An iPad 2, a Mac and AirPrint Activator
comment : 54
So you just got your new iPad 2 and you are wondering how you can get to print to your Mac attached printer? Simple, there is a free solution with AirPrint Activator v2.
Simply download AirPrint Activator v2, run, turn on AirPrint on your Mac, Share your printer and voila! You can now print from your iPad 2… but what a better way than watch a short tutorial on how to do it:
So grab your copy and enjoy AirPrint from your iPad to your intel Mac running Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion.
Where can you get a copy? Simple grab it from the main application page.
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54 Comments
I have a Lexmark printer connected via WiFi with sharing on. The printer does not show up in the list. Is this because it is connected via wifi?
This is why. The printer need to be physically attached to the Mac to work.
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-03-14 à 0:14, “Disqus” a écrit :
There should be a USB port on your printer; Simply install the printer and this should work.
No. My hp printer is on my wifi network. My Mac is on the same network (connected through wifi. I can print from 3 different iPhones and our new third generation ipa with no problems as long as my MacBook is on.
Two complaints:
Make auto duplex actually work or remove it from print window on ios devices.
Add a portrait/landscape option in print window!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I could I would. You are welcome to help if you want. Do you know how to program?
Sent from my iPad
Can I change the properties for printing, eg print quality, landscape, etc
For now the only way would be through the printer defaults on your Mac… Not always practical… IDevice printing is very basic at the moment.
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-03-14 à 17:10, “Disqus” a écrit :
I tried AirPrint Activator v2.0b6. It works fine with my iPad and Cannon MP490 which is connected to my iMac. Unfortunately, it is rarely active. I usually use my HP Laserjet 1012 which is attached to my Airport Extreme, but this is not recognized. It seemed you intended to support Printers connected remotely. Has this not been implemented, or do I have some other problem? I did delete and reinstall the 1012 a couple of different ways, but that did not help.
Unfortunatly implementing wirelesly shared printers require the
implementation of proxy services… Which i have not had time to
implement. Maybe down the road.
AirPrint Activator works great with my iPhone and iPad2. The only problem I’ve had is that it disappears from the Dock on my iMac and turns itself off at unpredictable times. I then have to use Finder to find it again and turn it back on. How can I keep it turned on? By the way, I donated and was happy to do so.
Hello Susan,
Which version do you run? The latest version 2.0b8 fix a bug that would cause APA to not start back automatically when you login to you account.
Let me know if this help with the unpredictable shutdowns…
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-03-26 à 9:44 AM, “Disqus” a écrit :
I have a canon pixma mx870 printer (networked). The printer shows up on the AirPrint Activator but when I go to print something from my iPad 2 I get the message that the printer is offline. The printer has been enabled for sharing. Any ideas?
Unfortunately AirPrint Activator only support physically attached printers. Sorry.
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-03-29 à 5:43 PM, “Disqus” a écrit :
Not true my router attached network printer works like a charm. (as long as the computer it is shared thru is on)
I just had the same thing happen. My printer is attached to my wireless router. Any suggestions?
I have tried for several days to make this work! My MacBook is directly connected to my Canon printer. I have downloaded the latest version of the activator. I watched the youtube video to follow along but my printer doesn’t come over into the airport activator box – it remains empty. The printer is marked to share with the network but it doesn’t come over. I’ve removed and tried a different version of the activator many times but nothing seems to change. I just want to print from my iPad2 – HELP!
Hi. You have used v1.x of AirPrint then removed and added the printer… Right? What you need to do to use v2.0 is to undo what was done for v1.x of APA.
Make sure you turned off AirPrint using APA v1.x, then remove the shared printer and add it back again… Similar as to how you originally activated AirPrint with v1.x.
Now try to run APA v2.0b8. The shared printer should show up un the list.
If it does not let me know.
Cheers
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-03-30 à 1:59 AM, “Disqus” a écrit :
Hello and Help?
I did exact as bmaltais described below but no succes. My shared prinbter does not come across.
Maybe important to mention is that my printer is connected to my Airport Etreme.
I have to state that I instelled version last week and I could print on my iphone
with the last version nothing goes anymore.
Keep up the good work! I really like your solution (when its working) 🙂
Thanks,
Al
AirPort Extreme attached printers are not supported under AirPrint Activator
v2.0.
However, you can use AirPrintActivator v1.x until OSX Lion comes out…
Cheers,
Bernard
Can’t do this with my brand new ipad2 is there a built in that’s stopping me or what?
Ipad2 should be fine. What does not work? Are you seeing the shared printer listed in the APA v2 GUI? Is your printer attached via USB to your Mac?
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-04-04 à 11:18 PM, “Disqus” a écrit :
AirPrint Activator v2.0b8 is working beautifully for me with the iPad 2! I have a brother printer connected by usb to an airport extreme and then wirelessly to my mac. Shows up consistently in both Snow Leopard and Lion. Never gotten it to work with my iPhone 3GS, but I can live with that. Thank you for this. Bon Travail!
I am half way through a version that will support non locally connected
printers (like your setup).
Expect the new version by the end of Friday.
This is a great way to give life to an old printer; I know that I’m one of the many who are still rocking the old laser printers and won’t part with them for the less well made modern ones.
Wow – Love it! Am able to print from my ipad2 to my canon pixma5000. Even the photos from iphoto printed when accessed via the iPad. Question – when I print a photo from Photos on my iPad – it prints correctly on the 4×6 paper; however I don’t see where I can choose settings for the print via print activator. Therefore – my photos do not print in the “photo paper glossy” setting when I use print activator with the ipad. Any suggestions? Tried to figure out where to set “default” settings within Iphoto and/or my printer software for printing the photos — but not successful.
This is not supported yet… I know printopia added support for this
in v2. You might want to try the demo.
