[colinstone]

Had a read of the 2.1 manual, but did not see anything about printing from PB to a Bluetooth printer - my Curve prints pics over BT so was hoping a PB would print docs over BT.
Can it be done?

Sent from my BlackBerry® 9300 using Tapatalk

[F2]

No.

If you use wifi-sharing, you can point to a file in Win Explorer, Right click and select Print - but you get the default and cannot alter anything to the file would need to be in a final format.

[moloko velocet]

There is no direct way to “get this thing done”. When I first got the PlayBook almost a year ago I remember being disappointed about this. I think it was as OS 2.0 was nearing that I heard of "Print to Go”. I, and many others, mistakenly assumed this would add printing functionality of some kind. Yes!

Unfortunately when 2.0 was released, it turned out that “Print to Go” was an ***backwards feature. Instead of allowing you to print from the PlayBook, it allowed you to save copies of documents from a computer on the PlayBook. Or something like that. Never bothered to investigate further because as it was described it was useless for my needs.

Sigh.

[DigitalMadness]

I use an app called Print to handle my playbook wireless printing needs.

[tofnow]

I have used an AppWorld app called, strangely enough, Print, since it first came out very early this year. It has two parts, one small server that you run on your Desktop/Laptop and one that loads on the PB. Works by WiFi, same network as computer. Hit the Print icon on your PB page and it will come up almost instantaneously with a screen that says "Select". Find the file you want to print to a printer connected, wired or wireless, to the 'puter and say print. That's it, that's all.

OBTW, it is very inexpensive.

[twstd.reality]

^^ that seems like a lot of work just to print a doc. it'd probably be easier to go the cloud route (you can get like 5 gb free on dropbox or something), or just email it to yourself. my printer is connected via a mini networked usb server, so Print would not work for me.

[Merboy6969]

there is a print script that you install on your computer that inetgrates with your dropbox account. It simply adds a print folder within your cloud dropbox account, if you put a file in that print folder it automatically prints that file/document on your default printer that is setup on your computer. It works no matter where you are (don't have to be on the same wifi). Cheers.

[JacBerry]

If you are lucky enough to have a printer with email address like some epsons you can send the documents straight to the printer. Although this is what I use i certainly didn't go and buy the printer for my PlayBook lack of functions I thought I'd mention it anyway.

[Zildjian71]

If you remember, Windows doesn't print unless the specific drivers and support apps for a specific printer are installed. Until the printer manufactures decide to fully support all mobile platforms the ability to print from mobile devices will be spotty at best. Every model of printer and every OS needs its own unique driver.

There are still printers that are hard to connect to MAC OS and forget all the flavors of Linux which would go for the fragmentations of Android as well.

Bottom line is there are no standards and I wouldn't advise holding your breath hoping for one any time real soon.

[moloko velocet]

If you remember, Windows doesn't print unless the specific drivers and support apps for a specific printer are installed. Until the printer manufactures decide to fully support all mobile platforms the ability to print from mobile devices will be spotty at best. Every model of printer and every OS needs its own unique driver.

There are still printers that are hard to connect to MAC OS and forget all the flavors of Linux which would go for the fragmentations of Android as well.

Bottom line is there are no standards and I wouldn't advise holding your breath hoping for one any time real soon.

There is a standard. Of course, printer manfs aren't going to bother supporting it unless there are lots of users which will buy their products because they support that standard.

Let's see.
-100 million tablets
-lots and lots and lots of phones
Sounds like something the printer manfs would find interesting.

Search Results - Best Buy Canada

35 printers on that site support it. 11 under $100. I got a wireless HP scan/copy/printer for half price ($40) in early sept. Works perfectly. Press print on the tablet and, amazingly enough, it prints. No apps necessary. No windows box left running on the network necessary.

It just works.

[kill_9]

There are still printers that are hard to connect to MAC OS and forget all the flavors of Linux which would go for the fragmentations of Android as well.

Every printer I have bought during the last decade have worked flawlessly with my GNU/Linux desktop or notebook computers. I run CUPS to keep things as easy as possible configuration-wise.

[kill_9]

I got a wireless HP scan/copy/printer for half price ($40) in early sept. Works perfectly. Press print on the tablet and, amazingly enough, it prints. No apps necessary. No windows box left running on the network necessary. It just works.

Could you tell me what application offers a print option?

[moloko velocet]

Could you tell me what application offers a print option?

There is no application necessary. It is a built in function. Note I said tablet, not PlayBook.
"As of August 2012, there are more than 200 AirPrint compatible printer models from Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Samsung and Dell."

[Zildjian71]

I'm not knocking HP but they're not a standard. Most OSs do provide some sort of print service loke CUPS for Linux but that is generic and does not support every feature of any single printer.

Again there are no standards which is why CUPS was developed for Linux. There are a lot of printers that the mfrs have released their drivers to open source but there are still holes and printing is not universal. Connect the same printer to Windows, Mac OS and Linux and print the exact same document and there will be slight layout differences.

