Why can't I print from my ipad?

Question

Why can't I print from my ipad?

I've had my iPad for almost a year now and I like it a lot. It looks very good, it performs very well even though I'm far from reaching my goal of only taking my ipad to school, nothing else.

One important reason why this won't be the case for quite a while still is that I can't print from the iPad.

Let me explain. I make quite a number of worksheets. Being a teacher this is one of the things you do so that the students have something to write on and do exercises. Over the years there have been many of these and my initial thought was to put them all on the iPad and print them when needed. But imagine my surprise when I found out that printing from an iPad seems to be near impossible.

Other colleagues of mine got themselves cheap EEPCs and they work fine. They can access the local printer easily printing whatever they wish. But I can't do that! Unless my school buys a new Air-thingy printer from HP I just won't print there! And that just *****.

I've bought a sleek and expensive machine that is so sophisticated - that I can't use it the way I want to. And that isn't even ******** about the file system that seems to be equally messed up.

My question is, why can't I print from the iPad? Printing had been announced many times before the launch of iOS 4 and then, all of a sudden, nothing more. How can this be? Why do I have to buy additional software - which is not really cheap and far from certain to work at all - just to be able to print a few pages?

Please help me understand this, as I see it, major flaw of the iPad and iOS 5.

iPad 2, iOS 5

Posted on Feb 20, 2012 9:13 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 20, 2012 9:20 AM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

why can't I print from the iPad?

Maybe cuz your printer isn't Airprint compatible???

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4356

Or cuz you havne't installed any of the numerous printing apps available on the App Store such as Print and Share.

Don't blame the OS or device simply because you don't have access to compatible hardware or software.

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2012 9:25 AM in response to Templeton Peck

Thanks Templeton,

but that isn't really the question.

I was asking why Apple obviously isn't willing to (or capable of) building a working printing solution for iOS 5. I've been using Apple products for more than twenty years now and I'm simply amazed by the fact that here on the iPad printing seems to be so much of a problem. Every time Windows users complained about problems with setups and stuff I simply smiled - which was of course incredibly annoying for those guys. The simplicity of setting up the system and peripherals was what has always drawn me towards Apple. But the printing issue is something I can't understand.

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Answer 3

Feb 20, 2012 9:34 AM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

I was asking why Apple obviously isn't willing to (or capable of) building a working printing solution for iOS 5.

They do. It's called Airprint and it works quite well.

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Answer 4

schneidz

Level 1

15 points

Feb 20, 2012 10:41 AM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

will try to explain a little nicer. the ipad2 prints via "airprint" that is it prints via i believe a "bluetooth" signal sent to your printer. if your printer has no way of recieving this signal (i.e. is not airprint compatible) then your printer has no idea it is being asked to print anything.

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Answer 5

Rudegar

Level 10

170,730 points

Feb 20, 2012 10:51 AM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

no device in the world simply print to a printer

to print to a printer your computer require that a printer driver is installed

some printer drivers are included in the os though

devices without huuuge harddisks dont come with drivers for all the hardware in the world

so there you have to

1. get a printing app for your printer in app store

2. get a printer which dont require an app because it follow the generic std. printing interface called airprint

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Answer 6

Feb 20, 2012 11:21 AM in response to Templeton Peck

Thanks again T.,

but I don't want to get a new printer just like that, I have this hugely expensive device called iPad already.

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Answer 7

Feb 20, 2012 11:37 AM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

i-love-hate-my-ipad wrote:

Thanks again T.,

but I don't want to get a new printer just like that, I have this hugely expensive device called iPad already.

You don' thave to get a new printer. Just get one of the numerous printing apps available in the app store.

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Answer 8

Feb 20, 2012 11:43 AM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

First, make sure your iPad has the latest software. (iOS 5.0.1). Then find in safari The button that will pull up tweet, add bookmark, etc. it should pull up something that says print. Make sure your printer is a wifi printer. Some printers that are a couple years old might not be able to print from a iPad but they are still wireless.

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Answer 9

Feb 20, 2012 12:17 PM in response to sean-alex

Thanks guys,

I seem to have understood by now.

To sum it up:

- I can print with the iPad directly if the printer is Airprint compatible.

- I can print via a number of more or less working apps.

I've downloaded some HP software for my iPad and even seem to be able to access it from some other apps, that is except Apples Pages app. Sigh! So whenever I have to make changes in my documents, I still can't print.

GoodReader on the other hand lets me send my documents to the HP app, but the app/HP won't let me print microsoft docs unless I register and send my documents over to HP where the printing prep is being made, then they send it back to me/my printer. Anyway GoodReader blows my layout apart, so I must change it on the iPad, but when I do …

It's a big catch.

You must realize that printing really isn't that comfortable and that as a spoiled old Mac user I might be excused for wishing something more workable.

The truth seems to be that I've got to carry all those docs on a USB-stick, move them over to the Windows-machine at our school and print from there - which is what I do on a daily basis already.

All those workarounds that may or may not work (check out user comments on those printing apps!) are so annoying that my overall question remains pretty much the same.

But I could also rephrase the question: Why can't I print from the so-called best tablet office app even if I am equipped with all the apps I apparently need?

Please understand that this is not Apple-bashing in any way. This is a real problem for me in my everyday life. I won't be persuading my school to buy AirPrint printers just because of my little problem and I honestly don't want to spend more money on printing apps that seem never to even have gone through beta testing.

Still, thanks for you efforts. I guess I'll just have to wait for Microsoft Office for iPad to get that big problem solved.

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Answer 10

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Feb 20, 2012 1:22 PM in response to i-love-hate-my-ipad

Microsoft for Office on the iPad will not solve your problem. Using an Airprint compatible printer will be the easiest solution to your problem and they aren't that expensive. Plus there are a lot of them out there now, a big difference from when they were originally released.

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