Since in recent years there has been a rapid computerization of practically all branches of industry and the national economy, such problems that almost no one has thought of to this day are increasingly appearing on the scene. In particular, the issue of printing documents is crucial.
And the problem here is often that I would like to print photos and graphics, text documents and spreadsheets from all your devices, and not just from a computer. It is even better when this can be done, even when being away from your main workplace. A virtual printer will help you.
Unlike network devices
If you have ever encountered network devices, then you already know about it. A network can be not only a printer, but also a scanner, as well as other office equipment. The whole working department can use only one scanner connected to the general network of the enterprise!
Why is a virtual printer so unique? As we already said, the rapid pace of modern life implies the possibility of access to the device from anywhere in not only a particular building, but even the city, or even the whole world. Unfortunately, a regular local area network will not help you with this.
As in many other cases, Google was the pioneer in this matter. So, the Google virtual printer was the first to provide users with the opportunity to use their printing devices, while being millions of kilometers away.
What it is?
In fact, this is a printer connected to the Internet. If everything is OK with the connection, you can print documents and photos at any time of the day or night. By the way, about the shots. You can print them not only from a computer or laptop, but even directly from your smartphone. Being in another country on vacation, you can easily print photos to print, in order to please them with their households.
Business Benefits
You should not assume that only a home user might need a virtual printer. Its functionality will certainly come in handy for owners of small and medium-sized businesses.
Think for yourself: you do not have to spend time and money on laying a local network in the office itself, you will not need to configure capricious network devices. It will only require an internet connection.
In addition, such a solution allows you to increase productivity, as employees can send you important documents, even while on a business trip around the city, or even around the country.
Setup Overview
Before you get access to all the advantages of this technology, you must associate a physical printer with its "cloud" counterpart. Consider this procedure using the same technology from Google as an example, since we touched on this topic earlier.
Before installing a virtual printer, make sure that the real device is connected to a specific computer or local network. Of course, it is necessary to install all the necessary drivers in advance, since the operability of all equipment largely depends on them.
The easiest way is for owners of Chromebooks of various modifications, since in Chrome OS Google’s virtual printer is supported initially, and therefore, whatever configuration it needs. However, we’ll better talk about ordinary computers and operating systems, since in our country these products from the search giant have very vague prospects.
Important! A Google Chrome browser must be installed on the computer, since its API is used by this technology.
Connection Order
Once you install the browser, you can connect the virtual printer connector. Make it easy.
- You must first turn on the physical printer.
- Start the computer, wait for the operating system to load.
- Launch the Google Chrome browser.
- Click on the icon in the form of three horizontal bars in the upper right corner of the program, after which the settings dialog box will open.
- Select "Settings."
- Then click on the link “Show advanced settings”.
- Find the Google Cloud Print section. It has the item “Add Printer”, on which you need to click the left mouse button.
- If you are asked to, you must also log in to your Google account, or create one (if you did not have one).
After that, you should find your printer in the list that appears, select it with the left mouse button, and then click on the “Add Device” button. After this, the procedure can be considered complete. Your virtual printer is ready to use. To verify this, try sending a test document to print.
Another variant
However, under this concept, many of our users understand the technology that allows you to "print" PDF documents. By the way, in our country until recently this was completely irrelevant, but recently the popularity of this file format has been growing at an alarming rate. What is the reason for such "popular love"?
The fact is that PDF is a standard. A standard that implies the absolute immutability of a document, no matter on what machine and in whatever program it is open. If you have ever encountered a spreading table in a .doc file, you yourself will be able to understand the magnificence of this characteristic. In addition, a huge amount of multimedia information that will not look like a “foreign body” can be embedded in such documents.
Remember how ridiculous the pictures in the same Word look, and you will understand what is at stake.
How to create?
Oddly enough, but a free virtual printer of this class is a rarity, and therefore you have to spend a lot of time choosing the right program. Professional applications of this quality rarely amaze the imagination with a modest cost, but in recent years you can find many virtual PDF printers, the developers of which are not greedy.
By the way, what does the concept of "virtual printer" mean in this case? Word is a wonderful program, and in the latest versions, the creators from Microsoft still taught her how to save documents in PDF format. The only problem is that you cannot configure their default settings.
This is what the PDF printer is for. It prints the text to virtual "print". And at the exit you get a document with professional formatting. By the way, why is such a “printer” better than numerous specialized applications for creating PDF documents?
Firstly, almost all of them are completely free. Secondly, their interface is as simple as possible, but the functionality is very high. This allows even beginners to create documents with complex formatting and precisely defined parameters. Let's look at some of these utilities.
"PDFCreator"
In fact, in this segment, this program is the standard both in terms of functionality and usability. The good news is that all the "buns" fit in only 15 MB. The program is completely free, so domestic users will surely like it. The installation process is as simple as possible: you only need to click on the “Next” button a couple of times.
Attention! Before installing a virtual printer, in the main dialog box, select "For advanced users." So you can prevent the installation of all kinds of Yandex-browsers and additional panels in the browser.
How to use the application? There is not the slightest complication: as soon as you install the program, the PDFCreator printer appears in all text editors in the print menu. As in the case of physical printing, you can set the basic parameters of the document (DPI, size of margins, etc.).
Adobe PDF
Adobe Corporation is not known only to those people who had no business with a computer. Only the legendary Photoshop is worth it! No less useful is the virtual JPG printer of its production.
The program has a huge number of various settings. There are so many of them that you can easily create a document or image of professional quality. As you can imagine, the program is paid, so you can recommend it only to those who are really interested in first-class work tools.
“Cute PDF 2.7”
In this case, they will not require money from you. In addition, the size of the program is 1.5 MB ridiculous nowadays. That's just without the addition of "Ghostscript" the utility will work in truncated mode, and its size is five megabytes. However, the final 6.5 MB owners of even a GPRS modem will be able to.
Unfortunately, the features of the program are also very modest. In particular, the “printing” itself occurs immediately, without the appearance of any settings dialog boxes. In defense of the utility, we can only say that it provides excellent compatibility with all currently existing PDF standards.
"DoPDF 6.0"
This free virtual printer offers an excellent balance of functionality and simplicity. It’s no joke - the entire installation package takes a miserable 1.5 MB, without any additional elements! This volume fits a great application that allows you to create beautiful, high-quality and standardized documents.
Before setting up a virtual printer, you should familiarize yourself with its main features. In particular (as we have already talked about), you can adjust the size of fields, change DPI-pages, set certain standards of the PDF format itself.
Important Notice
Whatever program “virtual printer” you use, you must know something important. Even in the FAQ of the most popular (and paid for the same) software products, it is extremely rare to see intelligible technical specifications for a specific PDF standard and its compatibility, so you often have to look for relevant information on thematic forums (or in the English version of the help, where this data often happens )
In general, if you are
creating a PDF file that should be readable always and on everything, you should choose only professional programs.
In addition, do not get carried away with high resolution: set exactly the DPI value at which the document is comfortable to read. If you set too large a percentage, then on tablets and other mobile devices, the file will be difficult to open. This is all the more true, the more widely distributed such gadgets in everyday life.
This is what a virtual printer is. We hope that you have learned about all its advantages and applications.
Such technologies are very relevant in recent years, as business and ordinary users are increasingly in need not only of universal access to printers, but also of the maximum standardization of the formats used.