Wireless printing: print from your smartphone

Printing something from your computer is very easy, but what if you want to use your phone to make a print? That requires a little more knowledge. Wireless printing: that's how it works.

Wifi printer

Many printers have built-in WiFi. Usually all you need to do is press a Wi-Fi button and select the desired wireless network to connect. If you use an authentication mode with a password, it is usually easier to first connect the printer to your PC via a network cable and surf to the printer's IP address. If necessary, a free tool like Angry IP Scanner can help you find this p-address faster. You can usually set up the wireless configuration from this web interface much easier than via the screen on the printer.

Tip 01: Print Service

We start with the scenario: printing from your network to a network printer with an Android device. Android has a central print function (from version 4.4). In Android you can find it via Institutions / Connecteddevices / Print. You will find two options here: Standard Print Service and Cloud Print. We will start with the latter option from tip 5. Make sure the default print service is enabled and a printer ready to receive data over Wi-Fi.

If you now open a document in the Microsoft Word app, for example, you can use the menu button Print and select the printer. Set the desired print options and press the printer to send the printout to the printer.

Tip 02: Services & apps

Most printer manufacturers, such as Brother, Epson and HP, have a free plug-in to print to their network printers, also known as a 'print service plug-in'. Install the plug-in corresponding to your printer brand from the Play Store and then enable it via Institutions / Connected devices / Print. Once activated, you can print from certain apps, such as Word. Only activate the necessary service plug-ins to prevent them from draining your battery unnecessarily.

There are also printer manufacturers that offer their own printing apps for Android and iOS. With this you can also print emails, documents, photos and web pages within the same wireless network. Examples of these apps are Brother iPrint&Scan, Epson iPrint and HP ePrint.

Tip 03: AirPrint

Then move on to the second scenario: printing from your network to a network printer with an iOS device. With iOS 4.2 (in 2010), Apple introduced AirPrint. This technology allows you to print to a printer that is on the same Wi-Fi network. There are two prerequisites for this: the printer must support AirPrint and the app must also be compatible. Then you only have to press the share button in that app, choose your printer and click Print to tap. Most apps included with iOS, such as Photos, Mail, Notes, and Safari, support AirPrint, and many third-party apps have built-in support as well. You can find out whether your printer can handle the AirPrint protocol here.

Tip 04: Alternatives

But what if your printer doesn't support AirPrint? Here you will find instructions for a Mac, but there are also alternatives for an iOS device. A first option is to connect your printer to your Mac or Windows PC via USB. With the help of your appropriate software, it is then possible to trick an iOS device into believing that the shared printer is AirPrint compatible. For Mac you can use the free program handyPrint. For a Windows PC you can go to O'Print where you have to pay about 22 euros after thirty testing days to continue using it.

A second option is to download a proprietary print app, if it exists for your printer model, see also tip 2. If you don't find that useful or it doesn't work, take a look at Cloud Print (see tip 9).

Nas and AirPrint

You may also be able to add AirPrint support via a NAS. On the popular Synology DS214 model, you can do this as follows – in combination with a network printer. Open it Control Panel from your nas and go to External Devices / Printer. click on Add network printer and enter the IP address of your printer (see also the box 'Wi-Fi printer'). Give your printer a name, choose LPR as protocol and also name the queue. Press Next one, put a check next to Enable Apple Wireless Printing (you will also find here by the way Enable Google Cloud Print on) and select the correct printer make and model. Confirm with To apply.

Tip 05: Google Cloud Print

You can now print from your home network. But it is also useful to be able to print to your home printer via the Internet, so that you can also start your printer on the road or from work, for example. One of the better and free services that makes that possible is Google Cloud Print. You register your printer(s) with the service. After you have logged in with your Google account, you will find a list of your connected printers. You select a printer and your documents are sent to your printer via an https connection.

