MCP Printer Server 🖨️

An MCP server for printing documents on macOS/Linux. Provides AI assistants with the ability to print files, manage print queues, and control printers via the CUPS printing system.

Why?

In the era of AI-assisted development, we’re generating more documentation, specs, guides, and code than ever before. When working with AI on complex projects, it’s often valuable to review generated artifacts offline on paper. This tool makes it effortless to ask your AI assistant: “Print all the markdown files you just created” or “Print the README and all TypeScript files in this directory” — streamlining the workflow from AI generation to offline review.

• Features
• Installation
• Configuration
• Available Tools
• Available Prompts
• Usage Examples
• CUPS Options
• Supported File Types
• Code Rendering
• Troubleshooting
• Security
• Development
• Requirements
• Contributing

Features

• 📄 Print files - PDF, text, and other formats
• 📝 Render markdown - Convert markdown to beautifully formatted PDFs
• 📊 Mermaid diagrams - Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more render as visual graphics in markdown
• 💻 Syntax-highlighted code - Automatically render code files with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and proper formatting
• 🔍 Page count preview - Check how many pages a document will print before sending to printer (prevents accidental 200-page printouts!)
• 🖨️ List printers - See all available printers and their status
• 📋 Manage queue - View and cancel print jobs
• ⚙️ Configure - Set default printers
• 🎯 Smart - Supports multiple copies, landscape, duplex, and more

Installation

Add to your MCP configuration file (e.g., ~/.cursor/mcp.json for Cursor):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Printer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-printer"]
    }
  }
}

That’s it! The package will be automatically downloaded from npm on first use.

🖥️ Platform Support: This server currently supports macOS and Linux only. Windows is not currently supported (contributions welcome!).

📋 Requirements: Google Chrome or Chromium is required for rendering markdown and code files to PDF. The server will auto-detect Chrome/Chromium installations on macOS/Linux. See Requirements for details.

⚠️ Security: This server allows AI assistants to print files from allowed directories (~/Documents, ~/Downloads, ~/Desktop by default, customizable via MCP_PRINTER_ALLOWED_PATHS). Dotfiles and hidden directories are always blocked. Only use with trusted AI assistants on your local machine. See Security for configuration options.

Configuration