Sends output to a printer. (Out-Printer)

   

# NAME
Out-Printer

# SYNOPSIS
Sends output to a printer.

# SYNTAX
Out-Printer [[-Name] <string>] [-InputObject <psobject>] [<CommonParameters>]

# DESCRIPTION
The Out-Printer cmdlet sends output to the default printer or to an alternate printer, if one is specified.

# PARAMETERS
-InputObject <psobject>
Specifies the objects to be sent to the printer. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

Required? false
Position? named
Default value
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue)
Accept wildcard characters? false

-Name <string>
Specifies the alternate printer. The parameter name ("Name") is optional.

Required? false
Position? 1
Default value
Accept pipeline input? false
Accept wildcard characters? false

<CommonParameters>
This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,
ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,
OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type,
"get-help about_commonparameters".

# INPUTS
System.Management.Automation.PSObject
You can pipe any object to Out-Printer.

# OUTPUTS
None
Out-Printer does not return any objects.

# NOTES

You can also refer to Out-Printer by its built-in alias, "lp". For more information, see about_Aliases.

The cmdlets that contain the Out verb (the Out cmdlets) do not format objects; they just render them and send them to the specified display destination. If you send an unformatted object to an Out cmdlet, the cmdlet sends it to a formatting cmdlet before rendering it.

The Out cmdlets do not have parameters for names or file paths. To send data to an Out cmdlet, use a pipeline operator (|) to send the output of a Windows PowerShell command to the cmdlet. You can also store data in a variable and use the InputObject parameter to pass the data to the cmdlet. For more information, see the examples.

Out-Printer sends data, but it does not emit any output objects. If you pipe the output of Out-Printer to Get-Member, Get-Member reports that no objects have been specified.

# EXAMPLE 1

C:\PS>get-content $pshome\about_signing.help.txt | Out-Printer

# Description
-----------
This command prints the content of the about_Signing Help topic to the default printer. This example shows you how to print a file, even though Out-Printer does not have a Path parameter.

The command uses the Get-Content cmdlet to get the contents of the Help topic. The path includes $pshome, a built-in variable that stores the installation directory for Windows PowerShell. A pipeline operator (|) passes the results to Out-Printer, which sends it to the default printer.

# EXAMPLE 2

C:\PS>"Hello, World" | out-printer -name "\\Server01\Prt-6B Color"

# Description
-----------
This command prints "Hello, World" to the "Prt-6B Color" printer on Server01. This command uses the Name parameter to specify the alternate printer. Because the parameter name is optional, you can omit it.

# EXAMPLE 3

C:\PS>$h = get-help -full get-wmiobject

C:\PS> out-printer -inputobject $h

# Description
-----------
These commands print the full version of the Help topic for Get-WmiObject. The first command uses the Get-Help cmdlet to get the full version of the Help topic for Get-WmiObject and stores it in the $h variable. The second command sends the content to the default printer. It uses the InputObject parameter to pass the value of the $h variable to Out-Printer.

RELATED LINKS
Online version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113367
Out-Host
Out-Null
Out-String
Out-File
Out-Default

C:\Windows>powershell get-help Out-String -full

ColorConsole [Version 1.7.1000] PowerShell 2.0-Export
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2014 Microsoft Corporation.