Are you looking to print to a big desktop printer or a receipt printer?
If you're looking for a receipt printer, Star Micronics has an Android SDK that you can freely download here: http://www.starmicronics.com/support/SDKDocumentation.aspx.
It covers USB, bluetooth, and ethernet printing.
This SDK has a really nice sample app that lets you test and customize a lot of printer functions to see them in action. Each function is documented in the source code. The commands and their parameters are also available in the app itself as a quick on screen reference which is convenient. On top of all that, it's well documented.
If you use their SDK, you can send plain text to the printer along with commands. The API handles converting the data into what the printer can understand.