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Expo Print iconExpo Print

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A library that provides printing functionality for Android and iOS (AirPrint).

expo-print provides an API for Android and iOS (AirPrint) printing functionality.

Platform Compatibility

Android DeviceAndroid EmulatoriOS DeviceiOS SimulatorWeb

Installation

Terminal
- npx expo install expo-print

If you are installing this in an existing React Native app, start by installing expo in your project. Then, follow the additional instructions as mentioned by the library's README under "Installation in bare React Native projects" section.

Usage

Print usage
import { useState } from 'react';
import { View, StyleSheet, Button, Platform, Text } from 'react-native';
import * as Print from 'expo-print';
import { shareAsync } from 'expo-sharing';

const html = `
<html>
  <head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, minimum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" />
  </head>
  <body style="text-align: center;">
    <h1 style="font-size: 50px; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-weight: normal;">
      Hello Expo!
    </h1>
    <img
      src="https://d30j33t1r58ioz.cloudfront.net/static/guides/sdk.png"
      style="width: 90vw;" />
  </body>
</html>
`;

export default function App() {
  const [selectedPrinter, setSelectedPrinter] = useState();

  const print = async () => {
    // On iOS/android prints the given html. On web prints the HTML from the current page.
    await Print.printAsync({
      html,
      printerUrl: selectedPrinter?.url, // iOS only
    });
  };

  const printToFile = async () => {
    // On iOS/android prints the given html. On web prints the HTML from the current page.
    const { uri } = await Print.printToFileAsync({ html });
    console.log('File has been saved to:', uri);
    await shareAsync(uri, { UTI: '.pdf', mimeType: 'application/pdf' });
  };

  const selectPrinter = async () => {
    const printer = await Print.selectPrinterAsync(); // iOS only
    setSelectedPrinter(printer);
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Button title="Print" onPress={print} />
      <View style={styles.spacer} />
      <Button title="Print to PDF file" onPress={printToFile} />
      {Platform.OS === 'ios' && (
        <>
          <View style={styles.spacer} />
          <Button title="Select printer" onPress={selectPrinter} />
          <View style={styles.spacer} />
          {selectedPrinter ? (
            <Text style={styles.printer}>{`Selected printer: ${selectedPrinter.name}`}</Text>
          ) : undefined}
        </>
      )}
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    backgroundColor: '#ecf0f1',
    flexDirection: 'column',
    padding: 8,
  },
  spacer: {
    height: 8,
  },
  printer: {
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
});

API

import * as Print from 'expo-print';

Constants

Print.Orientation

Type: OrientationType


The orientation of the printed content.

Methods

Print.printAsync(options)

ParameterTypeDescription
optionsPrintOptions

A map defining what should be printed.


Prints a document or HTML, on web this prints the HTML from the page.

Note: On iOS, printing from HTML source doesn't support local asset URLs (due to WKWebView limitations). As a workaround you can use inlined base64-encoded strings. See this comment for more details.

Note: on iOS, when printing without providing a PrintOptions.printerUrl the Promise will be resolved once printing is started in the native print window and rejected if the window is closed without starting the print. On Android the Promise will be resolved immediately after displaying the native print window and won't be rejected if the window is closed without starting the print.

Returns:

Promise<void>

Resolves to an empty Promise if printing started.

Print.printToFileAsync(options)

ParameterTypeDescription
options
(optional)		FilePrintOptions

A map of print options.

Default:{}

Prints HTML to PDF file and saves it to app's cache directory. On Web this method opens the print dialog.

Returns:

Promise<FilePrintResult>

Only for: 
iOS

Print.selectPrinterAsync()

Chooses a printer that can be later used in printAsync

Returns:

Promise<Printer>

A promise which fulfils with an object containing name and url of the selected printer.

Interfaces

OrientationType

The possible values of orientation for the printed content.

