Cloud Printing Service

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What Does Cloud Printing Service Mean?

A cloud printing service is an electronic service that allows users to print from any device on a network.

Like other cloud services, a cloud printing service works on the principle of software as a service (SaaS) or remotely delivered solutions. In the case of a print service, there is a model where the system delivers the digital information to a network point where the printer can collect it.

Techopedia Explains Cloud Printing Service

While the idea behind this technology may sound simple, cloud printing services are actually a major innovation when it comes to helping users pair up digital devices and workstations, including smartphones and mobile devices, with physical printer stations. Before these kinds of systems, businesses and individual users hooked up printers to other devices with cables. However, cabled printing systems started to present extensive problems for many users. Many of these problems had to do with the software drivers or other compatibility tools for printing. In too many cases, the printer would not recognize an individual device. Print job queues in software applications were unable to effectively troubleshoot these situations, leading to a lot of frustration revolving around even very simple printing networks.

With cloud printing services, there is less of a need for specific software drivers linking a particular device to a printer. Instead, the printer can get the digital information directly from the cloud service, leading to a much more reliable printing service across a network composed of many different pieces of hardware. With cloud printing services, there is also the ability to print remotely from different locations.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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