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Printer apps

truth4skot

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Does the printer apps really work? I'm thinking of getting a wireless printer. The best app less than 10.00 or free?
 

Tim SPRACKLEN

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As the previous poster suggested, Apple have their own proprietary printing protocol called 'AirPrint'. Only a few printers support it at present - HP is one of those that do and you can see if your model is on the list at the Apple web site

Apple - iPad - Print right from your iPad with AirPrint.

If it is there, then you can print directly under iOS 4.2 and 4.3 from apps that support in-app printing, such as Apple's iPad iWorks suite ('Pages', 'Numbers' and 'Keynote'). Not all apps support in-app printing, so you need to check out whether the app you're interested in does. For example, Apple's native iPad 'Calendar' app does not support in-app printing.

If your printer is not on the list then there are third-party apps that can help. Some printer manufacturers have released apps for PCs with their printers connected (i.e. Lexmark). On these models, an app on your PC or Mac 'pretends' to be an AirPrint printer and the app translates the AirPrint printing protocol into a form that the printer understands.

However, there are standalone apps for the iPad and 'Print N Share' is one of the best known. It can print directly from the iPad to a WiFi printer without any PC being involved. It does this by cleverly inserting itself into the printing menu of apps that support in-app printing and 'pretends' to be an AirPrint printer. It then, similar to the previous case, translates the AirPrint printing protocol to a form that your printer understands.

Most all WiFi equipped printers are supported by 'Print N Share' but even those few that are not are able to print via a PC using, again, a small (free) app that's available from the developers of 'Print N Share'. Once again, this app sits on your PC or Mac and links your iPad to the printer via your PC - meaning, too, that the printer can be WiFi, USB or even Bluetooth. The downside is that the PC has to be switched on.

One 'issue' that sometimes confounds users of 'Print N Share' is that this only works under iOS 4.2 or 4.3 - the iPad's 'multi-tasking' operating system (OS). 'Print N Share' needs to be loaded and running before you can print!! So, if you're going to be doing some printing, you need to first of all fire up 'Print N Share' and leave it running in the background. You can check whether it is running by double tapping the iPad's 'Home' button, to see the tasks that are 'loaded' in the 'Multi-task' menu bar. For various reasons, it's helpful if 'Print N Share' was loaded quite recently. If you haven't printed for a while, use the multi-task bar to 're-activate' it.

Hope this helps, but don't hesitate to post any more detailed questions that you might have.

Tim
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If you buy one of the AirPrint supported printers, you won't need any other app.

Only if you don't have a supported wifi/USB printer, will you need another app such as Print'n'Share, but it seems that apple has broken these apps in iOS 4.3.

@Tim
Does your PrintCentral work under 4.3?
 

sundance2011

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Contact app that will sync with windows.

Opps ...sorry, meant this to be a new post.
 
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mkitchen

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Don't waste your time w/ the Airprint B.S. It is a great idea, but it looks like HP locked down Apple for a little while. Get this FREE activator to print wirelessly off any printer attached to a networked mac device...

AirPrint Activator v2.0 « Netputing

Wait... I just realized that you might be on a PC, if you are, sorry. Cause the above works with the latest iOS 4.3.1 just fine and it's great. Just wirelessly printed a page from Penultimate with no problems.
 

Lionelman

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I have a Epson NX 420 WiFi printer.

Looks like 'Print N Share' would be the app I need for printing "anything"?
 
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Yes, Print'n'Share is the app you want. The developer Eurosmartz is tricking the Apple guidelines, because they aren't allowed to offer apps with AirPrint support anymore, nb. PrintCentral and Printbureau (from the same developers) already have the AirPrint feature removed. So a Print'n'Share update is already overdue to remove the feature as well.

So yes, Print'n'Share is one of the last apps still available on the AppStore, which allow other apps with AirPrint to print directly to a printer.
 

emcher

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Yes, Print'n'Share is the app you want. The developer Eurosmartz is tricking the Apple guidelines, because they aren't allowed to offer apps with AirPrint support anymore, nb. PrintCentral and Printbureau (from the same developers) already have the AirPrint feature removed. So a Print'n'Share update is already overdue to remove the feature as well.

So yes, Print'n'Share is one of the last apps still available on the AppStore, which allow other apps with AirPrint to print directly to a printer.

What is the difference between PrintCentral and Print'n'Share? Any?
 
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emcher said:
What is the difference between PrintCentral and Print'n'Share? Any?

Print'n'share was the same app as PrintCentral, but with slightly reduced features. But since the last update does PrintCentral not support AirPrinting anymore, I.e. you cannot print directly from apps such as Pages. So imo Print'n'share is the better option, as it still supports this, kist make sure that you never update the app.
 

jweakley

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I sent a message to Tim, a forum moderator, for advice on using print n share, but I'll post this anyway in case someone else has a suggestion. I am trying to print an iThoughtsHD mind map in landscape orientation but it prints out uncentered and the right side of the map is chopped off. I have printed both directly and with the free add-on, WePrint. Printing the map and other documents in portrait orientation works fine with both print choices. The EuroSmartz support folks have tried to help me, but so far the issue is unresolved. Any setting suggestions?

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jweakley

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Further to my last post about print n share, I finally got my pdf file to print correctly. I think the issue might have been that I didn't reset the orientation to landscape just prior to printing. Perhaps the setting defaults to portrait and needs to re-set each time.

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