Apple Needs to Improve Printing from iOS Devices
I wanted to print something from my iPad the other day. And I couldn’t do it; not directly, at least. And this is Apple’s fault.
I can print from my MacBook Pro or my Mac mini to a printer connected to my AirPort Extreme base station. But I can’t print from an iPad or iPhone to that device. Why not?
Apple has a system called AirPrint, which lets you print from iOS devices – or Macs – to certain printers. The problem is, these have to be AirPrint printers; presumably models that have paid Apple to license this technology.
Why hasn’t Apple just built this into OS X and their AirPort base stations? I can’t imagine they make a lot from licensing AirPrint. And iOS device users are unlikely to want to spend what it costs to get a new printer, just to occasionally print a web page or document.
Printer sharing works extremely well on Macs and with AirPort base stations. When I needed a new printer recently, the only AirPrint models I could find locally didn’t suit my requirements, so I bought a Brother laser printer, which I connect to my AirPort base station. And whenever I do want to print something from my iPad – or when my girlfriend, who doesn’t have a computer, and only uses an iPad – wants to print something, I need to send a link to a web page, or send a PDF or other document.
It seems like sharing printers to iOS devices should be a no-brainer. Is Apple really not doing this just because of some licensing fees?
Note: You can do this quite easily with the $20 Printopia; to be honest, I don’t need to print enough to want to spend $20 for a third-party solution. But if it’s that simple, then why doesn’t Apple provide this as a standard feature?
My understanding was that the capability you desire was built into Mac OS X to work with iOS devices to support AirPrint to a wider variety of devices, but this code was pulled before official release because of licensing issues. My guess is that printopia is restoring this capability but why Apple can’t or won’t is a separate issue.
According to Apple:
http://youtu.be/bXUNr9jgcRQ#t=4m17s
there is no licensing fee associated with AirPrint.
Reading between the lines in the rest of that video it sounds like iOS to AirPort printing would require printer drivers on one side or the other. And there are no printer drivers written for the iOS ARM and no drivers that run on the various AirPort processors. Plus there seems to be concern about security when hosting printer vendor drivers within iOS or within an AirPort. (And even if they existed I would not want to be installing printer drivers in to my phone or my router.)
The video also makes a point of the amount of bidirectional communication between iOS and an AirPrint printer. Likely that is an issue when sharing printers from OS X since printer drivers generally do not relay much printer information.
Collobos
https://www.collobos.com
has a good product with good support but they have to fight with the OS X hosted printer drivers in order to try to make a non-AirPrint printer behave roughly like an AirPrint printer. These types of problems:
http://fingerprint-support.collobos.com/knowledgebase/topics/10454-i-can-print-but-
seem to be the result.
These days it is hard to buy a 2013 printer that doesn’t have AirPrint. Apple has about a thousand AirPrint printers listed here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4356
When I bought a printer six months ago, I couldn’t find any decently priced laser printers with AirPrint. There were plenty of inkjets and all-in-ones, but I didn’t want that.
The AirPrint list looks to be about 60 – 40 inkjet to laser printers. The mix seems to depend on the printer maker.
For lowest cost lasers, with just a quick check, I see these:
HP LaserJet P1102w Printer (mono, ~$105)
Dell B1163w (mono, ~$115)
Brother HL-3140cw (color, ~$185)
Samsung CLP-415NK (color, ~$230)
Each of these printer manufacturers has many laser printer models available.
I spent £50 on a Brother laser printer. I’d need to spend at least 50% more for AirPrint, and even at that price there aren’t many options here. I don’t need to spend the prices you mention.
The “print” feature I would like to see added to iOS is the ability to “print” to a PDF file. I use this very often with Mac OS X and it sure would be handy to have it in iOS.
Agreed, then you could send it for printing.
Printopia is worth the $20 even for a couple uses.
printopia isn;t the only solution and its quite costly, you can get printcentral for less than that, but it doesn’t lack quality
A solid solution (though somewhat pricey at $99 USD) is a device made by Lantronix. Essentially it makes all printers on your home or work network AirPrint savvy. It supports most printers too.