Ways to print from iPad and iPhone to any printer

In the era of mobile phones, we often read documents received via email directly from our iPhone’s mail app, without bothering to turn on the computer. However, if it happens that you have to print an important document, many give up performing the operation from the telephone, considering it too slow or difficult to apply.

In the following guide we will show you how quick and easy it is to print directly from your iPhone or iPadillustrating all the methods we can use to connect the device to the printer and proceed with printing the documents.

READ ALSO -> Print to PDF from PC and mobile

1) AirPrint

AirPrint is Apple’s approved system for wireless printing; it’s built into the iPhone and iPad, so it’s easy to use to print to printers that support AirPrint technology as soon as they’re connected to your modem or Wi-Fi network.

To use AirPrint, you must have or purchase one compatible wireless printer with AirPrint. When the iPhone/iPad and an AirPrint printer are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, the operating system automatically detects the printer during the printing process.

To start printing, all we have to do is open a text document or PDF (even within the Safari browser or the Mail app), press the share button, press the option Presspress on the item Printerselect the printer compatible with AirPrint, adjust the items present and finally press on the item at the top right Press to kick off the process.

2) Print apps

Printer manufacturers provide good apps for manage the printer and to start the printing process even without AirPrint support. If we do not see the printer name appear in Share -> Print- Printer we can try to print by downloading the right app based on the manufacturer of our printer:

• HP Smart
• Canon Mobile Printing
• Epson iPrint
• Lexmark Mobile Printing
• Brother iPrint&Scan

After downloading the right app launch it, we log in with the manufacturer’s accountwe launch the printer recognition within the app and make sure that the printing works correctly.

Now that the app is ready we can print every time we open a document or PDF by pressing the button Shareselecting the manufacturer’s app and choosing the printer configured in it.

3) Wi-Fi Direct

Another effective way to print from iPhone and iPad is to use the Wi-Fi Direct, able to work even without the aid of a modem or router between the two devices. Before proceeding, therefore, let’s start Wi-Fi Direct on our printer, by pressing the appropriate key dedicated to the function or by activating it from the display or from the printer settings.

With the Wi-Fi Direct function active on the printer, open the app Settingslet’s go to the menu Wi-Fiactivate the switch to start the recognition of wireless networks and finally press on the name of the Wi-Fi network generated by the same printer (the name will be something like DIRECT-XXXX-XXXX).

After pressing on the network name enter the Wi-Fi Direct password (can be obtained from the printer settings menu or by holding down on the key Wi-Fi Direct or key Information long enough) and, once connected, let’s go to the document or PDF to be printed, press the button Sharewe select Press and choose the name of the connected printer to immediately start the printing process.

3) Print in the cloud or remotely

One of the most used methods for printing remotely (after closing Google Cloud Print) involves associating Google Drive with a printer connected to the Internet, so as to be able print remotely (also away from home) all files and documents uploaded to Drive.

To proceed, we advise you to check the settings of your printer, verifying the support for Google Drive (which however is not obvious); after checking the support for the function, go to the Google Drive account association page, enter your Google login credentials and add the printer to the available devices within the Google Drive app.

Now all that remains is to download the app Google Drive on iPhone or iPad, open it, log in with the same Google account used to associate the printer, go to the menu Filepress the +-shaped button, press Load and load the text document or PDF to be printed.

As soon as the document is uploaded to the cloud, press on it, press on the three dots at the top right, select the menu Press and finally press on the name of the remotely accessible printer (provided it is turned on and connected to the Internet).

If the printer is not compatible with Google Drive or does not appear in the print list we can always use the print addressa special email address generated by modern printers to be able to print remotely by simply sending the document or PDF as an attachment to a simple empty email message.

To take advantage of this method we can read our guide on how to print via Email automatically.

Conclusions

With our iPhone or iPad we can print web pages, photos, emails, documents and what you want on practically any printer produced after 2015, both the one connected with the Ethernet cable to the modem or router and the one connected in Wi-Fi.

The most comfortable and secure methods are certainly AirPrint and Wi-Fi Directbut we can also use the manufacturers’ apps, print via Google Drive and print via a dedicated email address.

Always on the subject of printers we can read our articles on how to create an office print server and on best alternatives to Google Cloud Print.