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AirPrint

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AirPrint
DeveloperApple and HP
TypeWireless Media Printing
Release dateNovember 22, 2010

AirPrint is a feature of Apple OS X Lion and later[1] and iOS 4.2 and later, for printing via a wireless LAN (wi-fi),[2][3] either directly to any AirPrint compatible printers (such as HP’s entire ePrint range, Canon wireless models produced after September 2011,[4] select Brother models,[5] or to any Epson models produced after fall 2011[6]) or to non-compatible printers through a MS Windows, Apple Mac OS X[3][7] or GNU/Linux PC.[8][9] AirPrint does not require printer-specific drivers.

Printer compatibility

Upon AirPrint's 2010 introduction, twelve printers were AirPrint compatible,[10] all of them from the HP Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One series. The current list can be found on Apple's support site.[11]

On August 31, 2011, Epson announced support for AirPrint support in "Epson inkjet printers launched from autumn 2011 onward." This represents 54 unique models World-wide.[12]

In September 2011, Canon released firmware updates that add AirPrint support to three of their Pixma inkjet printers, the MG8220, MG6220, and MG5320. Future wireless models will also include AirPrint.[13]

As of August 2012, there are more than 200 AirPrint compatible printer models from Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Samsung and Dell. Apple maintains an updated list of compatible models on their support website.[11]

As of December 2012, there are more than 450 AirPrint compatible printer models from Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, Gestetner, Hewlett-Packard, Infotec , Lanier, Lenovo, Lexmark, RICOH, Samsung and Savin. Apple maintains an updated list of compatible models on their support website.[11]

For other printers, AirPrint support can be achieved by configuring such support on an intermediary system already having such printers configured for local printing, shared on the same network. This is automatic in GNU/Linux distributions with CUPS since version 1.4.6 (such as Trisquel 5 and Ubuntu 11.04[14]). AirPrint Activator[15] provides the functionality on Mac OS X. There is a free solution[16] as well as a paid one[17] for MS Windows users.

Existing CUPS servers before version 1.4.6 with DNS based Service Discovery can also be configured manually, by adding DNS-SD printer service discovery records to a name server.[18] CUPS is shipped as the default printing subsystem in all recent versions of Mac OS and most GNU/Linux distributions.

Legacy Printers Support

A number of software solutions allow for non AirPrint printers to be used with iOS devices. These are unlicensed clones of AirPrint and lack the full features an capabilities of native AirPrint printers. These have also been known to break with each OS update from Apple.

handyPrint

handyPrint is a Mac OSX application that allow you to print from your iPods, iPads and iPhones on legacy printers that do not support the AirPrint protocol. handyPrint is the new name for the application that used to be called “AirPrint Activator”.

handyPrint is compatible with iOS4.3, iOS5 & iOS6 and will run on OSX Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8). It is a complete re-write of the previous version 2.

Netgear Genie

Netgear offers its Genie Application for both Mac OS X 10.6 or above and Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 which similarly permits you to make any shared network attached printer accessible via Airprint. The application is free for customers of current Netgear routers[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "AirPrint Basics". Apple Inc. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  2. ^ "Software update", iPad, UK: Apple.
  3. ^ a b "AirPrint" (Press release). UK: Apple. 15 September 2010.
  4. ^ Canon. "Canon USA Announces New PIXMA Printers With AirPrint Support" (Press release). Endgadget. Retrieved 17 March 72012. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ^ "Brother launches new SoHo AiO inkjet printers". Electronista. 2011-08-17. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  6. ^ "Apple's AirPrint Wireless Printing for iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch Now Available to Epson Users" (Press release). Epson. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  7. ^ AirPrint: how to make it work for shared printers, TUAW, 2010-11-11.
  8. ^ Printing from iPad AirPrint via Cups (how-to), CC: RHO.
  9. ^ AirPrint & GNU/Linux (how-to), Finnie, 2010-11-13.
  10. ^ Kovach, Steve (7 January 2011). "Only 12 Printers Work With Apple's AirPrint — Here's The List (AAPL, HPQ)". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  11. ^ a b c "AirPrint 101: Compatible printers", Support (knowledge base), Apple, retrieved 2012-02-16.
  12. ^ Apple’s AirPrint wireless printing, Epson.
  13. ^ "AirPrint", Consumer, USA: Canon.
  14. ^ "Devel", Ubuntu (mailing list), Canonical, 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help).
  15. ^ AirPrint Activator, Netputing.
  16. ^ Fora, Mac rumors.
  17. ^ Collobos.
  18. ^ DNS Service Discovery, DNS-SD.
  19. ^ Netgear Genie - Press release