How to print from iPad without AirPrint printer

AlbqBarb wrote:

John... Apologies that I cannot make heads or tails out of this thread after it gets more and more technical. Here is our question... Have Xerox Phaser 8560 printer - not AirPrint compatible. Would like to use it as the printer for our iPad Minis. Have a MacBook Pro that is on line 100% of the time. Don't have need to print from anywhere other than in the house (when travelling, hubby's work can just be saved and archived if necessary later). What is the easiest way to do this? The Xerox is a $600 printer that is fast and cheap to use. We'd prefer to not have to buy another. Thanks.

Sure. The above links will still work, but the name AirPrint Activator has since been changed to handyPrint.

They both work equally well and do essentially the same thing, which is to enable your MacBook Pro to act as a print server for the Xerox or any printer it can already use. The Lantronix print server implements this same function in hardware dedicated for that specific purpose.

Using any of these soutions is simple - all of the MacBook Pro's shared printers will be made available to any iPad application that can print.

If something does not work as expected for you, post a new question since this one is old and the recommendations are at risk of becoming outdated.

Do you download that app to your MacBook Pro or to the iPad(s) or both? And thanks for being so clear!

AlbqBarb wrote:

Do you download that app to your MacBook Pro or to the iPad(s) or both? And thanks for being so clear!

The MacBook Pro. There is nothing you need to do with the iPad, except print.

John, thanks a lot!!! HandyPrint is very easy to be installed and worked perfectly! 🙂

Trial lasts 14days. THEN Requires a donation of more than $5 and you WILL need Internet connection for it to work. You can upgrade to the PRO version that doesn't need Internet to work, just local WiFi and an extra $20 to buy.

This app is very basic and not worth $25+ defiantly an attempt to cheat you out of your money. Steer clear

Having contributed to it... and having used it now for months, if not longer, I can chime in on key deficiencies:

1. Having to have the Mac it's on running.

2. Interference with sleep because File Sharing has to be on.

3. Mac laptop leaves the house, those at home are left along without ability to Air Print!

We ended up realizing that an Air Print compatible printer was the only way to go. Much easier, much less hassle, and everyone in the household, whenever, and wherever the Mac is (or what state it's in--literally in both senses of that word), can print!

We ended up getting an inexpensive Brother inkjet (470-DW) that works like a charm--and it's easy on the ink costs, too.

I used AirPrintActivator and worked like a charm! Took me less than 5 min beg to end. Thanks!

Yes, I have one too, and AirPrintActivator works like a charm 🙂

Another thumbs-up here for AirPrint Activator, which is now called HandyPrint. The Mac has to remain logged in, but it can be sleeping. Worked perfectly.

For shame, Apple. You call yourself eco-friendly, and yet the lack of Airprint compatibility for older printers is driving a disgusting rape of the planet. You are forcing people to discard perfectly good printers that have ripped the heart out of the Earth for their construction.

I have a great workgroup network printer with 6500 pages on it. Its design lifetime is at least 150,000 pages. There is no way I am discarding it for some new obscenity that does the same thing simply to get a function that you could, and should, have enabled in software.

The existing solutions are both for-pay, and I refuse to pump money into the economy needlessly to obtain a simple function that should be in the OS. Furthermore, there is no guarantee whatsoever that these solutions will continue to work through continuous updates of the OS.

Your mentality is disgusting. You drive an economy of waste by forcing us to throw out perfectly good hardware and you big-foot any developer trying to make an open-source urftopdf. You make me sick. You need to wake up and stop needlessly destroying the planet.

Enable Airprint printer sharing on OS X now!

Oh please, get over yourself. "Rape of the planet"? Really?

Due to the limited processing capability and lack of a file management system (which is for security reasons) AirPrint works differently along with other printing solutions for mobile devices (Apple is not alone in this). Print drivers and AirPrint are contained within the printer and it is in firmware. AirPrint is an open source solution and any printer manufacturer can adopt it without paying anything and they could update their older models if it is feasible within the firmware. In most cases it isn't. So contact the manufacturer of your printer and see if your printer can be retrofit for AirPrint.

HP came out with ePrint before AirPrint and that facility is also not backwards compatible. Same with Epson.

If you are so concerned about the environment and think continuing to use your printer will save it you can spend the money for other options such as an AirPrint print server or Printopia, Print Central, etc. At one time Apple did have code within OS X to allow printing through Apple computers but this was removed at the last minute when Apple was threatened by one of the patent vulture attorneys. They never added it back.

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