The Printer Working Group charter is to develop standards that make printers, operating systems and applications work better.

In 1991 a consortium of printer and network manufacturers (Insight Development, Intel, LAN Systems, Lexmark

Lexmark

Lexmark International, Inc. is an American corporation which develops and manufactures printing and imaging products, including laser and inkjet printers, multifunction products, printing supplies, and services for business and individual consumers...

 and Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...

) formed the Network Printing Alliance (NPA). Later members included QMS

Konica Minolta

is a Japanese manufacturer of office equipment, medical imaging, graphic imaging, optical devices, and measuring instruments. It is headquartered in the Marunouchi Center Building in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, with a Kansai office in Nishi-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture...

, Kyocera

Kyocera

is a multinational manufacturer based in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. The company has diversified its founding technology in ceramic materials through internal development as well as strategic mergers and acquisitions...

, GENICOM

GENICOM

From 1982 to 2003, GENICOM was a leading American manufacturer of computer printers, based in Chantilly, Virginia.-The GE years:In 1954, General Electric decided to decentralize the company into separate business units...

, Okidata, Unisys

Unisys

Unisys Corporation , headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware, is a long established business whose core products now involves computing and networking.-History:...

, Canon

Canon Inc.

is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...

, IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, Kodak, Adaptec

Adaptec

Adaptec is a computer hardware brand owned by PMC-Sierra that is used on some of its host adapters for connecting storage devices to computers. The production line of Adaptec is in Indonesia. Products are made to interface with SCSI, Serial ATA, and Serial attached SCSI. Some of its host adapters...

, Tektronix

Tektronix

Tektronix, Inc. is an American company best known for its test and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. In November 2007, Tektronix became a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation....

, Digital Products, Pennant Systems, Extended Systems and NEC.

In 1993, the NPA was reformed as the Printer Working Group (PWG) and added HP, Compaq

Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, Xerox

Xerox

Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...

, Xircom, Farpoint Communications, Zenith, Castelle, Fujitsu

Fujitsu

is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....

, 3M

3M

3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....

, Cirrus Logic

Cirrus Logic

Cirrus Logic is a fabless semiconductor supplier specializing in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits . They are presently headquartered in Austin, Texas. Their audio processors and audio converters are found in many professional audio and consumer entertainment products,...

, Amp, National Semiconductor

National Semiconductor

National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer, that specialized in analog devices and subsystems,formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. The products of National Semiconductor included power management circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers,...

 and Ricoh

Ricoh

or Ricoh, is a Japanese company that was established in 1936 on February 6th, as , a company in the RIKEN zaibatsu. Its headquarters is located in Ricoh Building in Chūō, Tokyo....

.

In September 1999, the IEEE formalized an alliance with PWG as part of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization

IEEE-ISTO

The IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization is a Federation of Programs that accelerates and extends standards and/or technology development and adoption activities for technology industry consortia....

 (IEEE-ISTO).

The PWG has supported the development of:

• IEEE 1284
  IEEE 1284
  IEEE 1284 is a standard that defines bi-directional parallel communications between computers and other devices.-History:In the 1970s, Centronics developed the now-familiar printer parallel port that soon became a de facto standard...
  
   parallel port specification
• IEEE 1284.1 TIPSI (Transport Independent Printer Systems Interface)
• P1394 — printing protocols for IEEE 1394
• IETF  MIBs
  Management information base
  A management information base is a virtual database used for managing the entities in a communications network. Most often associated with the Simple Network Management Protocol , the term is also used more generically in contexts such as in OSI/ISO Network management model...
  
   in the PRINTMIB working group
• IETF Internet Printing Protocol
  Internet Printing Protocol
  In computing, the Internet Printing Protocol provides a standard network protocol for remote printing as well as for managing print jobs, media size, resolution, and so forth....
  
   in the IPP working group

NPAP

The Network Printing Alliance Protocol (NPAP) was developed as a protocol for returning printer configuration and status via parallel, serial, network and later USB

Universal Serial Bus

USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....

. In 1997, NPAP was approved as IEEE 1284.1 TIPSI. SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol

Simple Network Management Protocol is an "Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks. Devices that typically support SNMP include routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks, and more." It is used mostly in network management systems to monitor...

became the standard for network printer management, thus NPAP was never widely accepted. Lexmark appears to be the only manufacturer still supporting NPAP.