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Direct Printing (Chrome Kiosk)
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
9:40 AM
 
The only thing Direct Printing does is allows Chrome to print without the Preview dialog appearing which saves the user time. The Direct Printing feature is running inside of the i21Launcher. So when you need direct printing you need to install i21Launcher.
 
If you try to print 2 copies using direct printing (2 half page tickets on an 8.5 x 11) it works. However, in print preview of chrome it will only show 1 copy, but if you want to print 2 or more just change the number of copies in print preview of chrome. Currently, we can't apply the number of copies directly to print preview of chrome because of chrome restriction.
 
Chrome Kiosk
There is another way to print directly without requiring an installed EXE program on the workstation.
 
It turns out there is a way to do this using Chrome without installing anything on the workstation. It's a Chrome feature call "Kiosk" and here is how it works.
 

  1. First make sure Chrome is totally shut down.
  2. Then create a new shortcut for Chrome on your desktop with following parameter " --kiosk-printing".
    1. You can also include another parameter to make Chrome full screen by default " --kiosk".
  3. Here is how the Target field should look (replace the i21 URL with the one you want):
    1. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --kiosk --kiosk-printing http://rsdemo.irely.com/i21Source
  4. Then run the Google shortcut and you should be able to print to the default printer without any installed plugins or seeing the normal Chrome print preview screen.

 
I tested this and it works great but the only drawback is while you are running that shortcut of Chrome, ALL printing will be direct with no way to select a different printer or preview what you will print first.
 
So the question is this… Do you see a need where a workstation would need both "Direct Printing" and "Preview Printing where you can select a different printer"? If the answer is "Yes", then we won't be able to use the above solution and will need to stick with installing the EXE. If the answer is "No" or "Sometimes", then here is how it could work.
 

  1. If "No", we would create a Google Chrome shortcut for direct printing (Kiosk mode) on that machine or any other machine that requires this. When the user clicks Print, it will immediately print to their default printer.
  2. If "Sometimes", we could create 2 Google Chrome shortcuts on their desktop. One for direct printing (Kiosk mode) and the other would be the normal Google Chrome that prints like normal with a preview screen first. The user could run one when they need direct printing and then switch to the other if they want the normal printing.
  3. Under direct printing (kiosk mode), we will only allow certain reports to be printed. If a user tries to print a report that is not allowed for kiosk printing, we would prompt them that they should launch i21 using the other shortcut.

 
Issues

  1. You cannot print to more than one printer at a time with the kiosk feature. It simply prints 1 copy to the workstations default printer and that's all it can do.
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