What is a print processor?
A print processor is a part of the Windows printing system that works alongside the print spooler. When a job reaches the spooler, the print processor reads it and, if needed, converts it into the data type the printer accepts, then passes it on to be sent to the printer's port. It's a separate component from the spooler: the spooler (the Print Spooler service, spoolsv.exe) manages the queue, while the print processor handles the format of each job.
Windows includes a default print processor called WinPrint (winprint.dll). Some printer drivers install a vendor print processor of their own.
Data types
| Data type | What it means |
|---|---|
| RAW | The driver has already rendered the job into the printer's language, such as PCL or PostScript. The print processor passes it through unchanged. |
| NT EMF (for example NT EMF 1.008) | The job is spooled as an enhanced metafile. The print processor renders it into printer language in the background, so the application gets control back sooner. |
| TEXT | Plain text, which the print processor formats for the printer. |
How a job flows
- The application prints, and the printer driver prepares the job.
- The print spooler accepts it and adds it to the print queue.
- The print processor converts the job to the right data type if needed.
- A port monitor sends the data out the port, such as USB or a Standard TCP/IP port, to the printer.
Troubleshooting print processor problems
- Jobs spool but never print, or appear in the queue briefly and vanish, or error out at the same point every time.
- Garbled output after a driver change, when the data type doesn't match what the printer expects.
- A missing or broken vendor print processor, for example after a driver was removed incompletely, can stop every job for that printer.
To check or change it, open the printer's properties, go to the Advanced tab and select Print Processor. Switching to WinPrint with the RAW data type is a common test. Clearing Enable advanced printing features on the same tab also turns off EMF spooling. If the queue is stuck, restart the Print Spooler service after making changes.
For the CompTIA A+ exam
Print processors aren't named in Core 1 (220-1201). They connect to objective 3.7 (using the right driver for the operating system, including PCL vs. PostScript, and print servers) and objective 5.6, which covers garbled print, a frozen print queue and multiple prints pending. Don't treat the print processor and the print spooler as the same thing: the spooler queues jobs, the print processor formats them.