Tech Tutorial: Printing from your Android Device

Happy New Year, all!

In this day and age of mobile technology, everyone seems to do more on the go rather than at their desk. Why not take that a step farther and print from your Android tablet or phone to that printer on your desk?

The concept of cloud printing isn't a new one, but has only come into widespread use in recent years. Printers with wireless capability allow anyone connected to that printer to produce a hard copy of almost any document, email, or web page, regardless of  whether you're two feet away or anywhere on the planet. One of the best ways to go about this is using Google Cloud Print. Not only does this service support printing to any cloud-aware printer from almost any computing device, but also printers that are not wireless-capable or networked.

This article assumes that your printer supports cloud printing, has wireless capability, and is already configured. This process was tested using an HP printer.

What You Need:

• A wireless printer that supports cloud printing
• An Android device
• A Google account

The Process:

There are plenty of apps in the Play Store designed to provide printer support, but many you have to pay for. Google Cloud Print, on the other hand, is totally free and works with most applications.

The most current version of Android includes Google Cloud Print, so it's merely a matter of configuring the app for your specific printer.

Wireless-enabled printers usually have an email address that allows documents to be mailed directly to the device for printing (as an alternative to using cloud print services). This address also acts as your printer's identifier over the Internet. 

• Go to the Google Cloud Print webpage to determine if your cloud-enabled printer is compatible.
• HP users need not worry as all HP ePrint printers are compatible with this service.

• Log into to your Google account.
• If you wish to configure printing for multiple Google accounts, simply set each one up individually using these same steps.

• Using your printer's web interface, front display panel, or documentation, locate the device's email address. 
• Note that your printer manufacturer may require you to register your printer with them before the email address is made active.  

• On the Cloud Print webpage, follow the prompts to register the address using your mobile device.
• Note that doing this from a device other than the one you wish to print from will configure that device for cloud printing.

• Print a test page to make sure configuration was successful.
• Google Cloud Print will give you this option after setup is complete.

• Test print from other apps (such as your browser, office suite, email client, etc.) to confirm that they've been properly configured as well.
• Your wireless printer should now appear under your app's print screen.
• For some apps, it may be necessary to manually select the Cloud Print option, as your mobile device may default to other print methods.
• If your device has the HP Print Service Plugin preinstalled, it can be disabled under Settings > System > Printing > HP Print Service Plugin.

The Google Cloud Print screen on a desktop web browser.

A note on privacy: as with any cloud-based application, you run the (small) risk of your documents being viewed by others who may intercept the print request. This chance is greatly reduced by the fact that all print requests are encrypted via HTTPS. In addition, Google keeps a copy of your document for a brief time to ensure the print went through properly, but this is deleted from their servers afterward. 

If you have privacy concerns, I'd recommend using a local printer (that is, one that's only accessible by a directly-connected computer or over a home network) for documents containing personal or confidential information.

I hope you've found this tutorial useful in getting Google Cloud Print configured on your mobile Android device.