Out-Printer

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	none
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	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -OutBuffer, and -OutVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

Inputs and Outputs

The input type is the type of the objects that you can pipe to the cmdlet. The return type is the type of the objects that the cmdlet returns.

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

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"

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

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.