Inside AirPrint wireless printing with Apple's iOS 4.2

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 47
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    launchd?



    .



    Was thinking something more user friendly like this?
  • Reply 22 of 47
    Printing on iOS doesn't use any drivers. It is also compatible with ALLL printers that you can connect to your computer. It works using the printer sharing option in OS X. It didn't work for me at first but after enabling printer sharing on my iMac it shows all the "printers" on my iMac including Adobe Acrobat 9.







    You can see its the same list, but it also shows my other printer as "1TB Time Capsule" (that its connected to



  • Reply 23 of 47
    It's nice to see printing come to iOS for those who need it, but to be honest I can't remember the last time my printer was even turned on.



    At the software company I worked for 10 years ago we had a ratio of one network printer per 15 employees yet it was common to find your print job stuck in a queue.



    The company I work for now has one printer for all 50 employees and it's a special day when it produces more than 10 pages. I think the last time we purchased printer paper was 2008.
  • Reply 24 of 47
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    [QUOTE=crisss1205;1714945]Printing on iOS doesn't use any drivers. It is also compatible with ALLL printers that you can connect to your computer. It works using the printer sharing option in OS X. It didn't work for me at first but after enabling printer sharing on my iMac it shows all the "printers" on my iMac including Adobe Acrobat 9.







    You can see its the same list, but it also shows my other printer as "1TB Time Capsule" (that its connected to )





    What about a printer connected to an AE?
  • Reply 25 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rmanke View Post


    Kindof ironic that a feature like printing, that isn't supposed to require the installation of any printer drivers requires that you install a completely new operating system to print!



    I would hope that they don't require that in the release.



    It doesn't look good for being able to print to a bonjour device attached to a PowerPC-based Mac.







    What the he'll are you talking about? Of course you have to install printer drivers to get a print working. HP however would have been working with Apple to get their printers working natively because HP are common printers. Other printers are setup using shared printing which means the shared computer is acting as a print server so will handle the communications with the printer instead of the iOS device.
  • Reply 26 of 47
    This will be great for my iphone 3gs (4.1) when i have to print the PDF's that my professors send me.
  • Reply 27 of 47
    [QUOTE=digitalclips;1714967]
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by crisss1205 View Post


    Printing on iOS doesn't use any drivers. It is also compatible with ALLL printers that you can connect to your computer. It works using the printer sharing option in OS X. It didn't work for me at first but after enabling printer sharing on my iMac it shows all the "printers" on my iMac including Adobe Acrobat 9.







    You can see its the same list, but it also shows my other printer as "1TB Time Capsule" (that its connected to )





    What about a printer connected to an AE?



    It should work since that printer is connected to my TC using USB. The AEs and TCs are pretty much the same.
  • Reply 28 of 47
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by crisss1205 View Post


    Printing on iOS doesn't use any drivers. It is also compatible with ALLL printers that you can connect to your computer. It works using the printer sharing option in OS X. It didn't work for me at first but after enabling printer sharing on my iMac it shows all the "printers" on my iMac including Adobe Acrobat 9.



    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1053190/Scre...49.16%20PM.png



    You can see its the same list, but it also shows my other printer as "1TB Time Capsule" (that its connected to



    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1053190/Scre...49.16-PM-2.png



    What if I want to have it be wireless through airport? Would that work. I only have laptops at home and keeping one stationed just to print is not an option.



    Also is it possible to hit print and have the job sit there until you get home and once the device detects the printer it simply prints it out, or do you have to be on a network with a printer before you can actually send the job to a print queue?
  • Reply 29 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by crisss1205 View Post


    Printing on iOS doesn't use any drivers. It is also compatible with ALLL printers that you can connect to your computer. It works using the printer sharing option in OS X.



    This is a bit disappointing since I have a networked Postscript printer that worked flawlessly from the Print Magic HD app.



    Why should I have to share it through my computer which isn't always on.



    Hopefully the Print APIs will allows these apps to update and fill in the gap.
  • Reply 30 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sheff View Post


    What if I want to have it be wireless through airport? Would that work. I only have laptops at home and keeping one stationed just to print is not an option.



    Also is it possible to hit print and have the job sit there until you get home and once the device detects the printer it simply prints it out, or do you have to be on a network with a printer before you can actually send the job to a print queue?



    When you hit print it will search for printers on the network. It doesn't keep your printer in memory like a computer would. This is good in some way because there is no setup required. You can just walk into any building with a printer on the network and print. (if it's shares)



    I'm not exactly sure how Apple will tackle this limitation. It looks like your computer has to be on and connected to a printer to work. If I turn off printer sharing on my iMac it will say "No Printers Found" on the iPad when I try to hit print.



