Print WiFi to PDF?

[MWinME]

I'm working in a small local print shop. We frequently have customers walk in with an iPad or smart phone and want to send us a job. Usually we will have them email us the file, but that may take several minutes.

Since most of these devices can print to wifi printers, I'd like to set up a wifi PDF printer of sorts so that it prints to a place in the shop where it would create a PDF. It seems like it should be doable. Any ideas how we might set this up?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

It will never be quicker than emailing the file until the printer's drivers are -integrated- into the device's OS. Think of how much time it will take to even explain that to them, let alone show them how to do it, "everyone" knows how to forward an email with an attachment so the problem not lies with your printer, but getting the file from the device and the pathway is already there.

 

[gordo]

I guess not much has changed this the early days of printing from the iPad when it was first introduced?

 

[MWinME]

That's great, Gordo! I haven't given up on this idea yet. Checking out some things.

 

[benstarr]

Well you can look for a device with Apple® AirPrint and/or Google Cloud Print. I'm not sure if any non [FONT=Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]desktop printers support these services. I haven't used cloud print so I can't speak to that but with AirPrint if they have an iOS device and are on your WiFi (with the printer on the same network of course) the device basically just shows up as an option in the print dialog.[/FONT]

 

[Graeme NZ]

There are plenty of iPad/Tablet apps out there that enable to you to "print" to a PDF locally from the tablet. If you have the patience to walk each customer through the process of obtaining the app, they can generate the PDF themselves and email the file through right there on the spot.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

There are plenty of iPad/Tablet apps out there that enable to you to "print" to a PDF locally from the tablet. If you have the patience to walk each customer through the prcess of obtaining the app, they can generate the PDF themselves and email the file through right there on the spot.

But is that truly more simple than having them email the file?

 

[MWinME]

I just turned on the bluetooth capabilities on our Mac-Mini and I can send files to it from both my iPad and Android phone. Quicker than Email via cell data. More importantly, if it's an image file, it doesn't get downsampled. I'm still going to try some tests with AirPrint when I get a slow day.