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Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Print From an Android Tablet?
KowboyKrash writes "Does any Slashdotter know how to print from an Android tablet? I have read about Google Cloud Print, but will it work from all (or at least most) apps? Is there a better solution? A little background: With my laptop being four years old, and the battery failing, I want to replace it with a device with 10 hours of battery. I am purchasing an Asus Transformer Prime after Christmas as a gift to myself; my plan is to replace my laptop completely for portable computing. I've already selected several apps that should meet my needs, including Polaris Office, and TeamViewer to remotely access my desktop. So are there any printing solutions for Android? Printing to my network printer at home is good enough."
xerox machine
Cloud print works for me very well from my phone and tablet. If printing to a home printer is good enough then it should work just fine for you. Does for me.
Use it all the time on my phone
Most apps don't have built-in print support. I've never needed to print from my phone, but it looks like an app like this could do it: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.pauloslf.cloudprint&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5wYXVsb3NsZi5jbG91ZHByaW50Il0.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
A different question may be: do you really want to replace a fully functional platform for an app ridden one? The ability to print effectively shouldn't cost you $9.99. As awesome as tablets are I wouldn't recommend using one for everything.
... AirPrint on iOS :P
Do you also gift wrap it and keep it a surprise till Christmas?
If you can access Google's cloud printing (you can) you're all set.
Free... so long as you don't mind sharing your data with Google (which you'd already be doing if you're using their cloud service).
I'm curious to see what better (faster!) ideas appear on this thread... There have to be better ways.
Or, at least, more interesting.
where is sue? sue is idle.
Works great for me on my Android phone, assume it would work for you. Found it on this really neat thing called the Android Market....
Right here.
Three Squirrels
It's crazy. My old N800 PDA could run CUPS, so i could print the PDFs I created with LaTeX on it. WTF are they thinking, not having printing on it? And why has no-one ported CUPS?
I know it's not your question, but just a warning on it. If you plan to send the documents to anyone, and they don't have office 2010 there are going to be issues. They'll be able to read the file in a shocking font if they open it something like openoffice or libreoffice, but there will be random characters at the start and end and the text won't be manipulable.
You can do it via dropbox. See http://www.labnol.org/internet/print-from-mobile-phones/17827/
I recently found out Brother has an app for printing from Android and IOS. Maybe the other printer manufacturers do too?
I don't print a *lot* from my Android tablet, but I do occasionally. I've found PrintBot to work nicely:
https://market.android.com/details?id=net.jsecurity.printbot&hl=en
Note: I have no connection to the author, and haven't yet needed to try the paid version myself, so I refer to the (extremely restricted) free version.
iPads can do this without paying extra money for a printing app. If your printer isn't "AirPrint" compatible, just run this program once on the mac that shares it: http://download.cnet.com/AirPrint-Activator/3000-18487_4-75327225.html
I use PrinterShare. It requires a service running on a Windows box, but you can print through the service to a printer from outside the network, which means I can print to my home computer (for instance) from anywhere in the world I can get signal. Available from android store. Not affiliated, just a user.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Use it to order a real computer from the Amazon site. :-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Replacing a laptop with a tablet, any tablet, is a nasty compromise. You'll miss your 4 year old laptop the first time you have to do any work on the tablet.
If you're like most people who have this idea, you'll wind up carrying both the tablet and the old laptop (or buying a new laptop) and then one day you'll just forget the tablet at home, and within a couple months the tablet will live on your coffee table and rarely leave the house.
-Lod
Instead of trying to figure out how to print, how about, in 2011, we figure out how to NOT PRINT?????
and yet, I say it up and down, everywhere: I'll buy the first tablet that runs Debian natively (make that Ubuntu, or anything like that). I buy a tablet, price doesn't matter too much, the day I can install some Linux-Distro on it (please, spare all of the us the 'Android-is-Linux' nonsense comments). I don't need coolness, I am cool. I need OpenOffice on my tablet, no Google-Docs, and I need printing. Not a single Cent for some app, no new printer. CUPS is on any reasonable Linux-Distro, and that's what I am waiting for.
Thanks to the original submitter. I was almost tempted to buy a tablet today, despite of all my good intentions as above. I didn't even consider I would not be able to print. Now I know that I am not going to buy a tablet for the time being.
A far easier solution is that instead of having to buy new hardware every time a problem long solved in PC world comes up, you buy a PC.
