With the explosion of the iPad and more and more people using them for everyday computing we are being asked by clients how they can support printing from these devices. Contrary to what one would think, printing from these mobile devices is not cut and dry.
There are a lot of apps for iOS that claim to support wireless printing, but most of them are proprietary and quite limited. Apple’s answer to this problem is AirPrint enabled printers, which were introduced about 2 years ago, but at the time, the rollout was limited to about a dozen HP printers. The good news is that AirPrint requires no driver installation, no setup, and no need to add printers. The bad news is that it is a relatively new concept, requires adoption from the printer manufactures, and is just starting to gain traction. With AirPrint, you can easily print from various applications by selecting the Share button (usually a forward arrow) at the top or bottom of the screen. After selecting share one of the options will be print, if printing is supported by the application. The built in apps like Safari (web browser) and e-mail client already support printing and, furthermore, software developers are stepping up and adding the capability to print from their apps as well.
Chances are your current printer doesn’t support AirPrint and be careful because even new printers don’t always support AirPrint either. In fact, out of the vast number of printers on the market today, few of them are 100% AirPrint enabled. So if you are looking to support printing from iOS devices please let us know and we can help you find a suitable AirPrint enabled printer for your business!
