Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Printing From an iPhone/iPad
I was recently asked how to print directly from an iPhone or iPad.
Surprisingly, it is not sufficient to use a printer connected to an Airport Express or Airport Extreme wireless network.
To print directly from an iPad / iPhone you need an AirPrint compatible printer or another device to act as a print server.
Here's a list of AirPrint compatible printers
If you want to use an existing printer, it is possible but requires third party products.
A Mac computer can function as a print server for iPhones/iPads if you buy Printopia or HandyPrint
The Mac must be "on" but may be asleep for them to work.
You can also buy this standalone print server.
I recently AirPrint enabled my mother's household using an HP 1606dn Laser Printer which is AirPrint enabled. It is very simple to use and unlike software-based solutions, it is operating system version neutral.
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6 comments:
another good app alongside printopia is print n share
i use it on the ipad and got it recently reduced
Epson has a free app that allows you to print to their devices from some IOS apps, just not everything.
What I like about Printopia is not only can I print to a printer on my own network, I can also send a document to Evernote or Dropbox, which I do a lot when I find articles, recipes or need to save a receipt from my iPad. I can also save documents as .pdf files. The disadvantage is that I can only print on my network, so if I'm somewhere else, my print command won't allow me to use any of those functions.
The Lantronix appliance you link to works pretty flawlessly in my experience, and it's cheaper than buying a new printer.
Take a look at Fingerprint if you are running Windows and want to share printers via Airprint. Works well
I've used the upgraded $10 version of Print Direct - which allows Safari, Mail, documents, Dropbox etc albeit with the extra step involved with retrieving thru the PrintDirect 'browser' https://itunes.apple.com/app/id423223834?mt=8&ls=1
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