Printing is pretty much dead in this all-digital world, but there are still some things you can’t easily digitize: shipping tags, flyers for a bulletin board, printing an email for your head, and pasting joke memes to your colleagues. cubicles. And in this age of doing almost everything on the phone, it’s good to have the option to print from it instead of needing to jump to a computer.
Apple has managed to create one of the easiest methods to print from a smartphone by having many printer manufacturers adopt its AirPrint wireless printing feature. Apple also has a very simple way to create PDF documents instead of a traditional hard copy, if you know how to get there. In this article, we will show you both.
Printing with AirPrint
It is important to note that AirPrint printing may not support all printer features, but you are likely to get options for: number of copies, range, paper size, orientation, scale, and other basic functions.
To get started, you’ll need access to a wireless or networked printer that supports Apple’s AirPrint driverless printing system. If you do not already have a printer, check how to choose the correct one. If you’ve purchased a wireless printer in the last five years (or even up to 10 years in the case of HP), it’s likely already AirPrint compatible. Some printer manufacturers may also include an application that can print files from your device or through their own cloud service, but they’re usually not as easy or enjoyable to use as AirPrint.
Then make sure your iPhone and printer are connected to the same wireless network. If your printer has an Ethernet port, you can connect it directly to your wireless router with an Ethernet cable and still have the AirPrint option from your iPhone. In business environments, you may need to have your computer department open the feature to allow printing from your iPhone.
Okay, now it’s time to print something:
- Open what you want to print: an email or attachment, a website in Safari, a file in the Files app, a photo, and more.
- Tap the Share button to open the sharing sheet, then scroll down and tap the Print button. Some applications may have the Print button elsewhere. For example, to print an e-mail message in the Mail application, tap the Reply button, and then look for Print at the bottom of the list of reply options.
- On the Print Options screen that appears, select a printer if there is no default option yet.
- You can now choose the range of pages you want to print, the number of copies, turn on double-sided printing, and other printing options.
- Tap Print and turn off!
You can view the status of the print queue / order by pressing up from the bottom of the screen (iPhone with Face ID or iPad) or by double-clicking the home button (iPhone with Touch ID) to access the Application Switch. You can also cancel printing here if it is not yet complete.
The print queue only appears in App Switcher during active printing. Touch to get a print summary while printing is still active, and you can also cancel it here.
Print to a PDF file
It’s amazing how useful a feature is as PDF printing is treated like an Easter egg on iOS, especially because macOS has an easy option to view Save as PDF for years. There is no button on iOS to print in PDF; instead, zoom in on the document to get the option, here’s how:
- With the instructions above, go to the Print Options screen of the file or page you want to convert to PDF (see instructions above).
- Preview the printable document as if you wanted to enlarge it. It will fly towards you as you enter a new stage of video games.
- You now have the document open as a PDF. You can scroll through the pages, zoom in and search for text on this screen, all to confirm that the document you want looks right.
- Tap the Share button at the bottom left.
- Select Save to files to specify where you want to save the document, or choose another application to send directly to someone, such as Mail, Messages, or AirDrop.