Overview and inventory of emerging Cloud Printing technologies and platforms from Apple, Google and HP. Presented in March 2011 at the 63rd TAGA (Technical Association of the Graphic Arts) Annual Technical Conference.

1. Cloud Printing: An Inventory David Uyttendaele, Kin Lane, Chuck Gehman Mimeo.com TAGA ATC March 2011

2. Cloud Printing: An Inventory Introduction Infrastructure Applications Technical Capabilities Looking to the Future References

3. Cloud Printing: An Inventory About the Authors David Uyttendaele David Uyttendaele is the Chief Technology Officer and a co-founder of Mimeo.com. David serves as the lead architect and visionary for technological development of Mimeo.com software and services Kin Lane API Evangelist for Mimeo.com, he brings unique blend of a IT, data, programming, product development, business development, online and social media marketing talent to the print industry via the Silicon Valley. He spends his days helping application developers understand what is possible with the next generation of print and publishing in the clouds Chuck Gehman VP, Product Management at Mimeo, leading a team responsible for the development of customer-facing web platforms, which deliver the company’s industry leading products to the Fortune 1000, SMEs, web developers & entrepreneurs, via our powerful web interfaces, or from within their own applications

4. 4 What is “Cloud Computing”? In Cloud Computing, which is named for the way the Internet is depicted in network diagrams, companies no longer need to own the physical computing infrastructure upon which their software executes. Instead, they “rent” computing resources from a service provider, and only consume computing resources (and also storage and other ancillary services, if desired), when needed. It’s a shared, on demand, capability. What is “Cloud Printing”? “Cloud Printing”, a term coined by the world’s leading IT research and advisory firm, Gartner, Inc., represents a similar way of approaching print and distribution. Gartner has envisioned the ability for customers to order printed materials to be produced anywhere (i.e., it doesn’t matter if the print facility is down the hall or across the world), and delivered anywhere. As in Cloud Computing, this is an on-demand, shared resource model in which the consumer need not own the infrastructure of printing or distribution, but “rent” from a service provider when they need it, and use it as though it is their own captive resource. Introduction

5. 5 Infrastructure Cloud Computing Amazon Web Services (AWS) Computing (EC2), Storage(S3), Database (SimpleDB and RDS), Messaging and Content Delivery Network (Cloudfront) Microsoft Azure Computing (Azure Windows), Database (Azure Data, SQL and NoSQL) Rackspace Cloud Computing (CloudServers), Storage (CloudFiles)

6. 6 Infrastructure Cloud Printing What are the building blocks that make this possible today? Cloud Printer Servers (Proxies) Real-Time Push Technologies (XMPP / PubSubHubbub) Cloud Aware Printers Application Programming Interfaces (API) Mobile Devices What are the capabilities today? Personal Printing Business Office Printing Commercial Printing 3D Printing & Manufacturing

7. 7 Applications Cloud Printing Mobile Devices Generating richly formatted pages from mobile devices Content resident on web sites and in Cloud-based applications To hardcopy output devices (without sending, downloading and using desktop software to print) This could involve printing a datasheet or a training outline on a local network attached printer, such as when staying in a hotel or visiting a customer It could also include “collecting” documents while working mobile, and sending them to your home/office printer for output later; or pulling them from the cloud via an interface built into the printer

8. 8 Applications Cloud Printing Cloud-based Application Printing Support (Printing in the Post-PC era) Cloud-based application printing support Applications like Google Docs, Salesforce.com, other SaaS (Software as a Service) and Cloud application services need to be able to print This would allow those Internet-based applications to print on connected devices in an office setting, or in a home In contrast to downloading the content and using the capabilities of a personal computer operating system to direct the output to a printer

9. 9 Applications Cloud Printing Publishing The idea of print-on-demand availability of news, books, and other content is one that has been done under contractual (“private cloud”) business models between publishers and print manufacturer/distributors for several years Making content accessible for printing, like the idea of printing a newspaper on your home inkjet printer, may now make sense with new (public) infrastructure in place. At least it’s technical possible, it still might not make sense for users or for publishers

10. 10 Applications Cloud Printing Commercial Printing Applications A Print Service Provider (PSP) is connected to the Cloud Printing infrastructure Enabling: Document building (from pages, graphics) Production (product intent from the customer to complex finished products) Distribution (submission and ordering from mobile devices and Cloud-based applications)

11. 11 Technical Capabilities Today’s Leaders and Coop-etition Apple AirPrint Apple Airprint provides printing on IOS and Mac platforms over a local network to HP web connected printers Google Cloud Print Google Cloud Print provides printing over the Internet to any local, office or commercial printer HP ePrint HP ePrint provides printing over the Internet to any HP web connected printer. Each printer registers itself with the HP ePrint Center and gets assigned an email address. Print jobs are delivered via email to each printer

12. 12 Technical Capabilities The Contenders and Coop-etition Apple iPhone, iPad are almost the definition of cloud-connected (post-PC) devices, but Airprint can only print locally at the current time Apple Airprint can only print to HP web connected printers HP ePrintcan only print to HP printers, but is available anywhere over the Internet HP is also developing integration with Google Cloud Print Google Android platform, Google Apps and Google Chrome OS are now on millions of devices Google is accessible on the iPhone and iPad Has an application on the HP ePrintplatform Google provides support for any printer, new or old as well provides access to commercial printers

13. 13 Figure 1: AirPrint uses technology added to IOS 4.2 to enable local, wireless printing to HP devices Apple AirPrint

14. 14 Figure 1a: AirPrint API consists of 8 classes and 1 protocol Apple AirPrint

15. 15 Google Cloud Print Figure X: How Does Google Cloud Print work Figure 2: Google Cloud Print

16. 16 Google Cloud Print Figure 2a:GCP Printer Proxy capabilities

17. 17 Figure 2: Printers register with the HP ePrint Center HP ePrint

18. Today Capabilities HP Devices SME Laserjet 18

19. 19 Today Capabilities ©2010 Mimeo.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

20. The (not-too distant) Future Building blocks for commercial print Discovery Finding Cloud Printers Negotiation Becoming a Customer (or “partnering”) Communicating Intent XML metadata to capture customer intent Placing Orders Integrating order specifics Handling an e-commerce transaction 20

22. Consumer iPad Overview, http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airprint.html

23. Technical 101, http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4356

24. Drawing and Printing Guide for iOS, November 15, 2010, http://developer.apple.com

25. Hacks

26. http://download.cnet.com/AirPrint-Activator/3000-18487_4-75327225.html?tag=mncol;txt

27. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/11/developers-discover-hack-to-enable-shared-printers-for-airprint.ars

28. Google Cloud Print

29. Google Cloud Print Overview, http://code.google.com/apis/cloudprint/docs/overview.htm

30. Google Cloud Print Services Interface, http://code.google.com/apis/cloudprint/docs/proxyinterfaces.html

31. Google Cloud Print Management Interface, http://www.google.com/cloudprint

32. HP ePrint

33. HP ePrint Center, http://h30495.www3.hp.com/about/eprint