Tim Spracklen, clarification / question on your AirPrint install please.

[BobHelms]

Hi Tim,
I was reading your excellent description of installing AirPrint. In it you said "I was then presented with a screen on which all my many printers and other printing-type devices were listed. I unchecked them all except my Samsung Laser Printer, which is connected into my home network by WiFi." Could your printer of choice have been connected by a USB or ethernet cable? TIA for your help.
Bob Helms

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Yes - absolutely - either USB, Ethernet (cabled) or WiFi or even Centronics!!! Basically FingerPrint makes the PC 'look like' an AirPrint printer. The iPad cannot distinguish it from such a printer. The FingerPrint software then receives the printing data from the iPad and converts it into a form that a Windows application can understand. So, just in the same way that when you print from a Windows application you can choose any of your printers - WiFi, cabled, Bluetooth etc - so the FingerPrint software enables you to do the same. But it asks you if you want to choose a subset of those that you will be presented with on the iPad. So, even if you choose a cabled printer, the printing data goes from the iPad to the PC (to the FingerPrint application), then is routed from the PC to the cabled printer.

Tim

 

[Surfer01]

Of course the hassle is if you don't have a PC to connect to then apparently you cannot print using an app if you have downloaded IOS 5. My head hurts with all these restrictions.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Of course the hassle is if you don't have a PC to connect to then apparently you cannot print using an app if you have downloaded IOS 5. My head hurts with all these restrictions.

So the problem is that you want to connect to a wired printer under iOS5? Or are there some other iOS5-related printing problems that you've encountered.

Tim

 

[geeworth]

So the problem is that you want to connect to a wired printer under iOS5? Or are there some other iOS5-related printing problems that you've encountered.

Tim

I am also having problems with AirPrint:
iPad on WiFi network using Timecapsule - USB printer connected to that, an old HP b/w laser printer (HP1200).
AirPrint won't recognize the printer - third party app I bought won't either
Any suggestions.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

AirPrint won't recognise it for sure because it's not on the list of AirPrint printers on the Apple website.

What is the third-party app you're using?

Tim

 

[Surfer01]

I have downloaded Epson iPrint and Print Finder for my Epson PX710W and the iPad finds the printer, but when you try and print an email it comes up with error message No airprint printers found. When I run the App it comes up with a page of options, ie photos, saved documents, online storage, web page print, scan. I can print a web page.
Do you think as a work around it may print an email if I saved it first? Annoying that it will not print directly from the application. Thanks for the help.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

A couple of questions - since this thread was started by someone specifically having iOS5 printing problems. Is that the version of iOS that you have? If so, has the Epson app been updated for iOS5? Have a look in the App Store and see what versions of iOS it's compatible with.

Tim

I have downloaded Epson iPrint and Print Finder for my Epson PX710W and the iPad finds the printer, but when you try and print an email it comes up with error message No airprint printers found. When I run the App it comes up with a page of options, ie photos, saved documents, online storage, web page print, scan. I can print a web page.
Do you think as a work around it may print an email if I saved it first? Annoying that it will not print directly from the application. Thanks for the help.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Just checked myself and it's not yet been updated for iOS5...

Tim

 

[Surfer01]

Just checked myself and it's not yet been updated for iOS5...

Tim

Thanks again Tim. I will try saving the email and then try and print it off as soon as I can prise the iPad from the wife's hands. BTW are there any apps for MS Word and Excel or something similar?

 

[geeworth]

AirPrint won't recognise it for sure because it's not on the list of AirPrint printers on the Apple website.

What is the third-party app you're using?

Tim

Printing for iPad by Ndili technologies. I have also heard that I may be able to plug the HP into the iMac also on the network and turn on sharing.
Gary

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

For sure, if you're prepared to leave your Mac turned on there's no problem and there are several third-party apps that will work just fine and enable you to print. You'll see several recommended in this Forum

Tim

 

[jfoster120]

Hi Tim.

Thanks for starting this forum! My wife's iPad had been successfully printing to our Ethernet-wired network printer using Print N Share running under iOS 4.2. Print n Share was no longer able to emulate AirPrint with the upgrade to iOS 5. I downloaded FingerPrint onto my desktop running Windows Vista (64-bit). It installed no problem (although with every desktop boot, Windows wanted to block it from loading at start, so I had to give permission to load every time). Once loaded, the iPad immediately saw the network printer in apps such as Safari. When printing, the iPad seemed to send the print file to the printer (no error messages anyway), but nothing printed. I then temporarily disabled the Norton 360 firewall on the desktop, but that didn't help. I also tried to print to the "My PC screen" option, but that didn't work either, although a couple times one of those print jobs popped up on the desktop screen after a reboot. Any ideas what might be preventing FingerPrint from working properly. Could it be the Print n Share already installed on the iPad? Or is my 64-bit version of Vista on the desktop the problem? I could switch my HP PhotoSmart 7200 network printer over from a wired connection to the router to a wireless one, but I'm thinking that shouldn't matter. We can still use Print n Share to print to the network printer using it's own embedded browser and e-mail functions, but that's a hassle since my wife would rather use Safari and the iPad's own e-mail app.

Thanks in advance for your comments.
Jack

 

[jfoster120]

Oh, and one more thing, Tim,

Judging by the printer description on the iPad when printing, FingerPrint seems to recognize the network printer as a printer hanging off my desktop PC, and not as an independent network printer, so I made sure that the network printer is configured as "shared" by my PC, so that's not the problem.

Jack