The Google Cloud Print app on Zapier does two main things:
1. Send things to Cloud Print to be printed
The action "submit print job" enables you to automatically send files (PDFs, HTML, or plain text) to a Cloud Print printer.
This action will physically print the content from your real-world printer.
A common use case is connecting a Dropbox or Google Drive folder to Cloud Print so whenever you drop a file into the folder, it will be actually printed!
2. Trigger workflows by "printing" things from your devices
When you connect a new Cloud Print account to Zapier, Zapier will create a virtual printer in Cloud Print that looks like this:
Tip: you can manually rename the virtual printer inside Cloud Print!
This printer does nothing other than trigger Zaps. You'll need to choose the correct printer in your Zap set up for things to work:
When a Zap sees a new print job, it will mark it "In Progress" inside Cloud Print and trigger the Zap.
Tip: you can trigger multiple Zaps from the same virtual printer!
Now that your virtual printer is set up, you can trigger your Zap by printing from Chrome, Windows, OSX, iOS, or Android. Here's an example of what it looks like in the Chrome browser:
If you need to supply some extra meta data alongside your print job (eg. the dollar amount on receipt you are printing) you can use "pass through text" typically available under advanced printer options:
The value you put into this field will be available in your Zap as a field called Pass Through Text.
By default, Zapier will leave the print job in "In Progress" status inside of Cloud Print:
While a print job is "In Progress" the PDF file for the job can be downloaded by you manually or within Zap steps. If you'd like to clean up after yourself, you can use the advanced action "mark print job finished":
Using this action will update the status of a print job to "Printed" and delete the print job file from Cloud Print. This means you will not be able to download the file again or use it in Zap steps.
Note: be particularly careful if you're using the same virtual printer to trigger multiple Zaps if you mark it finished before the other Zaps run, they will break.