Have an HP Officejet J4680 connected wirelessly via an Airport. Love the thought of expanding the capabilities of Airprint, but understand from what I’ve read here that only printers connected physically to my Mac Air will benefit from Airprint Activator. Thus, 2 questions:
1. How goes the progress on making this Activator work for printers connected via wifi; and
2. Any other (obviously less elegant) solutions I could employ in the meantime?
Thanks!
ps: I’d be happy to contribute once this element is in place.
Try version v2.0b10 and see if it work for you.
I think it might just work 😉
v2.0b10 now support Wireless printers (in most cases)
Cheers
It looks great. I downloaded v2.0b10, and launched the app. All of my printers show up in the list, but when I used my ipad2 to print, nothing comes out…Thanks.
Sept. 28, 2011. Newipad2, new wifi canon 5320 working fine, but can’t get AirPrint to download on iPad. Printer is setup to share. Which version of AirPrint for iPad?
Each time I try to download I get a message that safari can’t download.
AirPrint Activator is not an application for the iPad. It is intended to run on a Mac. It will make your shared printers visible by your iPad when the iPad is connected to the same network as your Mac.
Hope this clarifies things.
I’ve done everything according to the YouTube video clip– “Preferences” shows I’m sharing, but my printer does not appear in the AirPrintActivator window. Any suggestions?
Have you user the v1 of AirPrint Activator? If yes then you have to turn it
off in v1 1st. Then remove and add back the printer. Then finally use v2
to turn on AirPrint.
Hope this help you out.
Hello, thanks for your app! I’m having a slight problem though. I own an iPad 2 with updated OS, an Airport Express, a White Macbook and an HP 1600 printer. After installing APA on the laptop and setting it after your vid tutorial (sharing the wifi network Airport with the iPad) i am facing the following : i can print Ok from the laptop but even though the Airprint printer does appear on my iPad, it won’t connect to the printer (the connection in progress window stays on the screen but nothing happens. Could you help me with that if you can, please? I would be extremely grateful. Nick
Here is what has heel for some.
In the preferences/security turn the firewall on and then off. For some reason there appear to be something with the firewall that prevent print jobs from reaching the printers shared by APA.
The firewall has to be off since APA does dot really work well with the firewall on yet.
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-05-01 à 7:38 AM, “Disqus” a écrit :
I have the same problem and have set my firewall to “allow all incoming connections” but am still not able to print. I get the message that the “printer is offline” although I can still print from the macbook.
Here is my situation:
– v2.0b15 (first version of APA installed)- Canon MG 8120 printer that is shown as available in APA
– MacBook, Printer, iPad2 all connected via Time Capsule & Airport Express
– No problem printing wirelessly from MacBook (or Lenovo PC for that matter)
– Firewall set to “allow all incoming connections”
– When printing via APA from iPad2 I get the message that “printer is offline”
Any further suggestions?
Thanks,
Try to actually turn off the firewall in osx and see if it help…
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 2011-05-23 à 5:30 PM, “Disqus” a écrit :
I have a Brother printer shared from my router by cable and an iMac (10.6.8) that’s also cabled to the router. The printer is correctly shared via Sys Prefs. Using an iPad 1G with 4.3.4 and the latest AA b15 download. The printer shows up in the Activator window
When I try to print I get a report “contacting printer” and then that the printer is “offline” and the process repeats again until cancelled.
Any suggestions?
Ignore! Turning off the firewall solved the issue.
Many thanks
Just downloaded the latest available and despite following the instructions, the iPad2 does not find any printers.
Running Lion
Any ideas?
P
Me, too. I was trying to connect, but iPad 2 did not show my MX870 at all.
Can I set my printer settings to default to black and white somehow? I don’t see that option anywhere.
APA can’t change this right now. I think it could be doable at some point in the future. Can you make it a default from your Mac Printer Preference Pane?
I haven’t seen anything regarding iOS 5. Is this in the works?
AirPrint has been working great for us, we have over 50 printers being shared from one computer through out our building. We just got a new wireless network. When you connect the ipad with the new network you lose the printer list. I have tried the following:
Connected the computer sharing the printers to the new network. I could not see the printer list. If I joined the ipad to the old network I could see the printers even though the computer was on the new network.
So it seems that there is something in the new network preventing me from seeing shared printers. Anybody else have a similar problem?
The right approach would be to make sure your mac has a network interface in both networks. You see, apple bonjoir network advertisements are not routable and will be local to a single subnet. By adding a new wireless network to which you mac is not directly conneted will prevent the advertisements from reaching the idevices.
I believe that there is a way to force multicast routing in the network infrastructure but it is not simple.
The question is…can you multi home your mac to both wireless network.
Just downloaded to iPad2 – unable to print …please help. Thanks in advance for your time
Hi, I have the latest version installed, but unfortunately I get “Printer is offline” messages on my iPad2 (with the latest iOS on it). Firewall on/off, rebooting, switching APA on/off – doesn’t help 🙁 my printers are not connected to my iMac, but they are on the network, cabled.
any hint out to solve this problem?
thanks
Just google search Step by Step Guide on How to
Transfer Music/Video from iPod/iPad/iPhone to iPad 2 or from iPad 2 to Mac/ PC/ iPhone/iPod/iPad.
you will find a simple solution
Well, it doesn’t work. When will computers just. simply. work?
I am using AirPrint v2.1b2 on a Mac Mini configured as network printer with HP D5460 attached to it. With iPad 3 I can print, PROVIDED that the firewall on the Mac mini is turned off.
With the Firewall turned on, even with exceptions defined for AirPrint Activator, the iPad 3 does see the printer. After the printer command it tries to contact the printer but fails to do so…
Did you added the aparedir helper application to the firewall?
Out of curiosity, why doesn’t this work on the original iPad?