Google makes printing to faraway printers easy in all sorts of situations
Sometime soon, you'll likely have something to print—and there's no guarantee you'll be at your home or office when the need strikes. You could make a reminder for yourself to print that e-mail or document the next time you're at your Mac or PC, or you could harness the power of the cloud to remove those traditional workplace boundaries and bring the printer to you.
Cloud printing has been around for a few years now, and it's actually very easy to set up. Google is the reigning champ in this space, with a product aptly named Cloud Print. With a few minutes of setup, you can have your Android, iPhone, Mac, or PC printing to printers in faraway places—even FedEx offices—from wherever and whenever you wish.
But what about AirPrint? Apple's wireless printing platform, first released in 2010 with iOS 4.2, is unfortunately limited to local networks. Even when connected to a home or office network over VPN, networked AirPrint-capable printers simply fail to identify. Perhaps, eventually, that will change. For now, Google is running the show.
Cloud Print can be set up in one of two ways. A number of manufacturers, including HP, Kodak, Epson, and Canon, already sell cloud-ready printers that "connect directly to the web and don't require a PC to set up." But what if you have a so-called "classic" printer, one that can't go online? You can still set that up too.
Because Cloud Print was initially conceived for use with Chrome OS, the setup process is handled entirely in Google's Chrome browser. To enable Cloud Print, head over to Chrome's Settings page, and select "Under the Hood." From there, you should see the option to enable Cloud Print from the bottom of the page.
The process is relatively painless from here. If you already have a printer installed in Windows or OS X, Cloud Print is smart enough to identify the device and prepare it for remote printing. You don't even need to keep Chrome open. A helper process runs in the background and listens for new print jobs. The only caveat, of course, is that both the printer and computer must remain on for cloud printing to work.
From here, you're probably going to want to, you know, print something. If you're using Chrome on any other Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, this too is easy. Any Chrome installation synced to your Google account has the ability to print to your cloud printers. If a friend or coworker has an existing Cloud Print setup, they can share their cloud-enabled printer with you, too. This can be useful in small business or team scenarios where multiple people can be given access to a shared printer in a remote location that is managed by someone else.
To print, simply select the Cloud Print option from Chrome's print page dialog. Doing so will open a browser pop-up that lists all of your cloud-enabled printers, in addition to any other printers that friends or co-workers have shared with your Google address.
Of course, you're not just limited to printing from Chrome (though this is the simplest way to get going). OS X users can use a third-party app called Cloud Printer to print a variety of documents from a local machine—and, with a few extra steps, can set up Cloud Printer to act as a virtual printer in any Mac app. Windows users can download a similar app called Paperless Printer. Both are free.
Mobile use is, admittedly, a little more difficult. Unlike a desktop OS, mobile applications on Android and iOS require printer support to be included on a per-application basis, and every implementation is a little different. In other words, you won't necessarily be able to use Cloud Print with every application that also supports printing.
On Android, you'll be able to print from Google's mobile Chrome browser, for example, or within the native Google Docs app. There are also other capable apps listed on Google's website, as well as on the Play store. On iOS, however, native options are slim. Google says that the in-browser versions of its mobile apps support Cloud Print, and some websites apparently feature a Cloud Print button. However, perhaps the best approach is to use an alternative to remote printing all together. An app available for Windows and OS X called WePrint can monitor an e-mail address for new file attachments and print them using a local printer when received. Or, if you're a Dropbox user on OS X and feel more comfortable setting things up yourself, you can use Automator to automatically print any file synced to a local Dropbox folder.
It's not quite the same as having native print support in a given application, but it beats not being able to print at all.
Cloud printing has been around for a few years now, and it's actually very easy to set up. Google is the reigning champ in this space, with a product aptly named Cloud Print. With a few minutes of setup, you can have your Android, iPhone, Mac, or PC printing to printers in faraway places—even FedEx offices—from wherever and whenever you wish.
But what about AirPrint? Apple's wireless printing platform, first released in 2010 with iOS 4.2, is unfortunately limited to local networks. Even when connected to a home or office network over VPN, networked AirPrint-capable printers simply fail to identify. Perhaps, eventually, that will change. For now, Google is running the show.
Cloud Print can be set up in one of two ways. A number of manufacturers, including HP, Kodak, Epson, and Canon, already sell cloud-ready printers that "connect directly to the web and don't require a PC to set up." But what if you have a so-called "classic" printer, one that can't go online? You can still set that up too.
Because Cloud Print was initially conceived for use with Chrome OS, the setup process is handled entirely in Google's Chrome browser. To enable Cloud Print, head over to Chrome's Settings page, and select "Under the Hood." From there, you should see the option to enable Cloud Print from the bottom of the page.
Setting up Cloud Print requires you to go under the hood.
From here, you're probably going to want to, you know, print something. If you're using Chrome on any other Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, this too is easy. Any Chrome installation synced to your Google account has the ability to print to your cloud printers. If a friend or coworker has an existing Cloud Print setup, they can share their cloud-enabled printer with you, too. This can be useful in small business or team scenarios where multiple people can be given access to a shared printer in a remote location that is managed by someone else.
To print, simply select the Cloud Print option from Chrome's print page dialog. Doing so will open a browser pop-up that lists all of your cloud-enabled printers, in addition to any other printers that friends or co-workers have shared with your Google address.
Of course, you're not just limited to printing from Chrome (though this is the simplest way to get going). OS X users can use a third-party app called Cloud Printer to print a variety of documents from a local machine—and, with a few extra steps, can set up Cloud Printer to act as a virtual printer in any Mac app. Windows users can download a similar app called Paperless Printer. Both are free.
Google Cloud Print's Web-based queue. Everything printed successfully.
On Android, you'll be able to print from Google's mobile Chrome browser, for example, or within the native Google Docs app. There are also other capable apps listed on Google's website, as well as on the Play store. On iOS, however, native options are slim. Google says that the in-browser versions of its mobile apps support Cloud Print, and some websites apparently feature a Cloud Print button. However, perhaps the best approach is to use an alternative to remote printing all together. An app available for Windows and OS X called WePrint can monitor an e-mail address for new file attachments and print them using a local printer when received. Or, if you're a Dropbox user on OS X and feel more comfortable setting things up yourself, you can use Automator to automatically print any file synced to a local Dropbox folder.
It's not quite the same as having native print support in a given application, but it beats not being able to print at all.
Photograph by Google
