If your printer has ever given you nightmares, I wouldn’t blame you. Few other devices can prove so problematic as a printer, with network connectivity (or lack thereof) being one of the most frustrating issues you can come across.
And that’s why you need to know about Google Cloud Print. This service by Google makes it possible for you to print to ANY printer from anywhere — even when you’re halfway across the globe — as long as you have an internet connection and the printer is set up beforehand.
One of the banes of owning a portable device has always been the difficulty of printing from it to a local printer. How do you print from your iPhone? How do you print from your Android phone or tablet? Google Print makes it simple. The gist is this, you let Google discover what printers you have attached to your computer–whether they’re network printers or USB printers and Google does the rest. No drivers to worry about. Just select print from your mobile device, choose your printer and print away.
These days, there are two types of printers: cloud ready printers, which are internet-enabled and can connect directly to Google, and classic printers, which aren’t internet-enabled and must use an internet-enabled device as their means of connecting to Google.
For classic printers, you’ll need to use Google Chrome for setup:
- Connect the printer to your computer.
- Launch Google Chrome.
- Type chrome://devices in the URL address bar.
- Click Add Printers.
- Select your printer and add it.
- In order to print to this printer, your computer must remain on and yoyur Chrome browser must remain open.
For cloud ready printers, you’ll need to consult the printer’s user manual for setup instructions. It should be rather straightforward though and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
To print, go to Google Cloud Print and click on Print. Select the document you want to print. This will send the file over to Google, which is then forwarded to the cloud-connected printer for printing. It’s as simple as that.
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