[ipad] Printing from ipad

[RabbieBurns]

Is there any way to print from Ipads to a windows based print server where the printers are shared, or is the only way to use bonjour and use something like Papercut?

 

How are you all managing printing from ipads?

[SLS_]

We went with an app called Print n Share Phone Printing - There’s an App For That: “Print n Share”, this works in conjunction with WePrint server (downloads on that same site) which sits on our SVR2008R2 Print Server.

 

Unfortunately the App isn't free but its worked really well here, the biggest challenge we found was disabling services on the printer web interfaces so that students could only print to selected printers.

[MatthewL]

There are several applications out there, EveryonePrint which is designed for schools/commercial/BYOD environments and can integrate with accounting solutions like PaperCut and PCounter and then there is Presto which is more designed for home users. Any questions feel free to ask, I do bits of this here and there.

[SYNACK]

Even papercut relies on you either uploading a jpg/pdf to a print server or running a mac server with papercut on it to act as a bridge to the windows stuff. If you are not monitoring printing some of the printers may have apps that allow you to print drect but it is a bit of a hack with lots of different printers.

[fiza]

Google cloud print?

[peterp]

We use a bit of software called Fingerprint. FingerPrint turns any printer into an AirPrint printer - CNET

[RabbieBurns]

I do want to have a central server to monitor who prints what, and uploading a document through a www site is fine. Can I just install papercut on my existing windows print server, allow http access to that single IP, and then the ipads can print using papercut?

 

I was under the impression that papercut had to use bonjour?

[SYNACK]

Web print is the upload one Tour - Web Print (Mobile Printing) - PaperCut but for formats other than jpg and pdf you need a server with office, acrobat etc setup to retrieve and actually print the sent documents, there is Tour - Google Cloud Print - PaperCut or the native way Tour - Manage iPad Printing (iOS devices - iPad, iPhone) - PaperCut which requires an apple print server, you can also use email to print which is like webprint but you email the files instead Tour - Email To Print - PaperCut

[MatthewL]

FingerPrint is Presto, website here.

 

It's not stable for anything other than home use, relies on services been rebooted all the time.

[rob_coles]

We've just moved from Pcounter to Papercut one of the reasons being was for ios support.

 

We have windows print server with Papercut and a secondary Papercut server on the mac. Which ticks the reporting side. The mac itself also becomes a print server it just feeds its accounting back to the windows server.

 

We've only just finished in today and it works very well. Bonjour service was a bit awkward at first as I didn’t fully understand what it did. We're vlan'd up on site and we had to create virtual interfaces for the different vlans to allow broadcast. It's a bit of messing at first especially when you’re a mac novice like me.

 

For us now ipads can be either on our guest wifi or our own school ipad vlans. You have to point the ipad to an internal website to install the app for print release.

 

We've also installed webprint for bring your own device in sandbox mode which allows a lot more file types.

 

The following file types are allowed from web print.

 

Application / File Type File Extension(s)

Microsoft Excel xlam, xls, xlsb, xlsm, xlsx, xltm, xltx

Microsoft PowerPoint pot, potm, potx, ppam, pps, ppsm, ppsx, ppt, pptm, pptx

Microsoft Word doc, docm, docx, dot, dotm, dotx, rtf

PDF pdf

XPS xps

[box_l]

xPrintServer - an iOS Print Server for iPhone and iPad Printing

 

these are brilliant

[MatthewL]

Hi Rob,

 

Take it's all running smoothly on that secondary box now?

 

Matt

[SYNACK]

There is of course the universal way of printing from ipads that requires no drivers or even network connection:

 

[rob_coles]

It's early days MatthenwL seems to work well.

[tommej]

I have this saved in evernote from a while back, never got round to testing it but it might be of some use to you.

 

Printing from iPad to Windows Printers | Inanis.net