# Printing ?



## homeoh (May 23, 2010)

Can you print from the iPad? No one seems to know beyond the standard
answer of "send to your computer & print from there". Why use the iPad in that
situation, why not just go with the computer? Seems it'd be adding extra
steps? 
What am I missing here? I already have a printer(wireless HP) that won't work with
any device.Came with my Xmas MacBook from Apple.TIA


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

You can't print from the iPad without installing an app on the iPad and corresponding print server software on the PC.  I've looked into it but haven't needed to desperately enough to do it.  I basically do any document creation on my PCs and use the iPad for reading, browsing, email etc.

I'm hoping a future update will let me.  I may play with it more at some point in the future...I already have a wireless network that lets me print from my laptop....

Betsy


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

I use it for recipes etc that I find when I am on the iPad. I just make sure my laptop is on in the morning and when I want to print I open it up and make sure the program is running - it is a pain and I am hoping this is one thing that will be addressed as time goes by. But itnis still easier than trying to find it on my laptop and printing which really would only add one more step


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## homeoh (May 23, 2010)

Thanks for the info.My MacBook & the wireless printer
that came with it will not work...no way,no how.
The Apple expert said it was the wrong printer
for the MacBook....even tho it came with it & will never
be of any use.So, if I get the iPad, will need to buy another
printer.PL



Betsy the Quilter said:


> You can't print from the iPad without installing an app on the iPad and corresponding print server software on the PC. I've looked into it but haven't needed to desperately enough to do it. I basically do any document creation on my PCs and use the iPad for reading, browsing, email etc.
> 
> I'm hoping a future update will let me. I may play with it more at some point in the future...I already have a wireless network that lets me print from my laptop....
> 
> Betsy


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

homeoh said:


> My MacBook & the wireless printer that came with it will not work...no way,no how. The Apple expert said it was the wrong printer
> for the MacBook....even tho it came with it & will never be of any use.


Earlier this year I got a MacBook Pro and HP wireless printer at an Apple store. They work fine together. The printer had rebate, so only cost me $30. Was that an AppleCare tech who said it was the wrong printer? If not, try calling AppleCare. They are the most knowledgeable about Apple products. (An Apple "genius" in a store was telling me all wrong re basic iPad operation.) Is it an HP printer? If so, did you call HP tech support? They're 'bout as good as AppleCare.


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## Someone Nameless (Jul 12, 2009)

Ditto.  I got a free printer with my Mac.  It's an HP wireless.  I had problems galore.  The printer would go to 'sleep' mode and then would have to be rebooted every time I tried to print.  I forget what else.  I called HP and they were GREAT.  They walked me through the fix and stayed on the phone with me until we were certain it was fixed.  I had another issue later (I forget what) and I called them and we got it fixed immediately too.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Kindle Gracie, you get one year warranty / tech support with purchase of HP printer.  I got an additional two years for just $25.  Worth it to me for their very good support.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Earlier this year I got a MacBook Pro and HP wireless printer at an Apple store. They work fine together. The printer had rebate, so only cost me $30. Was that an AppleCare tech who said it was the wrong printer? If not, try calling AppleCare. They are the most knowledgeable about Apple products. (An Apple "genius" in a store was telling me all wrong re basic iPad operation.) Is it an HP printer? If so, did you call HP tech support? They're 'bout as good as AppleCare.


Good points, when I was having problem with an Apple cable, the first tech at the Apple store told me they wouldn't work at all with the iPad. I went back to another tech, he and another guy worked with me until they figured the problem was the actual cable, and replaced it. So not all techs at the Apple store are created equal.

Betsy


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

AppleCare techs on the phone work specifically with certain products and software.  One tech does not know it all.  If s/he doesn't know, s/he'll say so and check with another tech or pass your call on to another.  In the store, seems most "geniuses" know everything.


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## homeoh (May 23, 2010)

Thanks....yes it's an HP printer that neither SIL (my computer nerd),Grson
..another nerd,nor the tech at the genius bar could get to work.Another tech
...& the 1st tech tried for like 40 mins.I even took the printer & MacBook in with 
me. No dice.I gave it to DH. He uses it to copy insur papers etc,but it will not work
from the MacBook. 



