PowerShell Commands

Out-Printer

Out-Printer [[-Name] <String>] [-InputObject <PSObject>] [<CommonParameters>]

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

Parameters

-InputObject <PSObject>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input ByValue

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.

-Name <String>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the alternate printer. The parameter name Name is optional.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable.

Inputs
System.Management.Automation.PSObject
You can pipe any object to Out-Printer .
Outputs
None
Out-Printer does not return any objects.
Examples
  1. This command prints the content of the about_Signing Help topic to the default printer:
    PS C:\> Get-Content $pshome\about_signing.help.txt | Out-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.

  2. This command prints Hello, World to the Prt-6B Color printer on Server01:
    PS C:\> "Hello, World" | Out-Printer -Name "\\Server01\Prt-6B Color"
    

    This command uses the Name parameter to specify the alternate printer. Because the parameter name is optional, you can omit it.

  3. These commands print the full version of the Help topic for Get-WmiObject:
    PS C:\> $H = Get-Help -Full Get-WmiObject
    PS C:\> Out-Printer -InputObject $H
    

    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 .

Additional 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.

 *

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. It is attributed to Microsoft Corporation and can be found here.

PowerShell Commands