.0

---

Interfaces

PrintBase64Options

Prop	Type	Description	Since
data	string	A valid base 64 encoded string.	7.1.0
mimeType	string	The mime type of the data. The following mime types are supported: application/pdf, image/gif, image/heic, image/heif, image/jpeg, image/png.	7.1.0

PrintFileOptions

Prop	Type	Description	Since
mimeType	string	The mime type of the file. Only available on Android.	7.1.0
path	string	The path to the file.	7.1.0

PrintHtmlOptions

Prop	Type	Description	Since
html	string	The HTML content to print.	5.0.0

PrintPdfOptions

Prop	Type	Description	Since
path	string	The path to the pdf document on the device.	5.1.0

PrintOptions

Prop	Type	Description	Default	Since
name	string	The name of the print job.	'Document'	5.0.0

Type Aliases

PrintWebViewOptions

PrintOptions

FAQ

Can I print on the web?

On the web, only the printWebView(...) method is available, which prints the current web view content. The printBase64(...), printFile(...), printHtml(...) and printPdf(...) methods are only available on Android and iOS.

Why does my app crash when printing large base64 files?

The printBase64(...) method loads the entire file into memory, which can lead to app crashes for large files. It's therefore recommended to use the printFile(...) method instead, which prints the file directly from its path on the device.

Which file types can I print?

The printBase64(...) method supports the mime types application/pdf, image/gif, image/heic, image/heif, image/jpeg, and image/png. In addition, you can print arbitrary files from the device with printFile(...), PDF documents with printPdf(...), custom HTML content with printHtml(...), and the current web view content with printWebView(...).

How can I customize the print output of the web view?

You can use a print style sheet to customize how the web view content is printed, for example to hide navigation elements or adjust the layout. Check out the MDN documentation on printing for more information.

Can I use this plugin with Ionic, React, Vue or Angular?

Yes, the plugin is framework-agnostic. It works in any Capacitor app regardless of the web framework, including Ionic with Angular, React, or Vue, as well as plain JavaScript projects.

Related Plugins

• PDF Generator: Generate paginated PDF files from HTML content or URLs.
• PDF Viewer: Display PDF documents in a fullscreen native viewer.
• File Picker: Let the user select a file to print from the device's file system.

Newsletter

Stay up to date with the latest news and updates about the Capawesome, Capacitor, and Ionic ecosystem by subscribing to our Capawesome Newsletter.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

Breaking Changes

See BREAKING.md.

License

See LICENSE.