You'll save on device itself, then you'll save on both money needed to buy new hardware that is at least somewhat compatible, as well as time needed to fuck around with this new hardware until it starts to actually work as intended.
I have a Brother Printer and Brother has an iOS and Android app for printing. So far it has worked flawlessly.
as for those who are asking why I would replace my laptop with a tablet here are just a few my my reasons; Battery life, greater portability, simplicity (most of my needs are web based). I am not completely eliminating my laptop from the mix I just ordered a new battery and will be setting it up as a media pc connected to my Living room tv. on the rare occasion I will need to lug a real computer someplace I still can. what about a way to add fonts to android with out rooting?
Maybe he doesn't have a dedicated workstation at home, but he's about to have a spare laptop that's more than fast enough to be a print server, and the dead battery won't matter if it's plugged in all the time.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Effective use of wingdings in a serious text
A few questions I have. Do you really print that often? At home, I rarely have a need to print. I probably wouldn't print much at work if I had a tablet. Do you have a desktop? If so, I would just install dropbox or look at a printer that supports it. To those saying he should just get another laptop, mine rarely leaves my docking station at work. A tablet wont replace your computer, but it could replace a laptop if you have a desktop as well.
PrinterShare is quite good. I picked it up for free off Amazon when they were giving it away a month or two ago (I think the full version is normally $5). I've been happy with it so far.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Wireless Brother printer with iprint (the driver for wireless Brother printers)
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
I can only guess but it is probably just as bad on android Rdp for windows and vnc for everything else works pretty good
There Can Be Only One...
> You know what? Who cares! Aren't computers and various peripherals surrounding them supposed to make your life easier?
This is why a new tablet should not disallow you from using your old printer.
> Buying a WiFi printer makes life WAY easier for everyone in the household, from iPad users to laptop users of all sorts.
No, not really. Any normal printer can be hooked up to a real PC and you can network it any way you like. Windows has done this for a long time and Macs have done it for even longer.
It's funny that you make excuses for this tablet nonsense while droning on about "how stuff should be useful".
Greenpeace should more closely scrutinize this "let's throw perfectly good stuff into the local landfill" mentality that Apple Corp and it's stoogies seem to have.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Yeah. "Email it to print it". That's usable alright. [/sarc]
The excuses people make for this crap. Stuff they would be the first to whine about if it happened outside of their little branded bubble.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
It requires everyone who needs to read the document to have access to a device capable of displaying it.
And even that isn't yet guaranteeable in 2011. Not everybody carries a laptop, tablet, e-reader, or smartphone. Or what scenario am I missing?
Nor are these tablets necessarily rugged enough
I don't know where you got the idea that single-digit-year-old children are incapable of using tablets
Perhaps I underemphasized "rugged". A careful 3-year-old can use an iPad 2, but a less careful one will likely drop it, sit on it, step on it, etc.
This is why a new tablet should not disallow you from using your old printer.
It doesn't. I could have easily. But remember the part about not sucking? The old printer worked OK, sure, but it relied on the computer working and then the print server working too. Now I'm done with it all, if all computers in the house are dead or toast or whatever it just doesn't matter - nor does the printer have to be BY a computer, and even greater advantage.
No, not really.
Sorry but you are utterly delusional. It makes life 100x easier for the casual home computer network tech guy. I have configured linux print servers of various sorts and flavors for years before I bought the WiFi printer, so it's not like I cannot configure them - they just suck, and in practice are brittle enough that family members have trouble using such things.
It's funny that you make excuses for this tablet nonsense while droning on about "how stuff should be useful"
What's even funnier is your idiotic technical claptrap about how awesome it is you can hook an old printer that doesn't work very well to a PC you also have to maintain. AWESOME!
I'll be out skiing while you set that up. Or even better yet ,working on some awesome program, which is 100000x more valuable to humanity than being another monkey who can manage a print server.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A far easier solution is that instead of having to buy new hardware every time a problem long solved in PC world comes up, you buy a PC.
No, what is easier is buying a post-PC solution to a problem that has plagued PC users since the dawn of time. Printers on PCs (or Macs, no platform war here) have always sucked
Also remember that post-PC is not SANS-PC. My WiFi printer works great with any other computer, better in fact than my print-served printers ever did.
