Printing from iPhone to old printer (not Airprint-compatible) - possible?

There are applications that act as an AirPrint proxy—they act as a print server on an available computer. I used onefor years called HandyPrint (no longer available), there's also one called Printopia. There are a few others, I think. These are for the Mac; I dunno if there are Windows equivalents, but I assume so. The problem is, they tend to be ridiculously expensive for what they do (Printopia is $20. hahah, no.) and need to be running at all times, like any server application. Plus, with newer versions of iOS, they don't tend to work particularly reliably.

If you like to tinker, there are tons of guides for turning a Raspberry Pi into an AirPrint server, too. But that's probably more effort than it's worth.

Easier would be, as you suggest, to use an on-device print app. Unfortunately, I don't have any recommendations for that.

cateye said:

they tend to be ridiculously expensive for what they do (Printopia is $20. hahah, no.)

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That sounds like a pretty reasonable price, depending on how much you use it, for something that allows you to continue making use of an older printer with newer devices that otherwise would require you to buy a new printer (especially given that it works with 5 printers, not just one), assuming that being able to print regularly means the convenience is valuable to you. Otherwise, if it was just rarely, you could save whatever it is as a file in many cases and just send it to your PC/Mac. Most applications for a computer that are really useful for one particular thing cost $50 and include 2 dozen other functions that almost nobody wants, and there simply isn't one that only does that one necessary thing. AND it has a fully functional trial so you don't spend money and find out that your printer won't work well with it.

Printing from mobile devices is so ridiculously difficult. Since you can't install drivers for a particular model, it's hard to make anything that can adapt an arbitrary printer. Software can do it because your computer will have the drivers, and the software can attempt to convert the AirPrint "driver" formatting. It would be nice if you could plug in a USB AirPrint server, but those seem to not exist. (StarTech had one that is discontinued.) But those adapters can't know anything about the actual printer that's plugged in and have drivers for it, so if the printer doesn't work with generic drivers, it won't work well or at all. Unlike Ethernet/Wi-Fi print servers that connect to the printer with USB, the "AirPrint driver" isn't intended for USB communication so it can't just be passed through.

I just did a quick search, and it looks like all the "print from your phone" apps either only work with AirPrint printers anyway, or they're workarounds that also use software on your PC/Mac. I couldn't find any that actually could definitely print to an arbitrary printer directly. Even the ones that claim "print direct to all printers without additional software" are actually print-via-PC when you read the full description. iPrint from Appstun doesn't mention it, but since app store software doesn't come with any manuals and never has any real information even on their websites, there's no way to read about how it's set up, and the actual reviews aren't good. There are hardly even any articles reviewing printer apps from sites that normally review applications.

Lord Evermore said:

I just did a quick search, and it looks like all the "print from your phone" apps either only work with AirPrint printers anyway, or they're workarounds that also use software on your PC/Mac.

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There's a third potential option: manufacturer-specific apps. These were the primary way to print from iOS before AirPrint.

For @kolokotronis, though, the 4000n is so old (it's approximately 25 years old now, and almost 10 years older than iOS itself) that HP's Smart app doesn't support it. (The HP Smart app apparently does support some non-AirPrint printers.)

In this case, given the age disparity (ancient 4000n, relatively new SE 3rd), the pass-through options (desktop software, standalone AirPrint server) are probably the only option.

It's worth pointing out that software like CUPS can easily make any printer an AirPrint printer, just add the printer and tick "share this printer" during setup

cogwheel said:

There's a third potential option: manufacturer-specific apps. These were the primary way to print from iOS before AirPrint.

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Yeah, as you then pointed out, those are entirely irrelevant to this discussion. They don't even work universally on a particular manufacturer's recent or new devices. Some are just using AirPrint for the printer functionality, others a kind of proprietary AirPrint generic driver, and adding the other functions like scanning via proprietary network communication (the app is the driver, just like on a desktop). It's interesting that some like HP actually support such a huge range of their non-AirPrint and very old models instead of trying to push you to buy new ones.

jacketpotato said:

It's worth pointing out that software like CUPS can easily make any printer an AirPrint printer, just add the printer and tick "share this printer" during setup

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That doesn't work. iOS devices will only see a device that is advertising itself as an AirPrint-capable device. You have to do more than simply share the printer, but I didn't know it was even possible.


That may even be all that the apps are doing (and why they can do it for free).

Lord Evermore said:

That sounds like a pretty reasonable price, depending on how much you use it, for something that allows you to continue making use of an older printer with newer devices that otherwise would require you to buy a new printer (especially given that it works with 5 printers, not just one), assuming that being able to print regularly means the convenience is valuable to you.

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$20 is a steal if it allows you to continue using an old printer that doesn't force you to replace perfectly good toner cartridges that are still X > 0% full.

kolokotronis said:

Looks like Printopia requires a Mac to be connected to the network, which it uses as a print server for mobile devices. Not quite what I am looking for.

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Yeah but that's basically the only option you're going to find that's mostly plug-n-play. It looks like you could put CUPS onto a Windows machine via the Windows Subsystem for Linux and perhaps that would allow it to work as a print server, which would be a bit more work but the only alternative, and may or may not work with your particular printer.

There appears to be an HP smart app for the 4000n Link here

Lord Evermore said:

That doesn't work. iOS devices will only see a device that is advertising itself as an AirPrint-capable device. You have to do more than simply share the printer, but I didn't know it was even possible.

(Link removed to not get flagged as spam)

That may even be all that the apps are doing (and why they can do it for free).

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Yes it does, because I've done it many many times. If you add a printer to a CUPS server that is on the network, and select 'share this printer' an iPhone will see it. I know because I've made a thermal printer AIrPrint functional this way, and one of my family did it with his older printer. CUPS can share any printer compatible with it through AirPrint. I think that guide is simply doing it a different way with avahi, which is an mDNS daemon that can do various Bonjour/mDNS things.
EDIT: It appears that Apple CUPS refuses to support AirPrint but OpenPrining CUPS (the version used in linux distros) can https[://]github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/105 (sorry I can't post proper links)
OpenPrinting CUPS natively supports this printer, (www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-LaserJet_4000)

AndrewZ said:

There appears to be an HP smart app for the 4000n Link here

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Sadly, that's a junk reply from someone who didn't bother to check. The actual list of HP printers that can officially¹ print from mobile OSes (from a number of methods, including AirPrint and the HP Smart app) is here, which I reviewed before I posted earlier in this thread. Note that the LJ4000n, or any LJ4000 flavor, is not on the list. The M4000 series is, but the M4000 series is a very different and much more recent multifunction.

¹ By "officially", I mean using something HP provides. The solution @jacketpotato mentions should work, but it isn't one from HP themselves.

Major bummer. For LJ4000 it says: HP Print Service Plugin.

It really sucks that you can't just give those OEM apps an IP and arbitrary model. (A third-party printing app that supports a wide range of all brands would be nice but is probably impossible due to patents and stuff preventing making drivers.) Almost any printer (at least B/W and maybe many color) will work with the LaserJet 5 driver in a PC/Mac OS to print basic pages, or at the very least many will work with a text-only driver even though that would have limited capabilities, and it couldn't be that hard to add those two nearly-universal drivers. I don't even understand why printing functions and driver availability aren't part of the OS just like on a desktop anyway. Is it just because there's so little demand that Apple and Google don't want to bother?

cateye said:

(Printopia is $20. hahah, no.)

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Well this is the stupidest thing I’ve heard today.

I use my Synology to make my old brother AirPrint compatible. As usual, they make it almost as easy as a check box.