title: Can Web Applications detect local printers?
body: <p>I was wondering if it is possible for a Web Application (hosted on a remote server) able to detect printers connected to a host(the one accessing the Web Application)?</p>
  
  <p>Also, is it also possible to be able to send print-jobs (mainly images) to the host's printer?</p>
  
  <p>For instance, assume you have a local WPF application (Windows Presentation Foundation, C#) running on the desktop.</p>
  
  <p>To print an image:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Select an Image on the WPF application (loaded from a directory on the local harddisk)</li>
  <li>Click the "Print Button"</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>This will run this line of C# code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>e.Graphics.DrawImage(image, x-coordinate, y-coordinate, imageWidth, imageHeight);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And it will send a print job of the <code>image</code> to the default printer of the local computer.</p>
  
  <p>So now, instead of a WPF application, you have a Web Application. The user will:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Type in the URL of the Web Application</li>
  <li>The Web-App will load a page similar to the WPF application</li>
  <li>The Web-App will display images that are loaded from say, a database.</li>
  <li>User select image he wants to print</li>
  <li>User clicks "Print Image"</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>However, in order to Print the image, I would imagine the Web-App would need to recognise the printers the user has on his local computer, and be able to communicate with the printer.</p>
  
  <p>Of course, the Web-App does not need to be in .NET. I was just using WPF/C# as an example.</p>