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Time for another post from the Building Windows 8 Blog, this time its a lengthy post on Printing. As with everything else in Windows 8 printing has been re-imagined and probably about time, I found many Windows printer drivers are un-necessarily complicated and bloated and its good that Microsoft have taken control of the situation. It’s also interesting to read about the progression of printing in Windows since version one.

 

You can see that this UI has all the hallmarks of a Metro style app, but for your printer. It includes an attractive view of the ink levels of the printer, and is much easier to use, especially on touch-screen devices.

Windows will automatically show you the correct type of UI – desktop printer UI when you’re printing from desktop apps, and Metro style UI when you’re printing from Metro style apps.

If the manufacturer hasn’t provided any configuration UI for their device, then Windows provides some standard UI that you can use with any printer. However, when the printer manufacturer has decided to invest in providing a customized experience for their device, they can provide an app that replaces the standard Windows UI. Then, when you decide to alter the configuration of the device, or when the device configuration changes during printing (e.g. paper jam), then Windows will display the manufacturer’s customized app to you instead.

Read the rest of the post for all the details 

 

 

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