Without turning on the computer, the mobile phone is directly connected to the printer, and all three channels of Apple, Android and WeChat are accessible.

Last month, my mother came to see me with her mobile phone. There was a 23-page physical examination report PDF saved in WeChat, which was sent by the community hospital. She wanted to look at it on the paper. Her first reaction was to plug the mobile phone data cable into the computer and fiddle with it for a long time without success. After watching it for a while, I realized that there was no need to turn on the computer at all - the printer was connected to the WiFi at home, and the phone could be used directly as long as it was on the same network. I tried each of the three methods with her, and she can now use the easiest one.

First distinguish: Printing from mobile phone is not about "connecting", it is about "finding""

Many people are stuck in the first step, using the idea of ​​​​a Bluetooth headset to understand the printer. They always feel that they need to "pair", plug in the cable, and install the driver first. No. The wireless printer itself is a device on the home network. It is connected to a WiFi with the mobile phone. The mobile phone prints it find out That’s it, no need to go through any pairing action in the middle.

The one I have at home is an Epson L3255 ink tank machine. Last year, in order to prevent its IP from drifting randomly, I set it in the router. Tie a static address , pinned to 192.168.31.15 superior. I usually type on the computer, but the day my mother came to ask me about it, I seriously went through the process of using my mobile phone all over again. Let’s put the conclusion here first: The newer the machine, the shorter the road. Mainstream wireless models after 2010 basically use a set of protocols called AirPrint. Android also has a corresponding universal protocol, and both ends can be installed without installation.

Apple is the easiest way to go: AirPrint, no need to install anything

My wife’s iPhone was tested this way. Open the PDF, click the share button in the upper right corner, scroll down the menu and there will be "Print", click it to select the printer, the name of the machine will pop up by itself, select it, click print, and words will start to appear on the paper in less than thirty seconds. No apps were installed during the entire process, and no printer model was entered.

This is AirPrint, a set of wireless printing standards set by Apple. As long as the printer supports it (it supports AirPrint if it is printed on the box or manual), iPhone, iPad, and Mac can discover each other under the same WiFi without a driver. By the way, its principle: Mobile phones and printers broadcast their identities to each other on the network, and follow cast screen , AirPlay discovery device is logical, so It is not affected when the mobile phone is connected to the 5G frequency band and the printer is connected to the 2.4G frequency band. , you can still find the dual-band if both sides are on the same network segment. Don’t believe what is said online that “must be connected to the same frequency band”.

Let me mention two small pits. First, if the page size is wrong when printing for the first time, go into the print settings and change the paper from Letter to A4. ； Second, you can check the printing progress in the multi-tasking interface. When printing, swipe from the bottom of the screen and you will see a temporary "Print Center" that appears. If you are stuck there, cancel and reprint. Don't press the print button repeatedly to create a pile.

Android: The "default printing service" that comes with the system is free but not many people know about it.

My mother uses a Huawei phone. Android has a built-in system printing framework from a very early version, equipped with a switch called "Default Print Service". The path to open is usually: Settings → Connected devices → Connection preferences → Printing. The menu names of each brand are a little different. For my mother's machine, just enter the word "print" in the search box at the top of the settings, and it will pop up immediately. This method is the stupidest and fastest.

Turn on the "Default Print Service" and it will automatically scan for printers that support Universal Printing Protocol (Mopria, IPP) in the same WiFi. My L3255 was scanned out in three seconds, and the physical examination report was printed directly after selection. This service is basically compatible with Android phones. Wireless models from HP, Epson, Canon, and Brother in the past ten years are all on the compatible list, so there is no need to install apps from each company.

If the machine at home often fails to scan, install the manufacturer’s own App to find out.: HP Smart, Epson iPrint, and Canon PRINT are all free and legitimate methods, and you can use them to find old machines.

How to open files in WeChat: My mother learned the fastest way in mini programs

The above two paths have a common premise: The file must first be able to bring up the "Print" menu. Things I receive in WeChat are just stuck here - when I open a PDF in the Android version of WeChat, I often can't see the print entry in the share menu. My wife's iPhone can share it, but my mother's Huawei phone is disconnected, and she is so angry that she wants to give up.

Later I discovered that the third path was prepared for this situation.: Printer manufacturer’s WeChat applet . "Xiaobai Smart Printing" jointly developed by Epson and HP's "HP Cloud Printing" can be used by searching their names in WeChat. Take Xiaobai Smart Printing as an example. The first time you enter it, follow the prompts to bind the printer at home. Then click "Document Printing". You can directly select the file source. WeChat chat history , check out the PDF from the conversation with the community hospital, set the page range and then print out the paper. The whole process did not leave WeChat. My mother memorized it after practicing it twice, and now she can do it by herself.

This road also has an unexpected benefit: The mini program runs on the cloud, so you can have your home printer print out paper even when you are not at home. I was at the company last week, and she called me saying that she needed to type out a document urgently. I used a small program in the office to send the document to the L3255 at home, and my mother just took the paper away from the printer - provided that the printer at home was online and there was no power outage. Those learning materials, question banks and other bells and whistles in the mini program require membership, and basic printing is free. If we don’t use them, we won’t use them.

Why can't my phone find the printer? Check three places one by one

After walking down the three roads, I almost always turned over at the "Can't find the printer" step. Ranked by hit probability from high to low:

Check whether the mobile phone is on the "home network". The printer cannot be found even if the mobile phone has data enabled and is not connected to WiFi, or is connected to the guest network.—— The guest network is naturally isolated from the main network , the mobile phone in the guest cannot touch the printer in the main network. This is a design behavior and not a fault. Guests at home are connected to the guest WiFi, and if they want to make calls, they have to switch to the main network.

Second, check if the printer is awake. The ink tank machine sleeps deeply in power saving mode. The panel is black but the network is still online. The mobile phone seems to be working, but there has been no movement for a long time. Touch the printer to wake it up, or turn off the power for half a minute and then turn it on again. This kind of fake online in deep sleep, I was there before The printer lost connection article I have specifically written troubleshooting methods, and the symptoms are very similar.

Third, check whether the printer IP has drifted. If the router has been restarted or the optical modem has been powered off, DHCP may have moved the printer to another address. Most of the time, the applet and AirPrint will retrieve it by themselves. If you really can't retrieve it, go to the router and bind it to a static IP, once and for all. If the printer can’t even find 2.4G, it’s probably a dual-band-in-one trap. I’m here to help with the network configuration. The previous article It’s written in more detail, so I won’t repeat it here.

Old printer without wireless? The pocket and check list at the bottom of the box

If the printer at home is an old USB printer with a data cable, none of the above three paths can be used. The correct way is to use a computer at home as a print server, plug the printer into the computer to enable sharing, and use the mobile phone to transfer calls through the computer. I'm talking about this set method Router to printer I wrote about the entire process, from sharing settings to how to connect to the mobile phone. Please read that article if you need it.

Give an order at the end: First check whether the printer is wireless and what year it is → Share and print directly on iPhone, and open the default printing service on Android → If it is stuck on a WeChat file, go to the mini program → If it cannot be found, press the same network, sleep, and IP drift to check → The machine is too old before it is the turn of computer sharing. My mother is now typing a physical examination report. It takes two minutes from receipt of the document to the output of the paper. No one has to ask the computer for help with mobile phones and printers.