I'm just saying printing will come to the mobile universe some day but there is still a lot to be accomplished. I personally like HP and yes they do have some mobile solutions but its still not a universal standard and is proprietary to them.

The PlayBook is a none standard OS and though I'm not a big Android fan I would expect the first real solutions that cover the broadest range of printer brands to be an Android app.

[bldshd]

There is no application necessary. It is a built in function. Note I said tablet, not PlayBook.
"As of August 2012, there are more than 200 AirPrint compatible printer models from Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Samsung and Dell."

So this is of no help for people looking or wanting to know to print from the PlayBook

[moloko velocet]

though I'm not a big Android fan I would expect the first real solutions that cover the broadest range of printer brands to be an Android app.

Wrong.
"As of August 2012, there are more than 200 AirPrint compatible printer models from Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Samsung and Dell."

[kdeckels]

I bought a half price Brother wireless printer, and on the box it says there's an app available on their website that allows printing from android phones - I thought,.dangit.

[moloko velocet]

So this is of no help for people looking or wanting to know to print from the PlayBook

No. There is no direct way to print from a PlayBook. Various hacks involving a Windows computer as an intermediary.

[zilla0617]

Actually you can print from the playbook using the iprint &scan android app for wireless brother printers. I sideloaded the app a while back, works great. You can find the app over at goodreader's playbook app collection. Hope this helps.

[moloko velocet]

Actually you can print from the playbook using the iprint &scan android app for wireless brother printers. I sideloaded the app a while back, works great. You can find the app over at goodreader's playbook app collection. Hope this helps.

Cool. I don't run Android apps myself as I find the OS somewhat flaky asking it to run native apps alone, but it it's nice to have options. Can you run me though the steps to print, say, a PDF that is open in Adobe Reader?

[zilla0617]

There's option to print from a PDF once you open the app. Afterwards, the app will list all the PDF files on the playbook. Select the PDF you want to print. Unfortunately, there's limitation of being able to print a max of 20 pages within a PDF. But hey, its better than nothing.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[jelp2]

Actually you can print from the playbook using the iprint &scan android app for wireless brother printers. I sideloaded the app a while back, works great. You can find the app over at goodreader's playbook app collection. Hope this helps.

I'm glad you mentioned that! I've sideloaded it and now I can print to my Brother printer without a hitch.
I use Cortado for my 9850 and wrote them about the PB. They're not going to develop for it. It has been converted but crashed whenever I tried to print.

[Fuzzballz]

-100 million tablets
-lots and lots and lots of phones
Sounds like something the printer manfs would find interesting.

Not really. Printing documents assumes "productivity" use, which tablets are awful for and phones are worthless for. Tablets are good at bringing media (video, photo, or text) to a user in a mobile environment. That's about it. They're almost useless for productivity, which requires larger screens and keyboards that you can actually type quickly on (unlike touch-screens). Printing usually involves productivity, such as a 20-page legal brief, copies of a collated 50-page scanned PDF document, etc.

And if you're just printing out a recipe that you downloaded from a web site to your tablet or whatever.. you wouldn't actually need to do that, you'd just bring the tablet with you and set it up in the kitchen while you cook. That's what they're for.

If you're being productive enough to require printing, manufacturers assume that you've already got a laptop or you're in the vicinity of a desktop, which you'd use to print from. There's very little demand for printing from tablets.

[Zildjian71]

Well said Furballz!

[moloko velocet]

Not really. Printing documents assumes "productivity" use, which tablets are awful for and phones are worthless for. Tablets are good at bringing media (video, photo, or text) to a user in a mobile environment. That's about it. They're almost useless for productivity, which requires larger screens and keyboards that you can actually type quickly on (unlike touch-screens). Printing usually involves productivity, such as a 20-page legal brief, copies of a collated 50-page scanned PDF document, etc.

And if you're just printing out a recipe that you downloaded from a web site to your tablet or whatever.. you wouldn't actually need to do that, you'd just bring the tablet with you and set it up in the kitchen while you cook. That's what they're for.

If you're being productive enough to require printing, manufacturers assume that you've already got a laptop or you're in the vicinity of a desktop, which you'd use to print from. There's very little demand for printing from tablets.

You are obviously unaware of recent developments in tablet design. I have a tablet with a resolution of 1536 x 2048. There is a decent chance that it is comparable or better than anything in your home or office. It's colour gamut, brightness, contrast etc are studio reference quality. I prefer to do the majority of my work on it. Once you interact with a screen that good, it is hard to settle for less. There is software available that allows a wide variety of content creation to be efficiently undertaken. The onscreen keyboard is actually pretty good, but I have a BT keyboard that is as good as any keyboard on the market for long typing sessions.

Scanning, faxing, and printing are trivially managed.

I can assure you that I am productive enough to require printing. Having a printer that works with my tablet is essential. Fortunately there were hundreds of printers to chose from. Well, dozens at the big box store I bought it from, but if you are willing to order online, hundreds.