Printer Pro app

[n4uau]

Reading the thread on Air Print issues, I wonder how many are aware of the recent app from Readdle. Printer Pro lets me print from my iPad to my non-wifi printer which is USB connected to my iMac. It works very well so I no longer have to consider buying an Air printer just to print from the iPad.

 

[LannyC]

In addition, if a printer has wifi but not AirPrint, the manufacturer may offer an iOS app to access it from your iPad. My Brother laser printer is like that, and both Printer Pro and the Brother app work fine.

 

[twerppoet]

Printopia (for Mac) and OPrint for Windows are similar. The difference is that instead of needing an extra app on the iPad, they let you use the AirPrint features on the iPad. Once installed on your computer you can use any printer available to that computer, or a folder, or (in the case of Printopia) even to an app (like Preview).

I've been using Printopia for a long time. Love it.

 

[n4uau]

Interesting there are other apps. I looked before Printer Pro came out and didn't find anything. They sure are kept under wraps. Perhaps to keep the sales of Air Printers up. :-(

 

[twerppoet]

Printer Pro by Readdle has been out (in various forms) for a very long time. I used it myself before I discovered Printopia. It requires two components to work with USB printers. One is an app on the iPad, the other is an app on your computer.

Printopia and OPrint do not have an iPad app. They use the built in AirPlay ability of the iPad. On the computer the app pretends to be an AirPlay compatible printer, or printers. Because there is no iOS app, you won't find them listed in the App Store. You have to search on the internet to find, download, and install them.

Printopia has been out almost as long as Printer Pro. OPrint is more recent, but there was another (no discontinued) app for Windows before that.

Nothing wrong with Printer Pro. For some uses it can even be superior; but I like the flexibility of Printopia better. The ability to print to folders can have some interesting byproducts. For instance, if I set up and print to a folder in my Computer's DropBox folder, I can upload a PDF of the file to DropBox in one step. {AirPrint outputs as PDF or an image file, depending on the document}.

That's not as useful as it used to be, with all the great PDF tools available today. Still, it's cool.

The thing I still do is print email and web receipts to a folder (named Receipts) on my computer. It's a quick, easy way to make sure I have a record of those transactions.

 

[LannyC]

I forgot another option for some folks: if you have a Netgear router, you can turn any printer attached to a computer on its local network into an Air Print printer, using the free Netgear Genie app. As in the other attached-printer cases, the computer must be on and awake for this to work.