Just came across printer and printing.
Is it useful to keep both? When to use which one?
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1 Answer
After glancing over questions tagged with both, it seems to me that:
printer relates to a printer, e.g. physical hardware device that creates images on paper, questions related to printer drivers, printer maintenance, printer consumables, etc. Usually such questions mention a specific printer.
printing relates to a process of creating such hardcopy images on paper, e.g. printer spoolers/queues (CUPS, Windows spooler, etc.), support of printing in different OSes/applications, and these questions usually do not mention a specific printer model, as they are more generic.
I think it is useful to have both tags.
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Either could refer to virtual printers too (e.g. PDF printers), but I think you are correct in the distinction that printing refers to the process (e.g. printing from a program, or otherwise printer-agnostic) whereas printer refers to the device (virtual or physical) to be printed to.– BobCommented Jun 13, 2012 at 6:38