Editing printing-settings with AirPrint

AirPrint doesn't let you change the settings. You might want to try the Epson printing app, but I think you can only change setting on photos. HP printers and their app lets you change settings on any docs, btw.

Nafoni wrote:

And in other words, replacing my Epson-printer with a HP-printer will solve my problem?

I'd say it's a definite maybe. 😁

Seriously, it will likely depend on the HP printer you choose. Some people have reported issues with the "all in one" printers that print documents and photos. Sometimes these pull photo paper when printing an email, for example. I use an HP LaserJet CP1525, that is compatible with AirPrint. It only prints on regular paper, not photo paper, so I don't have an issue with paper choice. Printing emails and web pages uses the full 8.5 x 11 inch size. If I choose to print photos (on regular paper) Airprint prints them 4 x 6 inch and does not give me an option to change it. However, if I print with the HP app, I can change size and paper type. The app knows when you are printing a document, for example, and goes to the settings you used last.

Overall, I think the HP printers give you more flexibility than the other Airprint printers available from Canon or Epson. The HP app is more sophisticated than the Epson or Canon apps too.

I have also just bought the Epson SX445W and experience the same issue. It looks to me like when using Airprint with this printer the Photo quality settings on the Epson are used regardless of the type of document hence why it takes so long to print. I'm very disappoointed by this because if my assumption is correct then it will use a lot of ink and print ordinary documents very slowly.

AirPrint switches quality settings based on what is being printed. When you print out an email or a web page you'll get standard quality output. When you print from the Photos application then you'll get photo quality output.

I think that's the theory but in practice I believe it is using Photo settings regardless of the application because the print head is making multiple passes just like when printing a photo. Printing a single page document from email takes very much longer with AirPrint compared to wifi from my MacBook.

Nafoni one other question, so with the HP5510 can you change print settings from AirPrint using your iPad? So for example can you set the print quality to Draft for a mail document or do you have to do this from the computer?

Big Apple cat wrote:

Nafoni one other question, so with the HP5510 can you change print settings from AirPrint using your iPad? So for example can you set the print quality to Draft for a mail document or do you have to do this from the computer?

Big Apple cat, the HP Home and Biz printing app works very well and lets you change some print settings on HP printers (paper type, size, trays, etc.). It's free and definitely worth getting as a complement to the built-in Airprint app if you have an HP Airprint printer.

I've been on a support chat with Epson and downloaded Epson iPrint. This now shows up in iTunes on my Mac, documents print much faster and it is possible to make some changes to the print settings. However the process is not as easy because the document has to be printed from the iPrint App the whole point of AirPrint was to be able to print anything from the iPad.

Does anyone know if it is possible to change any of the print settings from AirPrint regardless of the printer, i.e. is the ability to change printer settings such as quality, page size etc. a function of AirPrint that is dependent on the connected printer being able to support those configuration changes. I'm beginning to think that the applications such as Epson iPrint, HP ePrint are the only way of making these changes but if AirPrint is used then the printer settings cannot be changed and assume a default setting determined by the application e.g Photos will print in photo quality having said that I still cannot work out why printing to my Epson SX445W is in photo quality rergardless of what the source is.

If you're printing from an app such as Safari, your AirPrint options are limited. But for printing from Drobox or other apps, check out Print n Share, which wiil allow you to turn on grayscale, change paper size, pick a page range, etc.

FWIW, my HP Envy is quite speedy.

Love apple but this printer setting will not be solved by anyone else but apple inc ... or another app...again.....

In a home environment as well as in in the office I want to print from multiple devices / apps / users to one printer - we have one ipad, 3 iphones and one imac - and each print job should have a choice of default setting and and the option to override this... Printing from iPad and iphone does not even give you the options between print all pages or selected pages - this is not rocket science.

Is it too much to expect the basic functionality within the native app

AlphaZeta wrote:

Printing from iPad and iphone does not even give you the options between print all pages or selected pages - this is not rocket science.

Is it too much to expect the basic functionality within the native app

I routinely print subsets of documents. You can print page ranges of PDFs from iBooks and from the quicklook in Mail, and Safari. Both Pages and Numbers allow a range to be given when printing multi-page documents. I expect there are others but those are the ones I use.

From the postings here it is beginning to look like AirPrint has limited functionality in terms of setting print quality etc. I still can't work out why printing an e-mail, a PDF, a Pages or a Numbers document from my iPad using AirPrint results in the printer output in Photo Quality mode and it takes several minutes which is stupid when the same type of document takes seconds printed from a Mac over WiFi.

However I have now downloaded Epson iPrint and this has all the settings available depending on what is going to be printed, the downside is that documents have to be transferred to the App so it's not possible to create say a Pages document on my iPad and then print it instead the document has to be transferred to the iPrint folder using iTunes.

For e-mails that receive on the iPad I can print these using Epson E-Mail Print and this works just as quickly as from my Mac and all the settings are available to change print qualityb etc.

I think AirPrint is of limited value until the issues are fixed.