iPhone and iPads are increasingly being used for work purposes and one of the most common tasks we look to do is print from iPhone wirelessly. While we are still a long way off from a more intuitive printing solution, its actually quite an easy thing to do if you have an iOS 8 device on you. In this article, we show you how you can print from iPhone 6 or any iPhone device running iOS 8.
Apple devices include a native feature called AirPrint that lets you print wirelessly from your mail, Photo or Safari apps to an AirPrint-enabled printer. The trouble is that not all printers are AirPrint compatible, in which case you’ll need a program to circumvent the problem, but let’s go into that a little later. First of all, let’s take a look at how to print from iPhone 6 to an AirPrint enabled printer.
Using AirPrint to Print from iPhone 6
To print from iPhone 6, simply connect your iOS device and your printer to the same Wi-Fi network.
Print Email: To print an email message, open it up from your email app, tap the Reply button, and then tap Print. You will see the printer details such as name of your printer and can configure the paper size, copies and more.
Print Email Word Attachments: To print a Word attachment in your email, tap the attachment. When it opens up on the screen, tap on the screen to view the additional options. Tap the Share icon at the corner of the screen and choose Print.
Print PDFs: Printing a PDF depends on where it is located. If it is an email attachment, follow the steps given above. If its opened in a browser, just tap Share and then hit Print. If its in a cloud storage like Dropbox, open the PDF from the app, hit Share and then hit Print.
Print Notes: Open up the Notes app and open up the note you want to print. Tap the Action button (the square one with the arrow) and select Print.
Print Photos: To print a photo, just open the photo from the Photos app, tap the Share button and then Print. If your printer offers an app, you can print from the app itself as you’ll have more control over how you want your photos printed including paper size, margins and orientation.
Print Magazines: if you want to print a page off a magazine app, you most likely won’t see a direct option to do so. Instead, you can take a screenshot of the page and the print it out as a photo. To take a screenshot simultaneously press the Home and Power button. then head over to the Photos app where it is stored and print the photo. Alternatively, you can also add the page or story to the Reading list and then take a printout from Safari. To add to the reading list, first tap the Share button on the story that you are reading and choose Add to Reading List. Then head over to Safari, open Reading List and now hit Print.
Print Maps: If you want to take a printout of your driving directions from the Maps app, tap Share, then Print. You’ll then have to tap Start to get the route.
Print Safari Pages: Again, printing from Safari is pretty straightforward. Tap Share, then Print. If you are using Chrome, tap Menu->Print->AirPrint.
Print Word, Excel, PowerPoint files: If you are using Microsoft Word app, head over to the File menu (just as you would in the desktop application) and choose Print.
Apart from the default apps you find in iPhone 6 there are several third party apps for printing from iPhone. The App Store also offers a number of premium printing apps that you can make use of for your wireless printing needs.
Printing from iPhone Without AirPrint
You can also print from iPhone without AirPrint, but this will entail installing a program on your PC, which will effectively render any printer AirPrint compatible. One particular tool that can do the job well is O’Print for Windows. You can download O’Print from here and don’t worry, you’ll find it to be a clean install. Once you run the EXE file and complete the wizard run through, the printer will show up on its home screen. You will of course have to ensure that both your printer and iPhone 6 are on the same Wi-Fi network. Now you can easily print all your documents, photos, web pages et all from your iPhone without AirPrint.
Now printing from iPhone using AirPrint and without Airprint should be a pretty easy affair.
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