Service-print vs. Client-print
Direct print can operate in two different ways. Client-print and Service-print. Depending on your printing needs and infrastructure, one will be better than the other. Although both types can be used in most scenarios, one is typically a better fit than the other.
Client-print is easier to install and understand. Therefore, it is also easier to troubleshoot. It is the perfect choice for roaming users working from home or a car where they have a printer connected directly to a Windows PC. Client-print is a great solution for users printing from Business Central running in a browser on a Windows PC.
Service-print solves problems that client-print cannot handle. You install it on one or more servers as a centralized print solution. It monitors a print queue in Business Central and sends jobs to printers. As long as something can place a print job in the print queue, it can be printed by service-print. This makes printing from API calls or non-Windows devices possible. It also means that you can print from the job queue in Business Central.
Important
Both client-print and service-print can be used in combination. The same Business Central installation may have use cases where both come into play.
What should I choose?
Try both solutions. Once you have experience with client-print and service-print, you can make an informed choice.
More often than not, client-print will cover all your printing requirements and keep the infrastructure to a minimum.
Comparison
This comparison does not prove that one type of direct print is superior to the other. It is here to highlight some of the differences. These differences are described in greater detail below the table.
| Client-print | Service-print | |
|---|---|---|
| User context | Logged in user | Service user |
| Installation | User's computer | Server |
| Device support | Windows | All |
| Job notification | Download | Polling |
| Architecture | Distributed | Central |
| Roaming users | ✅ | |
| Home office | ✅ | |
| ForNAV reports | ✅ | ✅ |
| RDLC reports | ✅ | ✅ |
| Word reports | ✅ | ✅ |
| API printing | ✅ | |
| Central print queue | ✅ | |
| Job queue | ✅ | |
| Zebra printing language | ✅ | ✅ |
| Raw print jobs | ✅ | ✅ |
| Paper trays | ✅ | ✅ |
| Paper sizes | ✅ | ✅ |
| Scaling | ✅ | ✅ |
| Duplex | ✅ | ✅ |
| Central logging | ✅ |
User context
Client-print uses your printers in your logged in user context just as Notepad or Microsoft Word. This means that all the settings you have for your printers will be used when printing.
Service-print happens in the context of the service user and therefore the printer settings may be different.
Installation
Client-print requires the installation of a small program on the user's computer.
You install service-print on one or more servers. It does not require anything on the user's computer or device.
Report types
Both types of print support ForNAV, Word, and RDLC reports.
Printing ForNAV, RDLC, and Word reports
API and device support
Client-print requires a browser on a Windows computer to work. In contrast, service-print works with all types of devices, job queues, and API calls. This is because the service-print does not require a user interface.
Printing without a user interface
Signaling
Signaling defines how the message is sent that something is ready to print. For the client-print a file is downloaded. The download triggers a locally installed program. This program sends the output to the printer. This is a simple process where only the Business Central client and the direct print client in involved.
For service-print, the print job is written in a print queue. The direct print service polls this queue to get print jobs ready for printing.
Architecture
The use of service-print is more centralized than the client-print. It relies on a central service to handle print from many users. You can scale it by installing multiple services or running multiple instances of the service on the same servers.
Roaming users
Client-print is often the preferred choice if you have users working from home or a truck. Printers in remote locations are often unknown to central print servers.
Central print queue
The printing service finds the print jobs in a print queue on Business Central. All jobs go through this central print queue. Here, you can also find status information on the jobs and see error messages.
Raw print jobs and Zebra printers
A raw print job is data sent directly to a printer port. The print job bypasses the rendering in the printer driver installed on the computer. This is used if your document consists of printer commands that are native to your specific printer make and model. Raw print jobs are mostly used with label printers such as the Zebra printers, but dot matrix printers can also benefit from this type of communication.
Printer settings
A variety of printer settings are supported. Paper sizes, trays, scaling, and other similar settings are among the printer settings.
Logging
Service-print writes log files to the hard drive and creates entries in the Windows event log. This will help you analyze the printing operations and troubleshoot in case of errors.