fake-printer

Virtual IPP / AirPrint printer for Windows — capture print jobs from LAN clients into a local agent-friendly inbox (PDF with text layer, or PNG fallback).

Keywords: virtual printer, IPP, AirPrint, mDNS, print capture, agent inbox, Windows.

• Engine: paperlessprinter (cloned at setup, AGPL-3.0)
• UI: rich bordered dashboard (close the window to stop)
• Output: inbox/ — PDF when text is extractable, otherwise per-page PNG

For AI coding agents, see AGENTS.md. Security model: SECURITY.md.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or later
• PowerShell 7+
• Python 3.12+ (setup.ps1 tries winget if missing)
• Git
• Ghostscript (optional — PostScript jobs only)

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/flll/fake-printer.git
cd fake-printer
pwsh scripts/setup.ps1
.\start-fake-printer.bat

Closing the start-fake-printer.bat window stops the server and mDNS advertiser.

Connect clients

Client	How
iPhone / iPad / Mac	Same LAN — Fake Printer appears in the AirPrint list
Windows	Settings → Printers → Add manually → IPP → ipp://<host-ip>:8631/ipp/print

The host IP is shown in the dashboard left panel.

Agent integration

After each job, postprocess.py copies artifacts into inbox/:

Condition	Inbox file
PDF with text layer	<YYYYMMDD_HHMM>_<jobname>.pdf
Image-only / fallback	<YYYYMMDD_HHMM>_<jobname>_p001.png …

Raw logs: logs/server.log, logs/mdns.log.

Operations

pwsh scripts/doctor.ps1          # health check
pwsh scripts/start.ps1           # launch bat in a new window
pwsh scripts/stop.ps1            # stop stray processes
pwsh scripts/setup.ps1 -Force    # re-clone paperlessprinter

Firewall

Run as Administrator:

pwsh scripts/open-firewall.ps1

Allows TCP 8631 (IPP) and UDP 5353 (mDNS).

Custom install root

Default is the cloned repository root. For another path:

pwsh scripts/setup.ps1 -InstallRoot 'D:\my-fake-printer'

Repository layout

fake-printer/
  start-fake-printer.bat   # launch
  scripts/                 # canonical scripts
  config/env.example       # .env template
  .venv/                   # created by setup (gitignored)
  paperlessprinter/        # cloned by setup (gitignored)
  spool/ inbox/ logs/      # runtime (gitignored)

See docs/reference.md for architecture and troubleshooting.

License

• Wrapper code in this repo: MIT (LICENSE)
• paperlessprinter: AGPL-3.0 (NOTICE)

Intended for LAN / private networks only. Do not expose to the public internet.