Do you have to use an AirPrint printer to print from an apple device?

Not necessarily.

To print directly from an iPad you need an AirPrint - enabled printer on the same wireless network as the iPad. If a printer is not an AirPrint - printer, then you can avail yourself of some workarounds with the goal of keeping that printer in service.

Those choices amount to varying degrees of expense or inconvenience, and are:

1. Using a Mac or PC as a proxy for AirPrint. The Mac utilities are:

• handyPrint (Mac only, donation-supported)
• Printopia (Mac only, $19.95 with free trial)

These are utilities you install on a Mac you would normally use for printing, enabling it to act as an AirPrint print server for any printer the Mac can use. The Mac must be "on" but may be asleep for them to work. The iPad needs nothing else, no iOS apps need to be installed and no configuration is necessary. If your Mac can print, so can the iPad, using one of these utilities on your Mac. The obvious disadvantage is that if you don't have a Mac they're not attractive options.

There may be PC equivalents to the above, but you'll have to do your own research since the only product I had been aware of is no longer available.

2. Using a standalone hardware print server such as this one:

http://www.lantronix.com/it-management/xprintserver/xprintserver.html

It is a small device connected to your network, and bypasses the need for a computer to act as an AirPrint print server.

Its advantage is that you don't need a computer, but even the least expensive model is about the price of a new AirPrint printer. It is the more attractive option for someone who doesn't want to rely upon a utility that resides on a Mac, or who already has and wants to use a large number of non-AirPrint printers.

Either of these two options allow you to use any printer available to your Mac: wired, wireless, or USB-only.

3. A free iPad - resident app such as Brother iPrint&Scan. Canon, Epson, and HP have equivalent apps.

The disadvantage of such apps is that their functions are more limited than having a true AirPrint print option appear in apps that can print, and can generally print only some types of documents.

Otherwise you will need to buy an AirPrint printer or multifunction device. I recommend AirPrint compatible Brother printers and multifunction devices over those of other manufacturers.

Read the reviews and choose wisely.

You have covered most of the "bases" in this discussion thread, so thanks for that! In relation to which specific printers are AirPrint-compatible... Out of ignorance I recently purchased an HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-one printer, and not even realizing that some wireless printers are incompatible with AirPrint, I went through the whole installation and printer setup process -- SUCCESSFULLY! Yes, believe it or not, my Officejet Pro 8600 appears to work correctly using AirPrint, and it prints items sent to it from my iPad 2, using iOS 7.1.1. Obviously, my iPad 2 seems to have the ability to see and to recognize that my wireless printer is connected to the same home network.

The reason that I am mystified by my (surprising) ability to print directly from my iPad is that when I much later read the website from Apple Support ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4356 ) which listed ALL of the known AirPrint-compatible printers, my Officejet Pro 8600 was NOT amongst those models named on the HP list. Apple Support claims, on that webpage, that ONLY the product items in their listing will support The iOS AirPrint feature. Is this really true? Then, how is it that I'm actually ABLE to now print from my iPad? Or, does "AirPrint-compatible" mean something else? In other words, does it simply mean that a NON-AirPrint type of printer will print some things, but not everything correctly?

Moreover, how do I contact Apple and tell them that the above model printer also seems to work with AirPrint? My iPad was purchased 3 years ago, and so I am no longer entitled to free Apple technical support, and I don't know how to contact them and tell them that the above-referenced support page is misleading. (Lucky I didn't read it BEFORE purchasing my new printer, or I might have overlooked this model, assuming that it wouldn't work.)

Understandable, since not even HP's list shows that device as being AirPrint compatible: HP AirPrint Compatible Wireless Products

Excerpt below:

Which HP printers and LaserJets are compatible with Apple AirPrint?

HP always recommends updating to the latest firmware version for the best printing performance.

...

HP Officejet printers

The following Officejet printers are compatible with AirPrint. These printers might require a firmware update to enable AirPrint compatibility, depending on the model and purchase date. HP always recommends updating to the latest firmware version for the best performance and functionality.

Contrary to its absence from the above list its data sheet clearly says that it is AirPrint compatible: http://media.flixcar.com/media/inpage/assetsv2/HP-303329783-HP-303305562-cm750a. pdf

You also have to be careful to follow HP's incomprehensible model designations. The HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One N911a appears to be AirPrint - compatible, but if there were another one designated N911 it might not be. This was a problem some time ago with one of their printers in which you had to be sure it had the proper -a or -b suffix.

One would think HP would get their act together, but I gave up on their ability or desire to do that long ago. Glad it's working for you!

Also, I believe HP has to send some sort of certification or other notice to apple to get it included in the list. They may have simply skipped that step on this one.

For what it's worth we've found it is now possible to print across our WAN to AirPrint Printers using the Configurator/MDM AirPrint payload settings, so at least in this specific case you needn't be limited to being on the same subnet or the same wireless network The printer specified in the payload settings shows up as an available printer just like Airprint Printers discovered on the same physical subnet. We printed to a printer 300 miles away using this method.

Holy Moly, John... those are really impressive resources that you found there... very interesting info. How ironic that HP *itself* does NOT list my model of printer amongst its AirPrint-compatible devices, and yet its DATA SHEET plainly says that it is! I guess that there is no point at all in my trying to get Apple to "correct" the seeming omission from their AirPrint listing, NOT if they cannot obtain confirmation from HP Corporation about this fact. (Obviously, Apple is not going to listen to what an end-user is saying, as opposed to official HP company statements.)

Oh, and just for the record... The correct data sheet for my own model of the HP Officejet Pro 8600 is just a little bit different from the one which you supplied a link to. I do NOT have the Pro 8600 Plus. I actually have the lower-priced model. (WITHOUT any added designation called "Plus") My data sheet can be found at:

http://media.flixcar.com/media/inpage/assetsv2/HP-25936882-c02908643.pdf

The link immediately above is for my model -- Officejet Pro 8600 (N911a) -- a tiny notch below the "Plus" version, but NEVERTHELESS one can plainly see that the data sheet also states it is AirPrint-compatible.

I have had an HP OJ Pro 8600 for three years and it has supported AirPrint perfectly until iOS8. They have done something to tighten up which printers worked or trashed up AirPrint.

My printer says is has the latest update. I used AirPrint Activator (handyPrint) before Apple AirPrint and it worked OK.

From either an iPhone 5, 6 or iPad 4 the printer is located but when data is sent is locks the printer and it must be unplugged to reboot it. I think this

is related to BonJour because this printer also has problems with printing from new iMac Retina 5K unless setup by static IP which does not use Bonjour.

Having said all this, AirPrint has one major problem, no support for draft and/or blank-and-white. So I rarely used it due to waste of ink.