California-based Apple Corporation firmly believes in a “wireless” future. The company sincerely hopes that soon all equipment will work without any connections and are making every effort to contribute to this.
So, at one of their conferences, the company's employees actively promoted the new technology and told ordinary people about AirPrint, what it is and how it will change our lives. And many were convinced.
This technology was one of the first links in the development of wireless electronics by Apple.
AirPrint: what is it
Basically, AirPrint is a wireless printing technology developed and licensed by Apple. By purchasing a dedicated printer that supports this technology, you can print documents and photos without interacting with it directly.
The simplicity of technology is akin to all solutions from the company from Cupertino. For its operation, you do not need to configure anything, download drivers or any additional software. You just need to connect the printer and any of the devices, be it a computer, tablet orphone, to the same network and start printing.
It is important to note that the technology only works with Apple devices.
How does it work?
Now that we know about AirPrint, what it is and why we need it, we need to figure out how to work with it.
Printing with AirPrint on Mac:
- First you need to find the desired document or image and open it.
- Then you should open the print menu (you can select the “Print” item in the program or use the Command-P key combination).
- A window will appear, in the first column of which you can select the appropriate printer (it may take some time for the desired device to appear in the list).
- In the same window, you can look at the document itself, set the number of copies, select the format, change a number of other parameters (the set of options depends on the printer model, the software used and the file type).
- When all the parameters are defined, just click the “Print” button.
The printing process can be controlled from the print menu (printer icon appearing in the upper right corner).
Printing with AirPrint on iOS:
- Similar to a computer, first you need to open the desired document or image (the application must have a "Share" button and a "Print" item).
- Then you need to open the print menu (the same "Share" button).
- In the window that appears, you can take a look at how the document looks and specify the amountprinted copies.
- When all the parameters are defined, just click the “Print” button.
Printing process can be controlled in the multitasking menu (double tap on the Home button).
Supported printers
Unfortunately, the technology was not in great demand, so for a long time it was almost an impossible task to find an AirPrint printer, there were no worthy solutions on the market, except for very rare and expensive items.
Today there are many wireless printers from Samsung, Canon, HP and other market leaders. And if earlier people were not aware of AirPrint, what it is, how it works and where to get it, now there is no need to inspect each model for support for this technology. Many modern printers work with Apple devices by default.
Sharing with AirPort Express and Time Capsule
AirPrint support is not a priority for most MFP and printer manufacturers. Therefore, another option for wireless printing is to connect the printer to Apple routers. To do this, you need to get one of the devices in this category, they include:
- Latest generation AirPort Express.
- AirPort Extreme.
- AirPort Extreme with physical backup storage.
You can connect a printer to these devices with a USB cable and share it with all computers on the same Wi-Fi network (foriOS still requires an AirPrint-enabled printer).