OrientationType Properties

NameTypeDescription
landscapestring-
portraitstring-

Types

FilePrintOptions

NameTypeDescription
base64
(optional)		boolean

Whether to include base64 encoded string of the file in the returned object.

height
(optional)		number

Height of the single page in pixels. Defaults to 792 which is a height of US Letter paper format with 72 PPI.

html
(optional)		string

HTML string to print into PDF file.

margins
(optional)		PageMargins
Only for: 
iOS

Page margins for the printed document.

useMarkupFormatter
(optional)		boolean
Only for: 
iOS

Alternative to default option that uses UIMarkupTextPrintFormatter instead of WebView, but it doesn't display images.

width
(optional)		number

Width of the single page in pixels. Defaults to 612 which is a width of US Letter paper format with 72 PPI.

FilePrintResult

NameTypeDescription
base64
(optional)		string

Base64 encoded string containing the data of the PDF file. Available only if base64 option is truthy. It doesn't include data URI prefix data:application/pdf;base64,.

numberOfPagesnumber

Number of pages that were needed to render given content.

uristring

A URI to the printed PDF file.

PrintOptions

NameTypeDescription
height
(optional)		number

Height of the single page in pixels. Defaults to 792 which is a height of US Letter paper format with 72 PPI. Available only with html option.

html
(optional)		string
Only for: 
Android
iOS

HTML string to print.

margins
(optional)		PageMargins
Only for: 
iOS

Page margins for the printed document.

markupFormatterIOS
(optional)		string

Deprecated This argument is deprecated, use useMarkupFormatter instead. Might be removed in the future releases.

Only for: 
iOS

orientation
(optional)		OrientationType['portrait'] | OrientationType['landscape']
Only for: 
iOS

The orientation of the printed content, Print.Orientation.portrait or Print.Orientation.landscape.

printerUrl
(optional)		string
Only for: 
iOS

URL of the printer to use. Returned from selectPrinterAsync.

uri
(optional)		string

URI of a PDF file to print. Remote, local (ex. selected via DocumentPicker) or base64 data URI starting with data:application/pdf;base64,. This only supports PDF, not other types of document (e.g. images).

useMarkupFormatter
(optional)		boolean
Only for: 
iOS

Alternative to default option that uses UIMarkupTextPrintFormatter instead of WebView, but it doesn't display images.

width
(optional)		number

Width of the single page in pixels. Defaults to 612 which is a width of US Letter paper format with 72 PPI. Available only with html option.

Printer

NameTypeDescription
namestring

Name of the printer.

urlstring

URL of the printer.

Local images

On iOS, printing from HTML source doesn't support local asset URLs (due to WKWebView limitations). Instead, images need to be converted to base64 and inlined into the HTML.

import { Asset } from 'expo-asset';
import { printAsync } from 'expo-print';
import { manipulateAsync } from 'expo-image-manipulator';

async function generateHTML() {
  const asset = Asset.fromModule(require('../../assets/logo.png'));
  const image = await manipulateAsync(asset.localUri ?? asset.uri, [], { base64: true });
  return `
    <html>
      <img
        src="data:image/jpeg;base64,${image.base64}"
        style="width: 90vw;" />
    </html>
  `;
}

async function print() {
  const html = await generateHTML();
  await printAsync({ html });
}

Page margins

On iOS you can set the page margins using the margins option:

const { uri } = await Print.printToFileAsync({
  html: 'This page is printed with margins',
  margins: {
    left: 20,
    top: 50,
    right: 20,
    bottom: 100,
  },
});

If useMarkupFormatter is set to true, setting margins may cause a blank page to appear at the end of your printout. To prevent this, make sure your HTML string is a well-formed document, including <!DOCTYPE html> at the beginning of the string.

On Android, if you're using html option in printAsync or printToFileAsync, the resulting print might contain page margins (it depends on the WebView engine). They are set by @page style block and you can override them in your HTML code:

<style>
  @page {
    margin: 20px;
  }
</style>

See @page documentation on MDN for more details.