Your printer should in principle be compatible. Surf here and find your printer. If there is (v2) after the printer name, then it is a cloud printer version 2.0. If nothing is listed, you have a cloud printer version 1.0. If your printer is not included, you do not have a cloud printer. Don't worry, you can still make such a printer suitable, see also tip 6. You must then connect a computer (Windows or macOS) to the same WiFi network as your printer.

Good to know: when you have opened the section with the brand name of your printer on the web page, you will find links at the bottom to online manuals for the configuration.

Tip 06: Register printer

You can still use a printer that is not supported in principle as a Cloud Print. On a computer within the Wi-Fi network to which the printer is also connected, open the Google Chorme browser and tap the address bar chrome://devices in. Click at Classic printers on Add Printer. Select the printer and confirm with Add printer(s).

If you have a Cloud Print version 1.0, follow your printer manufacturer's instructions to register your printer. This is usually done via the web interface of your printer with the help of a wizard. An example: with our Brother HL-L2365DW it went through the section protocol / Google Cloud Print / Advanced settings.

If you have a Cloud Print version 2.0, also start Google Chrome and enter chrome://devices in. You will then find your printer at New devices. Next to your printer, click To manage and on Register.

Once you have completed one of the three procedures above, go here and click Printers to verify that the registration was successful.

Tip 07: Test it

We assume that your printer has indeed appeared in the list. How do you print to such a Cloud Printer? You can run a first test from Google Chrome. Surf to a web page and press Ctrl+P. The Dialog Print pops up, where you through Modify to the section Google Cloud Print goes and there via the button Display all select your printer. Confirm with Print. This now also works from any computer with internet access, at least from applications such as Google Chrome and various Google mobile apps, such as Gmail or Google Drive. You do have to sign in with the Google account that you use for Cloud Print.

Tip 08: Cloud Print Android

To print from a smartphone or tablet, you need an app that can work with Google Cloud Print. Here you will find an overview. On your Android device, these include PrinterShare (Mobile Dynamix), Fiabee and of course Google Cloud Print (an Android system app, which can be downloaded separately). As described in tip 1 and tip 2, you must activate this printing service via Institutions / Connected devices / Print. Here you can also use the menu button and the options Institutions / Manage Printers check which printers are available.

Tip 09: Cloud Print iOS

Unfortunately, Google does not provide an official Cloud Print app for iOS. However, this functionality is also built into Google's own apps for this platform (see also tip 7). One of the better apps that also allows printing to a Cloud Print from other apps is PrintCentral Pro. This app costs 6.99 euros for iPhone and 8.99 euros for iPad. It works well and fine, but costs some money. There is also a free app for iPhone and iPad: CloudPrint from ameu8. We'll show you how to get started on an iPad. After you sign up with Google, a window with three panels will appear: In Progress, Queued and Processed. To add a print job, tap the plus button, then click Choose file choose a file or via Print Clipboard content adds the clipboard content. Finally, indicate the desired Google Cloud Print. Keep in mind that this app is not as reliable as PrintCentral Pro.

Tip 10: Management module

Both the web interface and the Google Cloud Print mobile apps allow you to manage both your printers and your print jobs. The method speaks for itself via the apps. Let's dive into the management module via the web interface. Visit www.google.com/cloudprint and click Printers. Select a printer, after which you can change the name, request details, view print jobs or delete the printer, among other things. If you want to see the print jobs of all cloud printers at once, click in the left panel on Print Jobs.

In the menu you will also find the option To share at. This allows you to allow others to print on your printer(s). By default, a printer is set to Privately, but through Modify this can be adjusted in Everyone who has the link has access to the printer. rear Share link you will see a link. Fortunately, you can set how many pages can be printed daily. It is also possible to grant access only to certain users. Enter the names or email addresses of those people at Invite people. Via the button Print rights Finally, determine whether those people are co-administrators of your printer or whether they are only allowed to print.

Print photos on the go

If you also want to print outside the home, you can consider a so-called pocket printer. With such a small printer, which, as the name suggests, literally fits in your pocket, you can print photos in no time. Handy for when you take a nice photo at a party and want to print it immediately.