Printing from an iPad Air to Dell laser 1320c

[Guineafowl]

TL;DR Summary

Is there a way to do this? I use my iPad for everything, but have no Airprint-enabled printer so have to fire up my 12 year-old, obsolete PC to print. It makes a simple printing task take a good 1/2 hour. It should be simpler.

I may be known on the EE side of PF as someone who hates waste and doesn’t like to throw away perfectly good machines; I like to resurrect faulty gear. This Dell printer was thrown away for want of a touch or two of solder, and works just fine. Do I really need to buy a whole new printer?

This Dell laser 1320c has an ethernet port, and I have an ethernet-over-power line network on top of the usual router/wifi set-up.

Is there a way to connect the printer and iPad to a network (that doesn’t need a PC running) so that I can print from the iPad?

 

[russ_watters]

I'd sure hope if you plug your printer into your LAN, your iPad would be able to see and print to it.

 

[MikeeMiracle]

If you connect up the network cable to the printer then you should be able to get some kind of print app to help with this. i have an Epson printer with an Epson appon my Android, i don't see why IOS would not have something similar. Have you tried searching for an appropriate app in the App store?

 

[Guineafowl]

I'd sure hope if you plug your printer into your LAN, your iPad would be able to see and print to it.

🤣 I guess you’re a PC/Android man?!

If you connect up the network cable to the printer then you should be able to get some kind of print app to help with this. i have an Epson printer with an Epson appon my Android, i don't see why IOS would not have something similar. Have you tried searching for an appropriate app in the App store?

Can’t seem to find an app that connects to a network printer except the Dell app, which doesn’t support my printer.

 

[anorlunda]

Perhaps this app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cloudprint/id1004348584

 

[russ_watters]

🤣 I guess you’re a PC/Android man?!

Yes...guess Steve doesn't want you to print your docs unless its on his printer?

 

[Guineafowl]

Perhaps this app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cloudprint/id1004348584

I think that one is like the others: OK for wifi printers, but not wired network.

Yes...guess Steve doesn't want you to print your docs unless its on his printer?

I used to be a PC man, but got fed up with the hours wasted clicking through the likes of settings>user preferences>options>advanced>further options>choose your own adventure... etc. Crashes, inconvenient virus scans, bloatware, updates which stack on top of old OSs to such an extent that nothing works anymore...

The Apple stuff is more ‘packaged’ - a click or a swipe and it does what you want. However, if you wish to go outside these limits, an iPad is less useful than a wooden chopping board, since you wouldn’t even waste your time attempting the task with a chopping board.

It looks like that’s the case here

 

[anorlunda]

I think that one is like the others: OK for wifi printers, but not wired network.

It sounds like the printer has to be a Google Cloud printer.

Bottom line is for the first time ever, my iPad can print to my old trusty HP 2600. Of course the neat thing about Google Cloud print is that it can print to any device supported by a workstation OS. Any downsides or limitations? Well to print email from native iOS mail client, you have to select-all then hit 'share' and cloud print is destination. (Gmail client for IOS allows native print to google cloud print).