Use any printer with an iPad and iPhone

One of the most irritating features of the iPad is limited support for printers. It is fair enough that it only supports wireless printers and I don't expect to be able to plug in a USB cable, but why does it not support more wireless printers? Only a small number of models are supported and although I have a wireless HP printer that works fine with Windows PCs and Apple Macs, it doesn't work with the iPad or iPhone. I have an HP DeskJet 3050A J610 and you need an HP DeskJet 3050A J611 - just one digit different in the model number and it doesn't work.

Even if supporting more printers is not possible, why is it not possible to connect to a PC or Mac to print? If a PC or Mac is on the local network and connected to a printer, why can't it act as a print server? Surely it is possible to send the print job to the computer and then let the computer print it?

That is the idea behind Netputing handyPrint (with a lowercase h for some reason). It enables you to print from an iPad or iPhone to a USB printer that is attached to your Mac. It does this by announcing on the local network that the Mac is an AirPrint printer. It basically pretends the Mac is an iPad compatible printer. All you need to do is to choose the Print option on the iPad or iPhone, tap the option to search for a printer and up comes the one attached to the Mac.

An interesting feature of this application is that it can add a virtual printer. Instead of printing to a real printer it uses the Mac's ability to print to a PDF file. So even if you don't have a USB printer attached to the Mac, it is still possible to print from the iPad and iPhone. The result is a PDF file on the disk drive. You can keep this or when you are next able to print from your Mac you can print the PDF and delete it afterwards. In the screenshot above I have added a virtual printer called MacBook Printer and can print to this from my iPad.

handyPrint is a useful utility to have if you don't have a compatible wireless printer for your iPad or iPhone. It is donationware, which means that after a free trial you have to donate some money to the author. How much you donate is up to you. Just pay as little or as much as you think it is worth.