Lots of people have been wondering about how easy it is to print from the iPad, and PCMag.com has come up with this really handy little guide that explains exactly how you can do just that. It’s all laid out for you in the link below, but basically, they’ve tried out several third-party iPad printing apps.

It seems that many of the iPad printing apps that PCMag tried were virtually useless, except for Canon’s free Easy Photo Print for iPhone, which they say worked well with the iPad, although it only prints photos and screenshots that are saved on the iPad. They also had some success with HP’s free iPrint Photo, which managed to locate the PCMag Mac and then print to a Laserjet being shared on the network, although it wasn’t able to find and print to a Wi-Fi enabled printer directly when they tried that. Again, that app only applies when you want to print photos though.

As far as general printing goes, PCMag says that Air Sharing HD ($9.99) is the best of the bunch. The app searches your Wi-Fi network for Macs with shared printers and then uses them to print. It sounds a little complicated though, as it can’t access local files on your iPad, so you have to do a bit of a workaround, and if you’ve got a PC rather than a Mac, you’re out of luck. As the article says, right now there’s a huge hole in the market for an iPad printing app that works seamless right out of the box.

By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
[Source: http://www.pcmag.com]

I had no idea you could print from your iPad. I like how you can pic the size of the paper, but isn't the paper in the printer going to be the same size?

I have an HP7150 photosmart connected via USB, I installed the HP iPrint. The printer shows up in imprint but when I try to print nothing happens. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by brhon

I have an HP7150 photosmart connected via USB, I installed the HP iPrint. The printer shows up in imprint but when I try to print nothing happens. Any ideas?

You need a turned on Mac connected to the printer. The iPad uses the Mac to print the job.

That would make sense since the printer driver is installed on that Mac and not on the iPad.

Parasitic printing...

My Mac is on and the printer is on. When I send the photo to print it sees the printer but nothing comes out. It could be the printer driver. HP did not create a new driver for snow Leopard. The apple software pulled a generic driver. When this happened I also lost the ability to see my old printer settings and to clean the print heads. Now even when I print from my Mac I can't even change the print quality.

Originally Posted by brhon

My Mac is on and the printer is on. When I send the photo to print it sees the printer but nothing comes out. It could be the printer driver. HP did not create a new driver for snow Leopard. The apple software pulled a generic driver. When this happened I also lost the ability to see my old printer settings and to clean the print heads. Now even when I print from my Mac I can't even change the print quality.

Unfortunately the printer you have HP 7150 is "used by date" and no longer supported by HP for new drivers. including Snow leopard I suggest you replace it with a Canon MP series or similar

Regards Colin Down under Australia
Apple support specialist

Originally Posted by col.bris

Originally Posted by brhon

My Mac is on and the printer .

Unfortunately the printer you have HP 7150 is "used by date" and no longer supported by HP for new drivers. including Snow leopard I suggest you replace it with a Canon MP series or similar

Regards Colin Down under Australia
Apple support specialist

in other word : you have a outdated printer change it … or change you’re Ipad for a HP Slates

Yann in troll mode

Changing the printer base been on my radar, and the only option. I am swearing off HP products due to the problems I have had with an hp laptop and hp printer I bought for my daughter two years ago. Both units have been plagued by all sorts of problems. The laptop was sent back twice for motherboard replacement and her printer has been a major problem.

I like Canon, that might be a good option. I was also looking at the Epson Artisan 800.

I had an HP1200C Large size printer. It was expensive. The next year XP came out and the printer was not supported because someone decided it should be outdated??????