Feel free to go backwards all you like. I'm ratcheting my way one piece of advanced equipment at a time into the future. You can sit there in the cave while I drive my metaphorical flying Ferrari to the moon.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well if you're trying to figure out how to print from a tablet, then obviously you have one you can use with your child. It's called parenting.
Unless you're trying to print something for your child to show to somebody else while the child is at school or a play date.
Android is Linux. I use Linux at work, at home, in my car, on my tablet, etc, etc.
It would be really nice if Android had CUPS support. That would make printing really easy for me :)
Yes, nothing ever goes obsolete in the PC world, and you never have to fuck around with it.
Post brought to you from Bizarro World.
So the question is - why are you printing? What do you need in hard copy?
It's nearly 2012. Haven't we moved past this for day-to-day? (Unless, of course, you're in a career that requires a lot of paperwork to be physically signed on a regular basis - given the content of your post and the fact that you're posting it here, I think that's unlikely.)
Personally I've found that one of the great things about tablets is that they've eliminated the final few reasons I had for printing documetns.
I realize that everyone has their own use cases for printed documents, I'm just wondering if yours is an actual need -- or just so used to it that doing without it hasn't occurred to you yet.
It does. I have one of the original TF101s, and Ubuntu runs relatively well on it, though it's worth noting the kernel port is still in development.
The Transformer (Prime) has a full keyboard, so if you're buying it as a laptop replacement, just dual boot Ubuntu. If you only have the tablet half, then you might want to go with Gnome 3. Android is rather limited, so I can guarantee you'll get frustrated with it the moment you want to do anything non-trivial.
Here's a quick summary of what's working so far:
More info
Admittedly, it's a work in progress, but if you want an ARM tablet which runs GNU/Linux* then I'd say the TF is your best bet. It's also worth noting that all the ARM devices (or at least ones using the Tegra series chips) use different GPIOs for the peripherals, which means that the kernel is device specific. Consequently, if you're planning to run GNU/Linux on it you're going to want one with a strong developer following.
* I don't normally bother with the pedantry, but the distinction is very relevant here. Android is Linux; it uses a GPLed derivative of the kernel, which is why it didn't take long to get Ubuntu running on it (once the partitioning tool, nvflash, was available). Ubuntu is GNU/Linux; it has grep, sed, CUPS, OpenOffice, X, and everything else you want.
Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
Shows what you know. I have 3 in house developed applications that were built for android. That decision was made based on the openness of the platform compared to IOS. building custom in house application is far easier on android than IOS. Add that to the Superior features of the Transformer prime vs iPad2 and the better price the decision was easy. the two most important features that iPads don't have is GPS on a wifi only tablet, and upgrade able storage. oh and the fact that it looks better that the iPad and thinner doesn't hurt either. oh and the Quad core 1.3Ghz cpu is also nice..........oh and one more thing 32gb of base storage at the same price as the iPads 16gb model.............maybe you should upgrade to the transformer Prime and stop being an Apple Drone.......... but I Doubt a troll like you will.
Many of the printer manufacturers have software that allows you to print to their printers if they are on a LAN your Android is connected to. I have a Samsung MFP and can print and scan quite easily using Samsung's mobile print app for example. Just match your printer manufacturer with the app and check it supports the model. What you can print depends on the printing app as it either implements an action or reads particular file types. The Samsung one reads from your picture gallery, google docs, web pages, facebook & twitter and various other format files in your documents directories (txt, pdf and I'm pretty sure some versions of office files). I find scanning often to be more straightforward than on my PC. Pretty sure there are apps for Brother, HP, Epson, Canon, etc. Their features & polish will probably vary. Just search for printer in the android market, eg https://market.android.com/search?q=print&so=1&c=apps Obviously if your printing is only over the LAN, it should be more secure than a "cloud" based method, and some of those apps charge per page printed IIRC.
Both HP and Brother have android apps which will print to their wireless printers.
The HP ePrint printers require you to have your printer connected to the internet, hand out its control to HP, then signup your Andoid device using your Google Account, and then prints your private documents ... YES via HP ... over the internet!
Thats a no-no for me, i want to print from my Android to my HP Printer via the local WiFi. It should be possible.
