How to send the content of an external file to printer?

Question

I want to print (printer, not screen) the content of a file via a PHP script.

How do I do this?

Solution 1

Update

php cannot easily access hardware. This is generally not considered "possible."

See:

• SO "how to "print" to paper"
• How to print directly to printer

However, as the first link shows, this is usually done with Javascript. You can output Javascript in a way similar to the methods shown on the first link to force the browser to show the print dialog box.

Original

You can use file_get_contents to print files into a variable or to the output stream.

$filecontents = file_get_contents("myfilename.txt");
print $filecontents;

You can also include files into your PHP interpretation.

Solution 2

A quick and dirty way to print on the client's computer is something like:

print file_get_contents("file.ext");
print "<script>window.print()</script>";

Solution 3

This is certainly not what your question intended, but on any Linux server with a connected printer you could use following:

exec("lp file.pdf");   // send file to printer spooler

Comments

[Jugal Patel]

I want to give a print command to a printer...! Read the content and print a file remotely via PHP script...! CAn u pls help me with that..???

[glerYbo]

This doesn't answer what OP wants, to print the file on the physical printer.