printing problems

[worried]

I have an Epson wireless printer. I have downloaded the I Print app but this only prints photo's.
Epson advisors were of no help.
Please can aanyone advise me on the best app to download so that i can print mail etc from my Ipad.

 

[twerppoet]

PrintCentral is your best bet.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

As twerppoet suggests, PrintCentral is the best third party app for printing. It can print directly to most WiFi printers. Best of all, it cleverly 'inserts' itself as a valid AirPrint printer into the Print menu of those apps that support in-app printing under iOS 4.2. As you probably know, Apple introduced a semi-proprietary print protocol called AirPrint recently and, at the moment, there are relatively few printers that support it. The Epson, for example, is not supported.

But PrintCentral fixes this problem by (sort of) translating the AirPrint protocol into a format that non-AirPrint printers understand. Best of all (and unlike many other third party printing apps) it does this from within the app that you want to print from. Many (all?) of the other printing apps require you to leave the original app to print. In PrintCentral, as I mentioned, you don't need to do this and can print from within the app.

So, for example, in Apple's 'Pages' word processing app, if you select 'Print' you'll see a list of any AirPrint printers that the iPad can 'see' (probably none!) and, if you've installed PrintCentral, an option to 'Print using PrintCentral'. Select that and you're done!

A couple of points

(a) you need iOS 4.2 to use in-app printing with PrintCentral
(b) PrintCentral needs to be running in the background (iOS 4.2 is the iPad's multi-tasking OS, so PrintCentral can be running at the same time as, say, 'Pages')
(c) you need to initialise PrintCentral first of all (it's a once only activity, where you let PrintCentral 'find' your printer). PrintCentral supports most (but not absolutely all) wireless printers. But even if your printer isn't supported *directly* they have a free-to-download app for your PC or Mac called WePrint that allows you to print to *any* printer via your Mac or PC (assuming you have a wireless network connection on your PC or Mac). This also means that you can print via wired printers that are connected to your Mac or PC.

PrintCentral has a number of other features too. The one I like the best is the ability to wirelessly transfer files from your PC to your iPad (or the other way around) without using a cloud server or iTunes.

Tim
Scotland

 

[SimplyBea]

Hi Tim
I tried a search for PrintCentral but it doesn't come up in the App Store?
Has it had a name change?
Thanks

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

Print'nShare has similar functionality to PrintCentral, so it also allows for AirPriting to any network printer.

Both apps are from the same developer, but PrintCentral has disappeared from the AppStore weeks ago without any reason given.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Print N Share seems, as the last poster suggested, to have the same functionality as PrintCentral. However, the developers of PrintCentral have recently told another Forum member that an updated version of PrintCentral has been resubmitted to the App Store and should be available again soon.

Not sure what the issue was that caused them to withdraw it without notice or explanation. But many Forum members have used Print N Share (from the same developers as PrintCentral) - it appears to the same (identical???) functionality.

Tim
Scotland

 

[skruger]

same problem

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

same problem

PrintCentral is being re-introduced, but Print N Share will work just fine now. If your printer is not supported by Print N Share for wireless printing, any printer will work via your PC but you need to download the small free app from the Developer's website and put that on your PC.

Hope that was the problem you were referring to; if not, get back and let us know.

Tim
Scotland

 

[DLCrouch]

Just checked and PrintCentral is back in the app store.