Print to any printer from your iOS device

{Update, December 9th, 2010: Ignacio Joannon added a comment to let me know that Air Haktivator has changed to AirPrint Activator available at: http://netputing.com/airprintactivator}

As you may or may not know, you can now print from your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc) if you have a printer equipped with the AirPrint feature. Problem is, that probably isn’t you! You need a fresh, shiny new printer. Bummer! Who wants to purchase a new printer just to print from their iOS device. Not something I’m going to shell out bucks for no matter how convenient that might be.

Well that problem has now been solved for Mac users thanks to the folks over at Netputing. They just released their free AirPrint Hacktivator application. Setup is simple and only involves the steps you’ll find after clicking the link below.

Configuring a Mac to enable AirPrinting:

• Download Air Hackivator (Mac only) to your desktop
• Double-click the download to decompress the archive
• Drag the application from your Desktop to your Applications folder (not technically required, but you might want to turn off the feature sometime down the road)
• Load the application
• Click the HUGE on/off slider – the application will activate AirPrinting on the Mac, indicated by a the Status light changing to green, and load your Printer & Fax preferences window
• Ensure your printer is turned on
• Remove your existing printer from the Preferences window
• Reselect/install your printer
• Click on the Enable Sharing checkbox
• Close System Preferences
• Quit the AirPrint Hacktivator application
• Delete the archive from your Desktop

Printing from your iOS device:

• Navigate to the read view of any e-mail message using the iOS mail app
• Hit the send to button (represented by a curved arrow) at the bottom-right of the iOS device in the e-mail application
• Hit the Print button – the Printer Options window, as shown to the right, will appear
• The printer you configured should be the default  – if you configure more than one printer, you can select a printer by simply hitting the printer name and making a selection
• Choose a number of copies to print using the - and + buttons
• Hit the Print button – if all went well, the Printer Options window will close and you will have a print-out in the printer tray
• Check all your applications to see which ones support the AirPrint printing option using the same print method

It really is that easy. The only thing to remember is that your Mac must be turned on whenever you want to print from your iOS device. And you printer does not have to be physically connected to your Mac. My printer is an HP 6300 series network printer connected to my router and I was able to print an e-mail message using my iPhone.

If you have problem installing AirPrint Hacktivator using my description, check out the Netputing site. They have another set of instructions along with a video that demonstrates how to add the printer. This hack worked with my “unsupported HP” printer and I imagine it should work with any printer supported by Mac OS X. So there you have it. Get to printing from your iOS device! If you find it is not working for you, drop a comment.