Sandpiper said:


> AppleCare techs on the phone work specifically with certain products and software. One tech does not know it all. If s/he doesn't know, s/he'll say so and check with another tech or pass your call on to another. In the store, seems most "geniuses" know everything.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I got my 15" MacBook Pro on Feb. and HP Photosmart C4780 wireless printer on Feb. 5.  What printer did you get?  Thinking back, Guy in Apple store who sold me (wrote it up) that stuff that day was not too bright either.  After paying (charging) I took everything out to the car.  Then realized I needed something more for the rebate on the printer.  He said he could do it in the store.  OK.  So he tried and tried and tried, but rebate wouldn't work?  Then realized he had not charged me for the printer.  (I bought a pile of stuff that day.)  The "geniuses" in the store are not too . . . .  I'm glad they are they though.  Some are good.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

I found a printer app that is called ePrint and have used it since I got the iPad.  We have Epson 600 series wireless printer.  The printer app will not allow for a direct print from the web, but say I find a recipe I want, I copy it and then paste it to a notebook page in the app.  Then I send it to print.  No other laptop or computer is required.  It is really sweet.  (FYI, the iPad had no problem finding the printer with this app and I am NOT technically gifted.)


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## Someone Nameless (Jul 12, 2009)

I just downloaded the free version of ePrint to test it.  In settings it had no problems recognizing my printer.  I printed a test and it worked perfectly!  I'm so excited.  Thank you for telling us about ePrint!!!


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## homeoh (May 23, 2010)

ePrint was listed at $2.99.....unless I found wrong app.Sent to DD as she prints
a lot or did, before she got iPad. Thanks for the info.PL



Kindle Gracie said:


> I just downloaded the free version of ePrint to test it. In settings it had no problems recognizing my printer. I printed a test and it worked perfectly! I'm so excited. Thank you for telling us about ePrint!!!


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## Someone Nameless (Jul 12, 2009)

There is a free version for the iPod.  On the iPad version one of the review suggested you try the free version to make sure it works before paying for the iPad version.  It worked like a charm for me.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

Kindle Gracie said:


> I just downloaded the free version of ePrint to test it. In settings it had no problems recognizing my printer. I printed a test and it worked perfectly! I'm so excited. Thank you for telling us about ePrint!!!


Cool, I am glad it worked for you. I think I had the free app also, before I purchased it. I did end up buying it after I tried it out. Like I said, it is a sweet app.


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## sem (Oct 27, 2008)

ePrint free wouldn't find my printer but I finally found an app called Print n Share (8.99) that had lots of good reviews. Put it on last night. Had to put the program on my netbook to make it a server but after that, worked perfectly. Having to use the netbook is no problem because it is always on anyway. Print n Share will print all kinds of stuff and I plan to investigate all of my options later today. Nice to be able to use the Pad for printing now.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

ePrint assumes you have a wireless printer?

Betsy


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## sem (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes, all of the apps I found only work with wireless although, if you go through a server (like my netbook), I think it could be tied to a printer by cable. Good question - I'll try to look into it later today or tomorrow.

My day has been consumed with niggly family stuff and arm wrestling with my Touch and calendar sync (no Luck)!


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

sem said:


> Yes, all of the apps I found only work with wireless although, if you go through a server (like my netbook), I think it could be tied to a printer by cable. Good question - I'll try to look into it later today or tomorrow.
> 
> My day has been consumed with niggly family stuff and arm wrestling with my Touch and calendar sync (no Luck)!


Well, I went the Print 'n Share route as we don't have a wireless printer, and as I became fed up with trying to convince my Airport Extreme/Airport Express/HP printer to talk with one another the way Apple claims they can. Since my laptop's in very limited use nowadays, I rearranged things to give it a semi permanent home in the living room and attached the printer to it.

To use Print 'n Share with a USB printer, you need to download the free software WePrint from the EuroSmartz website. It's pretty painless, a small app of just a couple MBs, and not a whole lot of tweaking involved. Add the Print 'n Share app to your iThings, and you're theoretically ready to go.

However...this setup is a little frustrating, to say the least. Apple has limitations on their apps that mean you can't print directly from them. Take Mail as an example. I needed to print a flight itinerary from Gmail. To do so, I can't print from Mail. Can't print from Safari. The P&S app has email built in, so I enter my account info into that....only to find I can't access my labels (which appear as folders in both Gmail on the web and Apple's mail app). Delete the account from the app, use their built in browser to navigate to Gmail. It comes up as the mobile site, and it can't actually view individual emails for some reason. Switch to Desktop view. Now I can reach the mail I need. Click print from within the site to get a print formatted version. Hit print in the app--do I want to print from screen, or from URL? Turns out, printing from the URL gives me something else entirely. Print screen finally gives me my itinerary...and it only took 10 minutes.

This means to you can't expect to find a page in Safari and send it directly to the printer. At a minimum, you'll need to copy that URL and paste it into P&S' built in browser to print from there. Some of your programs may export directly to P&S--my much beloved Notebooks for the iPad app does--but formatting from those apps may not carry over correctly. Rather than printing a note in the font used in Notebooks, it printed in some sans serif 12 pt font that was profoundly ugly. I need to talk to the Notebooks dev about that one to see where the fault lies. You can't print directly from Pages at all, naturally, but rather need to use a workaround such as email to get the file into the print app.

