To print out a document, you rely on your local operating system, which must have a driver installed for the printer you intend to use. Printing gets more complicated when you want to print something from a mobile device. This is why Google is working on Google Cloud Print, a service that enables any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer.
Google wants users to be able to print to legacy printers via Google Cloud Print. This is accomplished through the use of a proxy, a small piece of software that sits on a PC where the printer is installed. The proxy takes care of registering the printer with Google Cloud Print and awaiting print jobs from the service. When a job arrives, it submits the print job to the printer using the PC operating system’s native print stack and sends job status back to the printer.
If print jobs are handled in the cloud you won’t need drivers, and most of the problems users have with printing from devices like smart-phones and tablets will be solved.
