

Provides information about v4 printer driver configuration. Provides information about v4 printer driver rendering. The blue boxes represent existing files that were used in the v3 driver model, and the green boxes represent new places to plug in. V4 print drivers rely heavily on data files and JavaScript for extensibility. Except for the rendering filters and user interface applications, all the other functional blocks in the diagram are implemented by Microsoft. The following architecture diagram is a high-level representation of a v4 print driver. To help to better explain some of the concepts in this section, a fictional company called Fabrikam is used. And also, the v4 driver is easier to develop and test.

The v4 driver supports existing development efforts from the version 3 printer driver model and from the XPSDrv architecture. The v4 printer driver model was designed to make sharing easier and more efficient by eliminating the need to manage drivers across processor architectures. Printer sharing is a key value proposition item for Windows servers.

The v4 print driver model provides the only way for printer manufacturers to provide customized Print Preferences experiences or Printer Notification experiences in UWP apps. So a printer driver model was needed that would provide deeply integrated support for this new environment. UWP apps present new design considerations regarding UI behavior and security context. The v4 print driver model is also optimized for several new scenarios: The v4 print driver model also supports several new extensibility points. The v4 print driver model continues to support many familiar technologies like XPSDrv, GPD, PPD, Autoconfiguration, and Bidi. It's designed to improve driver development, reduce IT management costs, and support new scenarios. The v4 printer driver model is a refinement of the existing v3 printer driver model. We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.įor more information, see the Print support app design guide.
