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:

  1. AnonymousApril 2, 2013 at 4:17 AM

    another good app alongside printopia is print n share
    i use it on the ipad and got it recently reduced

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  2. DBakerManApril 2, 2013 at 7:50 AM

    Epson has a free app that allows you to print to their devices from some IOS apps, just not everything.

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  3. Harvey HeilbrunApril 2, 2013 at 8:08 AM

    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.

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  4. alkaliApril 2, 2013 at 10:31 AM

    The Lantronix appliance you link to works pretty flawlessly in my experience, and it's cheaper than buying a new printer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousApril 2, 2013 at 2:11 PM

    Take a look at Fingerprint if you are running Windows and want to share printers via Airprint. Works well

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownApril 2, 2013 at 5:47 PM

    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

    ReplyDelete