iPad The iPad can not Print ???

[dmaul1114]

I did see mention of some app that allowed wireless printing on another site. Air something I think.

I can't remember which site/thread I saw it in to find it again unfortunately as it was very late the other night when I stumbled across it.

I also got the impression that the poster may have been misinformed and it was just one of the wireless file transfer apps which would allow sending the file to a PC/laptop to then print.

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

No point until the multitasking thing is fixed. Otherwise, you could run your printer driver, but not the program that opened the file you want to print.

You don't "run" a printer driver. For an app to provide drivers, it would have to insert them into the iPhone OS kernel. Apple would need to provide APIs for

(1) inserting the driver into the kernel
(2) allowing applications to call this driver

Odds of this happening are what we might call "extremely slim". It breaks the model that Apple has been going for with the iP* devices, that is, a computer without the work to set it up.

[scottjl]

Originally Posted by nikkie

ALL the drivers (for every printer) are 3GB. Because they don't know what sort of printer you have, OSX ships all of them rather than have people download their own and install them themselves.

yeah. apple bundles in all those drivers for printers that are available at the time that version of OS X is released. they rarely issue updates for them in the meantime. every printer out there comes with a driver CD or tells you where to download it.

there's also quite a bit to printing besides a driver. there's a whole printer imaging system that needs to be built into the OS. i'm guessing none of that is in place right now. the driver is just for the imaging system to talk to the printer. apple did purchase CUPS a few years back, and it's the foundation for the printing system in OS X, but they'd have to port it over to the iPhone OS as well. and, this printing system is going to take up space too.

so we have a few issues here.

1. port over CUPS to the iPhone OS, or write something new from scratch
2. get printer manufactuers to support yet another platform (when they don't even support popular ones like linux) and code up drivers for that platform
3. build some sort of driver management system into the iPhone OS (for installing new drivers, removing old ones and updating out of date drivers)
4. a whole set of APIs for app developers to use for printing
5. printer drivers are going to eat up yet more space in the iPhone/iPad. do you really want to give up 3G out of your 16 for printer drivers?

very few other phones support direct printing by the way.

apple ignoring printing on the device itself and making you print from the desktop, not a bad policy for them.. saves money, development costs, device resources (memory, cpu). for how infrequently people would print anyway, and besides, this is meant to be a mobile OS, not a desktop OS.

i wouldn't hold my breath for printing on the ipad any time soon. if it were to be built into 4.x jobs would have announced it last week.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by scottjl

yeah. apple bundles in all those drivers for printers that are available at the time that version of OS X is released. they rarely issue updates for them in the meantime. every printer out there comes with a driver CD or tells you where to download it.

there's also quite a bit to printing besides a driver. there's a whole printer imaging system that needs to be built into the OS. i'm guessing none of that is in place right now. the driver is just for the imaging system to talk to the printer. apple did purchase CUPS a few years back, and it's the foundation for the printing system in OS X, but they'd have to port it over to the iPhone OS as well. and, this printing system is going to take up space too.

so we have a few issues here.

1. port over CUPS to the iPhone OS, or write something new from scratch
2. get printer manufactuers to support yet another platform (when they don't even support popular ones like linux) and code up drivers for that platform
3. build some sort of driver management system into the iPhone OS (for installing new drivers, removing old ones and updating out of date drivers)
4. a whole set of APIs for app developers to use for printing
5. printer drivers are going to eat up yet more space in the iPhone/iPad. do you really want to give up 3G out of your 16 for printer drivers?

very few other phones support direct printing by the way.

apple ignoring printing on the device itself and making you print from the desktop, not a bad policy for them.. saves money, development costs, device resources (memory, cpu). for how infrequently people would print anyway, and besides, this is meant to be a mobile OS, not a desktop OS.

i wouldn't hold my breath for printing on the ipad any time soon. if it were to be built into 4.x jobs would have announced it last week.

The system you can use that I use for my iPhone is 'cant remember name(will add it later) basically software that goes on the PC or Mac that is connected to a printer anything I email from my iPhone or any email or within an app(most let you send photo or text via email to a specifically set up email address(I use Gmail) my home printer then prints it.]]Works really well.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

I did see mention of some app that allowed wireless printing on another site. Air something I think.

