>  I find it hard to believe

Thanks for responding!

Actually, this is for an installation, not for what might be considered the "intended" use of a receipt printer. The program generates text that I thought would be cool to allow users press "print" and take it with them. It's a USB thermal receipt printer, and I thought I'd be able to hack something together from the JavaPOS drivers Star Micronics puts out with some of their printers. Unfortunately, the model I ended up with (TSP113U) doesn't have a compatible JavaPOS driver, at least not from the manufacturer, for Mac.

The encouraging thing is that I do have a CUPS driver for the printer and I'm able to send text files from TextEdit that print successfully, so I know the machines are talking to each other. As more of an artist myself, it's a bit of a daunting task trying to figure out how to essentially write my own driver, but I know there must be a way to tell Processing to print "x" to the default printer. The question is how.

I've been researching this fairly extensively, and it looks like my best bet is to use the javax.print library, but I get lost reading the test code and none of it works for me when I try it out. I can't find where the samples are actually talking to the printer, so I feel like I'm missing something big (that may be obvious to everyone else).

I think I'm getting frustrated because it seems like it should be so simple...

" my best bet is to use the javax.print library"
Yes, I was going to point to that, but I fear it is an overcomplicated library, because it needed to abstract lot of different hardwares, so it is awfully complex to print even a single line...

Now, for your simple need, focusing on a specific computer/printer/system combination, perhaps you can take a side step and output the text to a file, and use the system to print it out, using the open() command.

Hello

you don't need an JavaPOS driver. You can write direct to the serialport.
I have an TSP600 connected via USB/Serial converter and it works.

1. // TSP600 Test
   
   import processing.serial.*;
   
   Serial port;
   
   void setup()
     {
       tsp600setup(); 
     }
    
   void draw()
     {
       noLoop();
       tsp600println("Hallo Welt!");
       exit();
     }
    
   void tsp600setup()
     {
       //COMports
       println("Das sind die COMs vom Rechner:");
       println(Serial.list());
       println("Der erste wird genommen.");
    
       // Serieller Port Star TSP600 oeffnen 0=erster COM Port
       port = new Serial(this,Serial.list()[0],9600);  //erste COM Port
      
       //Codepage 1252 Windows Latin-1 setzen
       port.write(0x1B); //ESC
       port.write(0x1D);
       port.write(0x74);
       port.write(0x20);
       port.clear();
     } 
    
   void tsp600schubladeoeffnen()
     {
       //Schublade oeffnen
       port.write(0x1B); //ESC
       port.write(0x07); //BEL
       port.write(0x0A);
       port.write(0x32);
       port.write(0x07);
      
       port.clear();
     }
    
   void tsp600print(String textstring)
     {
       port.write(textstring);
     }
    
   void tsp600println(String textstring)
     {
       port.write(textstring);
       port.write(0x0A); //LF
       port.write(0x0D); //CR
     }
    
   

Thanks lighttamer. I did take a look at the serial library but I'm confused about how that would work, even with a converter, if there's nothing to plug it into! The printer is USB only, and I don't have a serial port on my computer. Is there a way to make that work anyway?

PrintFile is a downloadable utility for windows that can watch a directory and print out new files automatically. Unfortunately I'm working on Mac. Has anyone heard of something like this for Mac? Googling has turned up no such luck but I'm thinking people here might have more insight...

http://www.macosxautomation.com/automator/

You can automate printing with folders in Mac OS. Easy to do.

Excellent, thank you! Just for my own expansion of knowledge, I've been fighting with the javax.print library. I managed to get the program to tell me the default printer service (the printer I'm trying to use) and the required DocFlavors. I've gotten as far as getting the print queue to register a "Java Printing" job, which is very exciting, but it returns an error every time. I'm assuming this is because I'm still confused about javax.print.attribute and how to make a feasible "print job".

Does anyone have insight on print attributes in Java? Could that be what's causing my error?

> USB = serial.
As far as I'm aware this is not true, but if I'm wrong explain it to me like I'm a 4-year-old. I was under the impression that although USB and serial send the same kind of data, the hardware is different enough that Processing won't recognize it without an adapter. When I run a quick program in processing using  println(Serial.list()); I get a few Bluetooth things and that's it, so I was assuming it was looking for an RS-232 port, which doesn't exist on my computer.

I really appreciate all the help, I'm a painter turn designer turned web developer, and this is looking to be the next step.

I think you need a converter cable. I have this cable (from RS-232 to USB) for an old plotter.

Right, but the problem is the the port on the computer is USB, and the port on the printer is USB, so nothing but a USB cable can connect the two. There's nowhere for a converter to go, and Processing doesn't seem to recognize the plain-old USB.

No need for a folder watcher, I think.
Again, output your text file and use open() to issue a shell command to print the text file to the printer. If you can do it from the command line, should be able to do it from Processing.