How to Enable AirPrint on a Mac and Use Any Printer

AirPrint is one of the major new features for iOS 4.2, it allows printing from a iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Unfortunately, it only works with 11 different printers. That’s a very small percentage of printers on the market.
Steve Jobs did answer a email from a customer and stated “more printers will be added soon”.

If you want AirPrint to work now, there are some tweaks you can install that will let you use AirPrint with any printer that is on the same Wi-Fi network as your iPad.

Here are three different options for enabling AirPrint from a Mac. The first one is free, the others offer a few more options and a free trial period.

There is now an updated version of AirPrint Activator for Mac OS X Lion and it’s still Free. I recommend trying this solution first.

Click on this link for AirPrint Activator v2.

AirPrint Activator

AirPrint Activator is a free tweak that will have AirPrint working on you Mac in a few easy steps.
Apple did recently have the developer remove the tool for download, stating it infringed on Apple’s copyrighted code. The developer has replaced the code and in hope’s that Apple will let him distribute the new code.

The new AirPrint Activator Tool is available for download. After the download is complete, launch AirPrintHactivator.

Click on the togle switch and then enter the admin password.

Go to System Preferences, then printers. Find your printer and click on the minus sign to remove it. After it’s been removed, click on the plus sign and add the printer.

Make sure you check “Share this Printer on the Network”.

Your should now be able to print from you iOS device to your printer.

Printopia

Printopia is a excellent piece of software that makes AirPrint work like it should.
Once Printopia is installed on your Mac, you can print to any network printer with AirPrint, save a PDF or JPG file directly to your Mac or print PDF and JPG files directly to the Mac’s Dropbox folder.

Setting up Printopia is pretty much seamless.

All you need to do is install the application and select the printers to be shared.

Then print from your iOS device.

You can download a free 7 day demo here or purchase it for life for $9.95.

FingerPrint

There is also a tweak called FingerPrint that will enable AirPrint for all printers on a Mac for only $7.99. Like Printopia, it is incredibly simple to set up.

Just download the free trail here, install it and select your printer. Then your printer should show up on your iOS device almost immediately.

FingerPrint allows you to send a document to your Mac, send to iPhoto or print from your iOS device.

Cancel Printing or Check Status

If you would like to check the status of the print job or cancel it, double-click the home button, tap the Print Center icon, then select a print job or tap Cancel Printing.

AirPrint for Windows

To enable AirPrint for Windows users, there is a simple free tweak that enables AirPrint for any printer. Here is a step by step how to.