Apple has introduced a ‘print’ button onto iPads, iPhones and iPods. Unfortunately you need a special “AirPrint” enabled printer. Thankfully there is an application called ‘Handyprint’ that allows you to print to any printer. Here’s where to get it and how to use it.
APPLE AIRPRINT
On your iPhone at the bottom of some apps is a ‘share’ button. If you click this button you get a menu of different ways to share the content, one of these options is ‘print’ as shown below.
Share Button
Print Button
When you press the ‘Print’ button you will be given an option to choose a printer, but unless you have a special AirPrint printer’ you will see no printers here at all. (I have a Canon IR5000, a Canon inkjet, a Xerox and a HP and none of them are AirPrint!)
If you don’t have an AirPrint printer there will be no printer here to select
PRINTING ON NON-AIRPRINT PRINTERS
STOP PRESS: Forget everything below. There’s a great new app by Samsung called “Samsung Mobile Print” and it can print to any printer on your wi-fi network from your iPhone without you needing to put any extra software onto your computer.
It even printed to my Xerox laser printer first try which usually is a little tricky to get going.
Just go to app store on the iPhone and search for “Samsung Mobile Print”
Thanks Bogdan for this tip.
Old article below:
If you want your non-airprint printer to appear then you can download the following free donation ware $5 application called ‘AirPrint Activator‘ ‘HandyPrint’ from netputing.
It’s free for 14 days then it asks for a donation of a minimum of $5. It used to be free, then it was donation ware, now it costs $5. If anyone finds a free alternative let me know.
You download it to any computer that’s attached to your printer. Your computer acts as a bridge between your iOS device and printer.
Click here to go to the netputing page to find the latest version. Download the little application called ‘HandyPrint’. You may then need to click on the ‘downloads’ button in the top right of Safari to find where it has been downloaded to.
Click on the ‘Show Downloads’ button to find it.
Now run HandyPrint by double clicking the HandyPrint application.
You should get a window that looks like the one below.
Press the slider to ‘Turn On’ AirPrint.
The Printer should now appear in your iPad or iPhone printing menu!
Windows users:
There is a PC version that I’ve found but it costs $20. You can download from here: http://www.collobos.com Anyone found a free PC version?
Printing directly from iOS without a computer:
There is an alternative way of doing this. You can an app on your iPhone or iPad that will attempt to print directly to your printer. ‘Printer pro’ in sone such app and there is a good set of instructions here. There’s a free version that will let you see if it works here.
I am not recommending Printer Pro. When I tried it all it printed was 11 pages of gobbledygook. Also, Printer Pro doesn’t work on some printers, and so they have released a ‘helper app’ called desktop helper which you can run on your computer. That now means you are running two apps. The good thing about handy print is that it uses the printer drivers on your computer, so if your computer can print to your printer then handy print can as well. Handyprint only costs $2 more.
Hi from one Shirl to another! I have downloaded Print n Share on my 4S (iOS6.0.1) but I haven’t a clue how to connect it to my printer for use with it. My printer is an Epson DX6000 but my iMac is still running system 10.4.11. (I presume I don’t need Cloud?) I will be downloading WePrint when I get home. Any tips or advice you or the other guys might have would be greatly appreciated :)
Am I the only one who, having converted to Mac and having converted a big number of family and friends, is increasingly noticing signs of MAC power to make us captive audience hurdling us into spending and having less freedom now that Steve Jobs is gone? Is it back to the dark ages with Mac? Only a few years ago, I would also only buy HP but after loads of regular issues with HP printers/scanners converted to Canon which has been great for us. Now I wonder whether they too are being bullied by Mac? This, after struggling for yet another day to get the good MP 640 printer/scanner to respond to ANY of the various Apple machines!
I am running OS X 10.5.8, and an IPhone 4s iOS 6.0.1. I downloaded and installed AirPrint Activator v2.0b13. I turned on printer sharing and internet sharing. AirPrint Activator sees my Canon iP1600 (not wireless, does it have to be?) BUT when I go to print from my iPhone it doesn’t find any printers. Is there a way to trouble shoot this?
My Mac Book Pro is connected to my printer through wifi, not a hard wire connection from printer to Mac, will this set up work?
On my iPhone 4s when I went to print, it showed my printer, but I hadn’t read the rest of the page about setting up Print/Scan under Preferences and it didn’t print.
Got this to work in under 5 minutes! Love it! Was going to have to buy my husband a new printer for xmas to go with his iPad.
Mac laptop 10.7.5
Canon MP600 printer
iPad 2
I will not even try to set up a printer for my apple devices! I just read about 10 comments and they all say it does not work! So im not even going to try!!!!!! HAHAHAHA……..
I found an app called “Print n Share” which works ok for the pc. The drawback is that it doesn’t act as an airprinter exactly. You have to open whatever you want to print through the app itself, then print through the computer as described above for the mac. It can print webpages, email attachments, photos, screenshots – lots of things. If other apps have an “open with” feature, you can use that to open whatever you would like to print in the Print n Share app to print it. The app was around $7. Not free, but better than $20 like someone else mentioned. They seem to have really good support as well.
Well…..if you’ve got to link to a Mac in any case, it would seem to a simple-minded soul like me that you may as well just email info from your iPhone to your own pc, and print to your already-recognised Dinosaur Inkjet from there???!!!
Anything else sounds like a pure waste of time!!!
%O@
My printer is a KODAK ESPOffice 6150 and can print wirelessly. The iphone 4S with 6.1 (10B142) and the PC is running Windows 7.
From what I have read so far I can download the App “Print n Share”. You have to open whatever you want to print through the app itself, then printer and pc needs to be on too. If other apps have an “open with†feature, you can use that to open whatever you would like to print in the Print n Share app to print it.
Is this correct and has it worked for others apart from Jenn Indiana who very kindly provided the info for PC printing.
What’s wrong, do you need a airprint computer or somthing??? When I search for printers it dosen’t come up with anything. I made sure it was connected to the same wifi, made sure it was on and even checked if my printer was fully working.
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I have an ipad 2. and a laptop. Both of them are in the same wifi. We have a wire printer it is not an airprint one. I tried to print from my laptop and it works. But when I tried to print from my ipad it doesn’t work. Whats the problem? Anyone can help me pls, Thank you.
Rona, what sort of laptop do you have? This method will work only on a Mac. If you have a Windows laptop, you will have to look for a different solution, if one exists.
If I connect my HP Officejet 7700 to my Airport Extreme WiFi router via USB, will I then be able to print to it directly, without any middleware? Comments appreciated – thanks!
I am assuming this cool trick only works if you have wifi connecting all your devices. Unfortunately the only Internet access we have at home is via out phones, which we then turn into mobile hotspots in order to get Internet on our home Mac, iPad, etc. any suggestions on an app that will allow me to print to my non-air Canon laser printer using only my iphone 5?
I am assuming this cool trick only works if you have wifi connecting all your devices. Unfortunately the only Internet access we have at home is via our iphones, which we then turn into mobile hotspots in order to get Internet on our home Mac, iPad, etc. any suggestions on an app that will allow me to print to my non-air Canon laser printer using only my iphone 5?
you should be able to print from the iPhone, when the iPhone is in Hotspot mode, as it should be able to see the Mac and print to it.
When you are offline and want to print, you need a local hotspot, such as the Airport Express, or any cheap-o WiFi router. Doesn’t have to be the latest model, as it will just serve you to connect the iOS devices to the Mac. You should be able to get one on eBay for $10 or so.
In both situations, though, the Mac to which the printer is connected must be on in order for this really cool App to work.
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