Internet printing protocol (IPP)

The Internet Printing Protocol( IPP) is the printer protocol of the Internet Engineering Task Force( IETF) for worldwide networked printing. The IPP protocol allows print jobs to be processed over the Internet. Using the Internet Printing Protocol, users can identify printers on the Internet, initiate print jobs, and monitor the status of print jobs.

The IPP protocol provides for two types of objects: Printer objects and Job objects. The attributes of the printer objects can be divided into the information for identifying the corresponding printer, which is done via the IP address, and the device specifications and settings, such as the print format. All available printer objects are listed in directory services and can be addressed by the user.

The IPP protocol is a client- server protocol based on TCP/IP, which consists of the IPP server and the IPP client and is based on HTTP. It is supported by Windows XP and Windows 2000.

The Common Unix Printing System( CUPS), in conjunction with the IPP protocol, provides the user convenience familiar from Windows when printing from Linux and Unix systems.