I will try the ePrint app, as i understand from the android market it does work this way.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
If Asus keeps the same software on the Prime that they had on the OG TF, you'll already have a remote desktop viewing application pre-installed. Its part of the MyCloud app, the MyDesktop section. It runs a version of the Splashtop software, the streamer version is free on their website. Splashtop themselves have their own app on the market (which is actually what I use, just because I like to keep up with their updates without waiting for Asus to update) as well.
http://www.newlaunches.com/entry_images/0911/15/Samsung-DROID-Prime-Android-4-0-device-1.jpg
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
For the past 34 years I've been an IT professional working on diverse hardware from mainframes to minis to PCs. I was a programmer long before I was a user.
For all that time, printing has been the bane of my existence. Anyone who believes that computers are aware and have malevolent intent have had severe disagreements with printing hardware/software over the years. The time it takes to print a document (a real document for business, not just a screenshot or receipt) is inversely proportional to the time available to complete the task to get to that meeting where its presence is crucial.
I suffered with text-based DOS and WYSIWYG word processors and dot matrix, laser, inkjet, what have you. I have inevitably ended up shouting at the hapless device that will not produce the output in a usable form without exhausting both my patience and paper.
When I saw this post, I picked up my Samsung Galaxy S2 and did something I'd never had the occasion to do -- I brought up the Gallery to print a photo.
I have a wireless HP Photosmart 390a I'd bought for the business a couple of years ago that happens to have Bluetooth capabilities. Within seconds I had paired with the printer and about 20 seconds later the printer started printing the selected photo. I should have been flabbergasted however I reacted with the aplomb that any would display when an electronic device just friggin' does what you ask it to do.
Who would have thought it possible?
(These notes taken from a notepad I have titled "My computer illiterate boss once did:")
1. Take a photo of the iPad screen.
2. Connect camera to a Laptop and download photo.
3. Connect laptop to the LAN, email the photo to your desktop PC
4. Go to your PC from your PC open the photo in the viewer.
5. Copy the photo. Paste it into a word document.
6. Print the word document. Your done.
7. Optional step: Fax it to the intended recipient, or if the printer/scanner has a scan-to-email function use that.
I hope this helps you. This kind of thing certainly helped people my former workplace at least feel productive.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
4. Carve your message into the casing of the iPad. ...
5. with a roller (or a pad of leather, such as an iPad case), dab ink evenly over the message.
6. Press the iPad to a clean sheet of paper to reproduce your message. Repeat as often as desired.
7. Sell "uniquely customised" iPad (sounds like a menstruation product) and use funds to repurchase Android device.
8.
9. Profit (for someone)
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
I agree that the ideal solution would be connecting an USB cable from the tablet to the printer and then doing a print. But since that's not there, is it possible to print it to a pdf, copy that file to a memory card (either by e-mailing or by copying it if the tablet allows it) and then insert that card in the memory slots of the printer (assuming it has it)?
But I agree - Apple forces people to buy expensive wi-fi printers, and now Androids can't print to normal printers either? Is that b'cos most printer manufacturers don't want drivers to their printers to be FOSS, and hence most printers are unsupported? Or are there other reasons?
We've had recent questions about cloud services, duplicates about which router to buy, and now a question about how to print.
Time to turn off Ask Slashdot. Someone let me know if the quality goes back up and we get more interesting questions.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
I don't know why no one has mentioned this but printing from most devices is pretty easy, all you need is a printer with either built-in bluetooth or a host USB port (usually used for mass storage devices). Just plug in a Bluetooth dongle and it'll become visible, send it a file and it'll print. I had an HP which did this 5 years ago and I sent it files from a Symbian phone. Thanks to intents, any application which wants to send a file can queue a print job.
I hope this helps you. This kind of thing certainly helped people my former workplace at least feel productive. www.bestoffrm.com
As a future buyer of a tablet, this is something I didn't consider, printing, I just took it for granted that you could print via an office LAN network.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
You are a dishonest idiot.
> Windows has done this for a long time and Macs have done it for even longer.
You removed this and started ranting about Linux. This isn't about Linux. This is about the fact that EVERY REAL PLATFORM does network printing and it's pretty damn trivial to set up.
> It makes life 100x easier for the casual home computer network tech guy.
No it doesn't. All it does is create another artificial barrier. It creates another point of failure. It's another thing where you have to worry about "being compatible" and there's really no good reason for it.
This is an important part of your fantasies you are neglecting. Everyone you deal with has that extra nonsense to consider including your mythical ski lodge.
Had you actually ever been anywhere but your mother's basement, you would understand this.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.