I love my iPad, I really do. But stuff like this is complete BS, and it's all because Apple hasn't built this functionality that most people consider a pretty basic need into their own apps, and they limit severely what 3rd party devs can do to improve the experience. I don't get it.

Anyway, Print 'n Share does work to a degree. Is it worth $9? I'm not certain. If you have a free option that's workable for your printer, by all means, use it! But from what I've seen in their documentation, just about everything I'd like to see addressed is beyond their control, limited by what Apple allows; I can hardly hold EuroSmartz at fault for following the rules!


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## sem (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks for the info, VictoriaP. I couldn't find anything that would let me print except Print n Share so to me it was worth the $$ but I agree that Apple is falling down on the job by not allowing printing from the Pad without having to stand on your head! (Same goes for syncing calendars between Apple products). I use the Pad for business and am getting close to having it tricked out to work for me but it shouldn't be this hard. I hope that the next update will include improvements recommended by us beta testers!


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Well, the good news is after finally figuring out how to get shared libraries from two iTunes accounts on two seperate laptops to play nice with one another, I now have Pages and my husband's iPad now has Print n Share. (Yes, apps can be shared this way, same with music and files from iBooks--though I haven't tried it with a paid one of those.  And yes, getting it all to work was a joy in itself.)  Anyway, I was able to take one of the Pages templates, convert it to PDF, email it to myself, and then print it via Print n Share, so I can confirm this does work.  It's a bit kludgy, of course, but it's a solution anyway.

Print n Share does connect well supposedly with iDisk, so if Apple ever lets Pages actually save directly to iDisk (their own app with their own cloud service...sigh), that might be another option.  The doc I printed did transfer flawlessly, printing out the formatting and images just fine.  I just wish it didn't require all this nonsense just to make it work!

I'll be doing more experimenting over the coming days; I'll post positives and negatives if I find anything else of interest.  And I'll be interested to see what experiences others have with iPad printing!


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## sem (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes, getting iTunes on two computers to play together can be a real pain! I have an account on my netbook at home and one on my computer at work. If I am very careful, I can make them work together but I have to REALLY watch what I am doing! Wiped out my iPod once - luckily it was backed up.


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## homeoh (May 23, 2010)

Whew!!!! No wonder I can't decide to jump in & join the fun of
various apps & getting them to work. I'm so far from being a techie &
these posts keep me super aware of that little fact. PL



VictoriaP said:


> Well, I went the Print 'n Share route as we don't have a wireless printer, and as I became fed up with trying to convince my Airport Extreme/Airport Express/HP printer to talk with one another the way Apple claims they can. Since my laptop's in very limited use nowadays, I rearranged things to give it a semi permanent home in the living room and attached the printer to it.
> 
> To use Print 'n Share with a USB printer, you need to download the free software WePrint from the EuroSmartz website. It's pretty painless, a small app of just a couple MBs, and not a whole lot of tweaking involved. Add the Print 'n Share app to your iThings, and you're theoretically ready to go.
> 
> ...


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

sem said:


> Thanks for the info, VictoriaP. I couldn't find anything that would let me print except Print n Share so to me it was worth the $$ but I agree that Apple is falling down on the job by not allowing printing from the Pad without having to stand on your head! (Same goes for syncing calendars between Apple products). I use the Pad for business and am getting close to having it tricked out to work for me but it shouldn't be this hard. I hope that the next update will include improvements recommended by us beta testers!


Sem, did you try Print Magic's printer test app? I just tried it, and it does work to reach my HP that's USB tethered to my MBP. It prints only via copy/paste (more kludge), but it doesn't require adding software to act as a server on the laptop. Which is a better option for printing anywhere other than at home.

PnS really only works well with WePrint installed on your computer, and it won't print any file types for programs not installed on that computer. For example, I can't print .pages docs because I don't have iWork on my MBP, only Word. That's a pretty big limitation for travel.

The file handling in Print n Share is a plus, but I have most of that in GoodReader already. Decisions, decisions.

Edit: after working a bit more with PnS this afternoon, I'm sticking with it. I'll revisit other possibilities later if I need to. I finally got it to download my Gmail complete with folders, using its internal mail function, so I can now print full emails from within it, and being able to open files from iDisk, GoodReader, and Notebooks should cover nearly everything else. Pages files I can convert to PDF form and print that way if I need to...and hopefully Apple will make all this nonsense unnecessary at some point!


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## sem (Oct 27, 2008)

I did try Print Magic's free app and it could not find my printer. Not sure why because it is an HP wireless laser and my netbook found it right away. I'm pretty happy with PnS and think I can make it work for my needs. I don't have a lot of on the road printing needs and can send my stuff as pdf attachments and work around it that way. I do hope that Apple sees that this is a problem and will do something about it (printing) during their next update!


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