I can't remember which site/thread I saw it in to find it again unfortunately as it was very late the other night when I stumbled across it.

I also got the impression that the poster may have been misinformed and it was just one of the wireless file transfer apps which would allow sending the file to a PC/laptop to then print.

Another user just posted a thread here with it. Air Sharing Pro was what was mentioned that I couldn't remember.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80556

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Another user just posted a thread here with it. Air Sharing Pro was what was mentioned that I couldn't remember.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80556

No wasmuch better than that here it is

Wouldn't it be great just to print out an Email or an iPad/iPhone contact address and phone number, or quickly print out a web page to read later? Move files to or from your computer and print them. How about printing photos from your iPad or iPhone Photo Album? Or even take a picture and print it out straight away. Now you can!

“Print & Share” for the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch is the best printing and file sharing app. It enables you to print emails, files, web pages, contacts and images and also shares files & documents with your desktop computer.

iPad or iPhone printing with “Print & Share” lets you print information from your iPad/iPhone/iPod touch to a printer connected to your computer, via network or local.

http://mobile.eurosmartz.com/products/printnshare.html

[scottjl]

hmm.. well.. one difference there is ASP uses the mac's built-in printer sharing, PnS seems to require you to run a separate app.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by scottjl

hmm.. well.. one difference there is ASP uses the mac's built-in printer sharing, PnS seems to require you to run a separate app.

Yes it does need software but the integration is great as If I see something at work like a recipe I just send an email to my stuprint@gmail and its printedfor me. or email a photo as an attachment and it recognises file type anmd prints with photo settings etc.
Most apps allow emailing as a file so integrates with majority of other apps too.

[Fabe]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

I can't print them? How am I going to show those beautiful documents, ship my iPad to the person I want to see them?

Printing is passé, retro-grade tech, and environmentally unsound. Since the advent of the personal computer we have moved inexorably toward paperless communication. The iPad legitimizes and exemplifies the best of this movement. There are more and better ways to communicate than print and show. - Fabe

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Fabe

Printing is passé, retro-grade tech, and environmentally unsound. Since the advent of the personal computer we have moved inexorably toward paperless communication. The iPad legitimizes and exemplifies the best of this movement. There are more and better ways to communicate than print and show. - Fabe

You seem to assume that the whole planet has access to computers. How do you show gramps pictures? I have pictures on the walls all over my house, that I took and printed myself.
How do I send my clients the bills I depend on to be paid? Paperless communication is a utopy and not that green at all. Where does your electricity come from? There's nothing perfect you know!
Apple does not reflect a greener way of doing with this, it's totally an accidental virtue. They actually cut the balls off the iPad to maintain their monopoly on content. Greed.
Just try accessing an other computer from your iPad...

[scottjl]

Originally Posted by Fabe

Printing is passé, retro-grade tech, and environmentally unsound. Since the advent of the personal computer we have moved inexorably toward paperless communication. The iPad legitimizes and exemplifies the best of this movement. There are more and better ways to communicate than print and show. - Fabe

Yeah, they said that back in the 80's. Since then paper consumption has skyrocketed as people print more and more. I've seen various stats published over the years. The computer did nothing to curb paper use. The iPad could, if we could somehow print to the iPad as a wireless printer drive easily. Print to PDF works, but is cumbersome.

[Fabe]

Originally Posted by scottjl

The computer did nothing to curb paper use.

"Printers don't cause paper jams, people do." ;-)

[Fabe]

How to print from an iPad.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Fabe

How to print from an iPad.

Yes, I've seen this one, it's hilarious.

It's the same technique blondes use to "print screen"...

[Neil]

Getting into this late but.... If you have a networked printer there are all sorts of ways to print from the iPad. Basically just go to the app store and search on printing. Two apps I have personally tried are Air Sharing HD and Print and Share (For Advanced Printing). Both work fine and are pretty easy to install and use. Print and Share will access any printer that your Mac can see via WiFi and once the 3G iPads come out and you have one via 3G as well. Air Sharing comes at it from a different direction and mounts the iPad as a drive on your desktop so you can print documents on it from there. That has the added benefit of letting you quickly organize your files on the iPad.