PrintSocket
PrintSocket is a cloud print API that lets your application send print jobs to any printer through a simple HTTP POST. A lightweight agent installs on the machine that already talks to your printers, enrolls with a single-use token, and connects outbound over a WebSocket — so no inbound ports or network reconfiguration are needed.
How it works
- Install the agent on Windows, macOS, or Linux. It reports every printer queue it can see, along with capabilities like paper sizes, duplex, color, DPI, and trays.
- Send jobs over the API with
POST /v1/jobs, using a PDF or raw ZPL/ESC-POS payload. The agent prints it and reports every state transition back. - Track progress with
GET /v1/jobs/{id}/events, or let a signed webhook notify you when a job finishes.
Developer-focused design
- Test mode from day one — an
sk_test_key gets a virtual device and printer that simulates the full job lifecycle, free and unlimited on every plan. - Webhooks, not polling — signed, retried, and testable from the dashboard.
- Idempotent by design — send an
Idempotency-Keyon any POST; a replay within 24 hours returns the stored original response. - One shape for everything — flat resources, cursor pagination, prefixed opaque IDs, one error object, RFC 3339 timestamps, and metadata on every mutable resource.
- Honest failure modes — a job that cannot print says so, with a code you can branch on. Offline printers queue or reject, your choice per job.
- Upload once, print many — store a document and reference it by ID from as many jobs and printers as you like.
Beyond document printing
The same agent and API handle the rest of the shipping station:
- Shipping scales — plug in a USB HID scale (DYMO M and S series, Stamps.com, Fairbanks) and read the latest weight with a settled flag and timestamp via
GET /v1/scales/{id}. - POS receipt printers — send
"format": "raw"and ESC/POS bytes reach the printer untouched, with no driver reformatting. - Label printers — the same raw path handles ZPL for shipping labels.
PrintSocket is aimed at developers building shipping, logistics, retail, or point-of-sale integrations who want a modern REST API instead of driver-level plumbing.
