The promise of AirPrint is the ability to print without first installing printer drivers. iOS uses AirPrint to print from iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. But OS X Lion can use AirPrint as well.
In OS X Lion, to add a printer and to use AirPrint, first open the System Preferences Print & Scan panel.
Use the ‘+’ button on the left side of the panel to select “Add Other Printer or Scanner…” and to open the Add Printer window. The resulting window will show all of the printers on your network that can be seen by Bonjour. Click your AirPrint printer in this list and select “AirPrint Printer” from the menu at the bottom of the window.
Finally click the ‘Add’ button. This will create a new printer entry on your Mac that uses AirPrint to print instead of a printer driver written by your printer’s manufacturer.
AirPrint provides useful settings under the print dialog’s “Presets” menu. These settings depend upon the type of printer being used:
This technique will work with any of the printers on Apple’s list of AirPrint printers. The following printers were used for the examples above:
HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw Color Printer
HP Photosmart Premium Wireless e-All-in-One
If you are looking for a new AirPrint printer please see our AirPrint recommendations.
In iOS the options presented in the print panel on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch depend upon the application being used and the features of your printer. Here we’ll take a look at how the print panel changes across applications and printers.
Photo Printing
The iOS Photo app presents a very simple print panel. The user can select the number of copies to print but the printer will choose the photo paper size based on the loaded paper size.
There are printers, at this time primarily those from Lexmark, that know all of their loaded paper sizes. When the printer can tell iOS the list of loaded paper sizes then that list is presented to the user:
Safari Printing
When printing from Safari the option to print multiple copies is still present but, for duplex printers, the option to print double-sided is also present.
PDF Printing
When printing a PDF document from Mail, Safari, or iBooks the user is given the option to select a range of pages.
Printers
For these examples the following printers were used:
HP Photosmart Premium Wireless e-All-in-One
Lexmark C925
If you are looking for a new AirPrint printer please see our AirPrint recommendations.
Apple’s list of AirPrint compatible printers includes a large assortment of multifunction inkjets. In order to make choosing an AirPrint printer easier here our our recommendations.
HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One
The OfficeJet Pro 8600 is HP’s second generation AirPrint OfficeJet. It prints very quickly and generates crisp documents. The printer also does a good job printing 4x6 photos.
Epson Artisan 837 Color Inkjet Wireless All-In-One
Epson’s Artisan 837 features six-ink color output. While the Artisan does a good job printing documents it shines when printing photos.
HP Photosmart Premium Wireless e-All-in-One
The HP Photosmart Premium is not as fast as the HP OfficeJet 8600 and it does not boast 6 ink colors like the Artisan 837 but it does offer a low cost compromise between the two printers. Available for around $100 this printer can produce crisp two-sided documents and, thanks to its photo tray, does a great job printing both 4x6 and 5x7 photos.
