Printing from Ipad 3

[Scott Van Leeuwen]

Hello,

I am very new to Ipad 3 Technology and wondered if I can print somehow, even to a Wi-Fi printer. Can I do it direct from the Ipad 3 or will I need an adaptor?

Thank you in advance,

Scott Van Leeuwen

[Ads]

[AQ_OC]

If you have a netgear router, there is a program called netgear Genie that will turn your printer into an Airprint printer that they iPad can use on your home network. You can also buy printers that have support for Airprint, so it will talk to iDevices.

[johnml]

An easier way in my opinion is to just buy a new printer. I checked the two printers that Apple sells and found them both at target on sale I bought the lower price printer from Apple and it was $48. This printer all you have to do is plug it in it works like a charm. I was never able to print with my first-generation iPad.

[twerppoet]

Some printers are directly compatible with AirPrint on the iPad. If you want this feature be absolutely certain the printer supports AirPrint before buying. Some printers may require a firmware update to work. These are usually available on the manufacturers site. If you get this kind of printer you can print directly from within apps that support the feature, which is many.

iOS: AirPrint 101

Of course some of us already have printers and do not want to buy a new one. There are several ways to do this.

One is to use a printing app on the iPad.

Most (or all) other print apps can only print pictures and/or files that have been copied to that app via Open In or other method. Print n Share used to be able to print from AirPrint enabled apps if it was loaded the background. It lost this ability with iOS 5. It may still work with iOS 4 if you get it before the app is updated in the App Store. Several printer manufacturers have their own apps for their printers. In general those apps will probably have the best results, quality wise.

The second method is to load a program on the computer that will emulate an AirPrint compatible printer. Your computer must be on and have the printer available to it. The cheapest (free) is Airprint Activator. More features can be had with FingerPrint (mac and windows) and Printopia (mac only).

There is a third way. A few printers (mostly HP's again) can be set up with their own email address. PDF attachments can be sent via this address to be printed. The last review I saw (several months ago) said it could be quite slow (big files not recommended), and sometimes the emails got lost and never printed. The advantage was that you could literally send/print from anywhere you have an internet connection.

There is a new wrinkle for small business owners and those with more than one printer who would like all their printers to work, but don't want to leave a computer on all the time. The Lantronix XPrintServer is a small box that connects to your network and is supposed to detect and make all your wireless printers available to iOS as AirPrint printers. I haven't seen a full review on it yet, so do your research.

A brand new option for lucky owners NetGear routers. Some models support NetGear Genie, which will add AirPrint support for printers on your network. If the printer is not wireless, it must be shared on the network, and the computer it is connected to must be on.

[stebro]

I was considering a new Airprint printer but then discovered Fingerprint. I seems to do everything a new printer would do, costs $10, doesn't take up more space, and has responsive tech support. You install it on your desktop or laptop, not on your iPad.

[raveneap]

My wife uses an inexpensive HP wireless printer she uses with her computer system and we found that our ipads will automatic print to that unit with no adaptations at all.

[danbee46]

I recently downloaded Fingerprint 2 and it works flawlessly with my Kodak printer.

[Sandiman]

I was trying to print off an attachment on an e-mail from my iPad 3 last night with no success at all. In desperation I tried it from my 4s and it worked first time.

Does anyone have any ideas why the difference?

[sdbpastor]

If you have a netgear router, there is a program called netgear Genie that will turn your printer into an Airprint printer that they iPad can use on your home network. You can also buy printers that have support for Airprint, so it will talk to iDevices.

I have a Netger Router and a HP printer on my system. With the Netgear Genie I can see my network but cannot see my. Networked printer. How do I configure it?

Rev. Michael L. Burns

[Ronaldo]

I print to my non-wifi old Epson on my network from iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch with Print n Share.
Works pretty cool!