Print Your Pictures from Any Phone or Tablet

Most of us now have a photo-taking gadget constantly at our disposal: an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet or that fusion gadget, the ‘phablet’. We take pictures all the time: that beautiful sunset, a picture of the flowers that arrived for Mother’s Day, or the special toothless grin your granddaughter reserves specially for her grandpa. While a great majority of pictures will stay on your phone, tablet or one corner of your computer’s hard drive, there are some that are special enough to be printed.

A great many of us think that printing from the phone or tablet is difficult (are you still sending emails to your desktop so you can take a printout?). Printing from the computer is easy: you click the printer icon and give a print command. But a phone or tablet – now this presents a bigger technological challenge! If you are one of the many who transfer photos to your hard drive or takes your phone/tablet photo printing service, there’s good news. You can simply and easily print photos from your handheld device; iOS or Android.

Check your printer

Firstly you need to check if your printer is Wi-Fi enabled – that means a printer that can print wirelessly (no tripping over messy and confusing wires here). It sends data using radio signals instead. Now ensure that your printer is installed to the network so that your devices can detect that printer. With a Wi-Fi printer, more than one compatible device (including your phone and tablet) can give print commands to a single printer.

Printing from an Android Device

Three words: Google Cloud Print. If your printer is Wi-Fi enabled, it is most likely Cloud ready as well. If you’re not sure, you could just check if your printer is among Google’s list of Cloud Read Printers. What the cloud does is, it lets you send print commands from your phone or tablet to the cloud which then sends a print command to your printer. You can do this even if you’re at a friend’s house!

You need to install a Cloud Print App to your phone or tablet and you can now print directly from your device. Choose a Google account that you will use for printing. You can now print not just photos from your photo gallery, but your contacts, text messages, emails and web pages (that sketch your grandkid made on your phone; you can print that too!). You can even share your printer with your friends.

Printing from a Apple Device

Two words here: Apple AirPrint. You can use this to print form any device that uses iOS such as an iPad, iPhone. Usually there is no need to install any app or additional software to start printing because Air Print is built into most popular printers. Check if you have an AirPrint printer. If yours isn’t an AirPrint printer, check for a possible firmware update. Now ensure that your printer and your device are on the same network. You can now give a print command (via the share or settings buttons) in any compatible apps such as Mail, Photos, Safari, and iBooks as well as many third party apps.

Our May Coupon Code

And if you’re concerned the cost involved in buying ink cartridges and photo paper to print those special photos, then we have great news for you: we’re running a special promotion all this May. Use coupon code M7TOTE to get $7 off any $57 order or over on all your purchases until May 31st, 2015.

If you still have some reservations about printing from your phone or tablet do let us know and we’ll see how we can resolve those. And if you have any more tips, we would be delighted to hear from you!