Printing from iPad

If you need to print from your iPad, you can use the built-in wireless printing capability or a third-party app, which is likely to give you a few more printing controls.

Native printing from iPad

As of iOS version 4.2, native printing capability is part of iPad's bag of tricks. This capability requires a wireless-enabled printer that supports the AirPrint protocol (and as of this writing these are few and far between), and the only control you have over your printing is to set the number of copies to be printed (though no doubt Apple will add more robust features to this in future iOS releases).

You can print photos, e-mail messages, web pages, and documents from iWork apps such as Pages. Tap the little Sharing button with an arrow on it (available in the Safari, Mail, and Photos apps) to find the Print command. When you tap that command, you see the Print dialog. Follow these steps to print:

1. In the Printer Options dialog (if you haven't used this feature with your printer before), tap Select Printer.
   iPad searches for any available wireless printers; tap your printer to select it.
2. Tap Printer Options to return to the Printer Options dialog and use the + or - buttons in the Copies field to adjust the number of copies.
3. Tap Print, and your print job goes on its way.

When you have print jobs going to your printer, you can access a Print Summary dialog that shows the name of the document that's printing, the printer it's printing to, the number of copies, when the print job started, and its status (for example, Printing 1 of 3). You access this summary by doubletapping the Home button and scrolling in the list of apps to locate the Print Center app. Tap it, and the summary displays.