I have an old HP laser printer connected to my Mac Mini by USB. It is not AirPrint-compatible, but I can print to it from my iDevices because I have HandyPrint running on the Mac. I recently tried to help someone else with a similar setup, only to find that HandyPrint is no longer available.
Does anyone have experience with any of the other alternative AirPrint replacements? Printopia? PrimePrint? Presto? Anything else?
Thanks!
I used Printopia a while back and found it to be very good, managed to print from macOS / iOS and Windows with it.
It takes some fiddling, but I was able to turn a network-less Brother laser printer into a wireless one with a single-board computer (think Raspberry Pi or equivalent), by following some online instructions (and possibly modifying them, I’d have to check my notes).
The device just sits there, on 24/7. In my experience it just needs to be restarted once ever 6-12 months or so (when the printer mysteriously stops responding). So far so good.
The device can also be used for other things at the same time, fwiw.
I recently started using Printopia and am quite happy with it. Also recently I repurposed an old Mac mini as a Linux box, and it sees the pinter on my network, with no configuration on my part on the Linux box. A very nice surprise.
Had Printopia not worked my next option was to use an old Raspberry PI as tf2 suggests.
Thanks for the replies. The person I am trying to help is elderly, technophobic, and 6,000 miles away, so fiddling with a Raspberry Pi is not an option. I will attempt to remotely walk her through installing Printopia on her Mac.
Some routers, especially more modern ones, have USB ports, and if you plug a printer into it, network users (eg, via WiFi) can use the printer. Would that be an option?
Maybe… but I don’t know what kind of router she has or how her network is set up. Using the Mac as a print-server is something I can walk her through over the phone (or screen-sharing) because there are fewer variables to deal with.
It also turns out that her printer is technically AirPrint compatible, so that should help as well.