Is .print a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.print is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XYZ Registry, Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group. GoDaddy Registry named .print as a backup string for its .power application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the three already run TLDs, 26.76M names between them. One runs one of .print's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .graphics. Link Freedom Group runs none.
Will names sell?
A clear word for print shops and print-on-demand sellers, but most will keep their .com and few will pay extra for it.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .print’s closest 2012 strings hold .photo 17K, .graphics 6K and .design 119K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .photo, held 16,503 names, June 2026. .graphics held 5,915; .design held 118,808. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet as .print: a short, everyday output-noun for a visual-production craft that doubles as a verb, sold to a fragmented long tail of shops, labs and freelancers who would put their trade identity on the word for the thing they make.
A generic production-trade noun aimed at the same buyer set (studios, agencies, job shops selling a physical/visual deliverable), differing mainly in being a plural industry label rather than a one-word verb anyone already types.
Same wager that a bare craft word becomes the identity namespace for an entire creative-services industry of small independent practitioners, though it sells an abstract discipline where .print sells a concrete manufactured output.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .print included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- XYZ Registry × Link Freedom Group
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
print shops, print-on-demand storefronts, 3D-printing services, and publishing or stationery brands that want a literal, service-describing web address
What a .print domain is
.print is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Commerce category. 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .print domain extension real yet?
.print is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .print domain?
You can’t yet. A .print name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .print was .photo, delegated on 18 January 2014.
Is .print a real TLD?
Not yet. .print is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .print is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- GoDaddy Registry · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T53874 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-192 TT2652T-T99634 · Toddler Logic, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-192 XL2625T-T32262 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-192”ICANN
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
LFGL2683T-T53874 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-192 NA2631T-T58652 · Registry Services, LLC · replacement string of .power · Deactivated TT2652T-T99634 · Toddler Logic, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-192 XL2625T-T32262 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-192
“.print · Commerce · “Create, share, repeat.””Link Freedom Group
- Band: usable but limited (30-49). The word is universally understood and maps to a real, ongoing commercial activity: commercial printing, print-on-demand merchandising, photo printing, and 3D-printing services, so registrations at volume are plausible and the string is not vanity or joke territory, which keeps it above the 10-29 band. But it falls short of the 50-69 strong-niche band because the core buyer group, local print shops and POD sellers, is price-sensitive, already well served by .com and marketplace storefronts (analogy: service-descriptor TLDs like .photography and .plumbing, which by analogy achieved steady but modest registration bases with thin aftermarkets and little primary-identity prestige), and the traditional print industry is a slowly contracting category rather than a growth wave. A serious brand in this space would more likely treat a .print address as a redirect or campaign domain than as its primary identity. The 3D-printing overlap is the most interesting upside, since that community is growing and identity-hungry, but the string reads more as an action verb than a maker-culture badge (analogy: .build serving construction and developer audiences without becoming a default for either). Applicant facts, stated neutrally: Link Freedom Group filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists this string under category Commerce with the tagline 'Create, share, repeat.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests broad availability through standard channels rather than a curated vertical launch, which mildly tempers expectations of concentrated category marketing. Main market uncertainty: whether print-on-demand platforms and 3D-printing marketplaces adopt it visibly enough to make it a recognized storefront convention, versus it settling into low-price general registrations. Aftermarket value over the next 5 years is likely confined to a handful of generic one-word SLDs (photo.print, 3d.print, card.print).