PrintingKit

PrintingKit is a Swift & SwiftUI SDK that can print images, strings, views, files, PDFs, etc. directly from an app. Just create a Printer instance or use the Printer.shared printer, then call any of its print functions to print.

Installation

PrintingKit can be installed with the Swift Package Manager:

https://github.com/danielsaidi/PrintingKit.git

Supported Platforms

PrintintKit supports iOS 13 and macOS 10.5.

Getting started

To print, just create a Printer instance, or use the Printer.shared printer, then use it to print any of the following supported printable types:

• printAttributedString(_:config:) - print an attributed string.
• printData(_:withFileExtension:) - try to print generic data.
• printFile(at:) - try to print a generic file.
• printImage(_:) - print a UIImage or NSImage.
• printImageData(_:) - print JPG or PNG data.
• printImageFile(at:) - print a JPG or PNG file at a certain URL.
• printPdfData(_:) - print PDF document data.
• printPdfFile(at:) - print a PDF document file at a certain URL.
• printString(_:config:) - print a plain string.
• printView(_:withScale:) - print a SwiftUI view.

In SwiftUI, you can either print programatically, when a user taps/clicks a button, etc.:

struct MyView: View {

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Button("Print something") {
                do {
                    try? Printer.shared.printString("Hello, world!") 
                } catch {
                    print("Handle this \(error)")
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

PrintingKit also has PDF utilities, which are used to print certain types. Since these utilies are the only ones that support paper size, page margins, etc. we should aim to make more print functions use PDF as print format.

Note: Only some functions support providing a custom page configuration, which can be used to specify paper size and margins. More functions should support this functionality in the future.

macOS Sandbox Configuration

For a sandboxed application (default on macOS), you must allow printing in the target’s “Signing & Capabilities” > “App Sandbox” section or, you’ll be met with the error “This application does not support printing.”.

Documentation

The online documentation has more information, articles, code examples, etc.

Demo Application

The Demo folder has a demo app that lets you explore the library.

Support my work

You can sponsor me on GitHub Sponsors or reach out for paid support, to help support my open-source projects.

Your support makes it possible for me to put more work into these projects and make them the best they can be.

Contact

Feel free to reach out if you have questions, or want to contribute in any way:

• Website: danielsaidi.com
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Bluesky: @[email protected]
• Mastodon: @[email protected]

License

PrintingKit is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.