Auto-Print From Zapier: Orders, Forms and Alerts

Someone fills in your order form. Zapier catches it, adds a row to a sheet, sends a Slack message, maybe an email. And then a person at the counter reads the Slack message and writes the order on a ticket by hand.

That last step is the one Zapier never solved. Paper. The kitchen, the warehouse, the front desk, the lab bench: places where a screen is in the wrong room and a printed ticket is the interface.

Here's how to make Zapier print.

Table of Contents

• The old workaround and why it creaks
• What you need
• Build the Zap
• Three Zaps people set up first
• When something doesn't print
• Make and everything else
• TL;DR

The old workaround and why it creaks

For years the trick was: Zap sends an email with a PDF, a mailbox prints it. It works. We built a business on it.

It also adds three things to every print: a mailbox to keep healthy, a spam filter that occasionally eats an order, and a delay while the message lands and gets picked up. For a weekly report that's fine. For a counter that needs the ticket before the customer walks off, it's a few minutes too many.

So we added a direct path. Zapier posts the print job straight to the computer with the printer. No email in between.

What you need

Three things, about ten minutes.

1. The AutoPrintEmail desktop app on the computer that should print. Windows, Mac or Linux. Sign in as a member of your team.
2. A named printer. In the desktop app, open Manage Connections and add an API printer. Give it the name your staff use: "Kitchen", "Front desk", "Label printer". You can add more than one if that computer has, say, a receipt printer and an A4 printer.
3. An API key. On the web, under Team > Integrations > API & automation, create a key called Zapier. Copy it right away; it's shown once.

The API is a Team plan feature, because a key prints for a whole team of computers, not one login.

Build the Zap

Pick any trigger. A new Typeform response, a new Airtable record, a Calendly booking, a Shopify order, a Stripe payment. Whatever starts the thing you want on paper.

Add an action step and search for AutoPrintEmail. Connect it with the key you copied. Then choose Print Document.

The fields:

• Title: printed as a heading. Map the order number or the customer name.
• Text: the body. Map whatever you want on the page. Line breaks are kept, so a few fields on separate lines reads fine.
• PDF file or PDF URL: use one of these instead of Text when the trigger gives you a file. An invoice from your billing app, a label from your shipping app.
• Print to: a dropdown of the printers your team set up, labelled with the computer each is on. If there's only one, leave it empty.
• Reference: map the order id. Zapier retries steps when things hiccup, and a reference means the same order never prints twice.

Test the step. Paper should come out within about 30 seconds.

Three Zaps people set up first

Order form to kitchen ticket. Typeform or Jotform order form → Print Document to "Kitchen". Title is the order number, Text is the items and the pickup time. The person at the pass gets a ticket, not a notification.

Booking to front desk. Calendly booking → Print Document to "Front desk". The receptionist has a slip with the name and time before the visitor arrives. Add a Delay step for "15 minutes before" if you'd rather it print close to the slot.

Shipping label to the packing bench. Your shipping app generates a label PDF → map the file into PDF file → Print to "Label printer". No downloading, no clicking Print.

When something doesn't print

The Zap step returns a job id. Add a Delay (a minute is plenty) and then a Find Print Job step with that id. It gives you a status: printed, or failed with the reason. Branch on it, post to Slack, whatever you like.

The reasons you'll actually see:

• The computer is off or the app isn't running. The job waits up to 24 hours, then fails. Nothing to fix except turning the computer on.
• No printer set up for the API. The step tells you to add one in the desktop app. That's the first-run case.
• Several printers and no choice. Pick one in Print to.

Make and everything else

Make users: the same API works today with an HTTP module. Send a POST to https://autoprint.email/api/v1/print-jobs with your key as a bearer token; the API guide has the exact body. A native Make app is on the way.

Anything that can make an HTTP request can print this way: a form builder's webhook, a script, an ERP, an AI agent. Zapier just happens to be where most people start.

TL;DR

• Zapier can now print directly on your printer with a Print Document step. No email relay.
• Name the printer in the desktop app, create a key on the web, add the step.
• Map a reference to avoid double prints, and use Find Print Job to know it came out.

Start a Team trial and your first Zap prints in ten minutes.