Print to a local printer, from your app
PaperReady is the "print to the label printer on this computer" layer other products don't want to build. Use the local API today; a hosted, metered cloud API is in preview.
Browsers can't print silently to a thermal printer, and every platform that needs it — a WMS, an OMS, a POS, a Shopify app — ends up building the same fragile agent. PaperReady is that agent, done: brand-agnostic, true-size, cross-platform, already installed on your users' machines.
Two ways to build
Local API — available now
Your web app talks to the Print Bridge on the user's machine over a secure loopback connection (
local.paperready.studio→ 127.0.0.1 with a real cert). List printers, send a document or raw ZPL, done. Fully client-side, nothing leaves the machine. See the local API reference.Cloud API — in preview
A hosted, server-to-server API to print to your users' local printers from your backend, with per-print metering and API keys. Ideal for embedding print-to-local into a platform where the print trigger comes from your servers, not the browser.
Pricing model
End-user plans never meter prints — that's a promise to shippers. The developer/embedded tier is the one place metering makes sense, so the cloud API is usage-based (per print) with volume pricing, plus API keys and priority support. One platform integration can cover thousands of endpoints.
| Local API | Cloud API (preview) | |
|---|---|---|
| Print trigger | Browser / client-side | Your server |
| Reaches the printer via | Loopback on the user's machine | Cloud relay → user's agent |
| Auth | Same-origin, per-machine | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Per print (metered) |
| Status | Available now | Preview |
You can create API keys today from your workspace dashboard (under Developers · API) and call the metered /api/v1/print endpoint against the preview — jobs are recorded and metered but not billed until cloud delivery ships.
Questions
- Can I print to a local printer from a website today?
- Yes — the local API is live. Your page talks to the Print Bridge over a secure loopback connection and prints at true size. It's the same mechanism the PaperReady app uses. See the local API reference.
- How is the cloud API different from PrintNode?
- Same job — a hosted API that prints to remote local printers — but PaperReady is brand-agnostic, prints at true size by default, and comes with an end-user app your customers may already run. Pricing is per print on the developer tier only; end-user plans are never metered.
- When is the cloud API available?
- It's in preview. You can already create API keys in your dashboard and call the metered print endpoint — jobs are recorded and metered but not dispatched yet. Live delivery needs the cloud relay (a persistent link from each agent to our cloud), which is on the roadmap. Request access above and we'll bring you in as it opens.