    The only way to print without printer sharing is to use an HP ePrint printer.



    Quote:

    Test with a printer that supports AirPrint

    HP ePrint printers are the first to support AirPrint. You can test printing from your app to one of these printers:



    HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One Printer series - C410

    HP Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One Printer series - C310

    HP Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One Printer series- B210



  • Reply 31 of 47
    frykefryke Posts: 217member
    I've got my iMac on 10.6.5 (the beta that was issued with ios 4.2) and a shared Brother DCP-7010L on that Mac. It shows up on my iPad with ios 4.2b1, but all print jobs just hang there, sometimes showing to be preparing page 2 of 2, but nothing ever is printed - it simply doesn't work. I thought _any_ printer shared through a Mac with 10.6.5 would be supported. Alas, it seems this feature a) isn't quite ready yet or b) doesn't work with _all_ printers (the Brother uses CUPS). Currently, I'm not impressed (yet).
  • Reply 32 of 47
    feynmanfeynman Posts: 1,087member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fryke View Post


    I've got my iMac on 10.6.5 (the beta that was issued with ios 4.2) and a shared Brother DCP-7010L on that Mac. It shows up on my iPad with ios 4.2b1, but all print jobs just hang there, sometimes showing to be preparing page 2 of 2, but nothing ever is printed - it simply doesn't work. I thought _any_ printer shared through a Mac with 10.6.5 would be supported. Alas, it seems this feature a) isn't quite ready yet or b) doesn't work with _all_ printers (the Brother uses CUPS). Currently, I'm not impressed (yet).



    And you thought otherwise of a beta OS on both platforms?
  • Reply 33 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by libertyforall View Post


    I sure hope this also works with HP PhotoSmart C309a (aka cc335A)!!!



    This printer does work with HP iPrint 3.0 today, strangely the scanner feature does not work with this printer, even though it has a scanner!



    I've got the C309g, but I haven't tried the scanner feature. I will consider myself one lucky mofo if it just so happens that Apple supports my printer in its first iOS printing run.
  • Reply 34 of 47
    Like many others have found, iPrint just works, it doesn't need a machine switched on to print.



    It found my photo printer attached to Time Capsule, it found my PSC6210 attached to a 175X print server. Neat.



    Looks like Docs to Go will have to do the heavy lifting, I only have a 3G :-(..
  • Reply 35 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    I've got the C309g, but I haven't tried the scanner feature. I will consider myself one lucky mofo if it just so happens that Apple supports my printer in its first iOS printing run.



    Bad news -- just installed 4.2b on my iPad and the C309 han not been recognized



    Eras3r
  • Reply 36 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eras3r View Post


    Bad news -- just installed 4.2b on my iPad and the C309 han not been recognized



    Eras3r



    Does your C309 work with the HP ePrint app?
  • Reply 37 of 47
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    I don't understand why printing is such an issue for iPad.



    Wouldn't it just have been easier to make the iPad compatible with the Wi-Fi Direct standard?



    This standard was supposed to make printing easier for laptop-equipped offices, hotels, schools etc. Where is it?



    Why is Apple building different printing technologies into the Mac and iOS?
  • Reply 38 of 47
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    I don't understand why printing is such an issue for iPad.



    Wouldn't it just have been easier to make the iPad compatible with the Wi-Fi Direct standard?



    This standard was supposed to make printing easier for laptop-equipped offices, hotels, schools etc. Where is it?



    Why is Apple building different printing technologies into the Mac and iOS?



    Doesn?t that service also require the primary device to have all the appropriate printer drivers for that printer? I thought that was the primary benefit of Apple?s solution.
  • Reply 39 of 47
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Doesn’t that service also require the primary device to have all the appropriate printer drivers for that printer? I thought that was the primary benefit of Apple’s solution.



    Beat me to it. Even if Wi-Fi Direct could provide for dynamic loading of drivers, I believe Apple's solution allows for pretty much everything to reside on the printer (in the case of the ePrint implementation, with presumably more manufacturers shortly to come on board).



    Reading around the web, it appears that there are other solutions that do provide this functionality, have no idea if Apple's version has any advantages beyond Apple branding (or if, indeed, "AirPrint" is just a rebranding of an existing solution, as is their Bonjour discovery service).



    One question I would love to see answered is if AirPrint functionality can be implemented as a firmware upgrade on existing network capable printers. If so, there's little to keep it from being widely adopted, and I think the printer manufacturers know that there are enough iOS devices out there to make it a reasonable selling point.
  • Reply 40 of 47
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    That makes sense I guess. In the age of the internet download, printer drivers have never really bothered me.



    I heard at a recent show that HP is coming out with a new tabloid office printer this fall.

    Hope it's iOS ready, my old Canon is failing.
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