Are there something similar available on other platforms?
Of course! We have some more decades experience.
Usually there is no GUI. If there is one, it comes from the windowing
system, for example X11. This one is very basic, so that desktop
environments like OpenWindows, CDE, KDE, Gnome, (Classic) Mac OS, or,
Aqua on Mac OS X bring something better.
Below all this all UNIX dialects have a print spool mechanism that is
now in its 30s. A printer can be attached to parallel, serial, or USB
ports or exist somewhere in Internet, or Intranet, attached to the net
or attached to a print host. When you create the print queue for this
printer you have to give these details to the operating system. OS
routines then determine what kind of input arrived, and what kind of
input the printer accepts. If a difference is found, the printer
queue's input (output of some programme) is converted according the
printer's needs. These days this mechanism is based on CUPS, the
Common UNIX Printing System (http://localhost:631/). To access
printers on the net it uses a slimmed down HTTP connection (so it's
open for cryptography or authenticated connections to the splendid
printer at your dean's desk).
These ideas are so simple, that some couldn't resist to copy ...