How To Turn Your Printer Into A Cloud Printer

Google currently offers a cloud printer service through which anyone can make just about any printer accessible via the web. If you need be able to access a printer from anywhere on any of your devices, this post will tell you what needs to be done to get it set up. You will be able to print from anywhere in the world, and from any device that has an Internet connection.

Now, why would you be interested in a cloud printer? There could be occasions where the option to print from anywhere and from any device could come in handy; businesses, especially, could benefit from cloud-enabled printers. Let’s imagine you’re away from the office and you need to print a document for a co-worker. You can just pick up your smartphone and have it printed in the office thanks to the cloud.

The fact that you can print directly via the Internet also means that you don’t even need to install potential software on your computer or your smartphone. You can just use your browser, which all computers and smartphones already have in the first place.

I could mention many other examples of why a cloud-enabled printer could be a good thing, but let’s keep it down to one example. You may very well end up in a situation one day where you wish you could just print a document or image via the cloud, but you don’t have your printer set up for it.

Many newer model printers come standard with Google’s Cloud print built right in, and they’re capable of taking commands directly over a web connection. It’s really not that difficult to get one of the older printers connected, though. If the printer that you’re going to be using is not capable of accessing the Internet, what you’ll have to do is leave the computer it’s attached to running. That makes the printer connected to the internet via the computer, which is a requirement for this to work.

Before going any further, you should connect the printer to your main computer, the one you’ll be accessing it through. Consult your owner’s manual or your manufacturer’s support team whenever you need to, and particularly if you don’t know how to connect your computer to your printer.

Step 1: Connection

The first step is basically to have the printer and computer connected. Once you’ve set the printer up so that it is recognized by your computer, you will then be able to add it to Cloud Print.

Step 2: Installation

The next step is to get Google Chrome installed if you don’t already have it. To bring up the list of devices on your computer that Chrome can currently work with go to the address bar and enter chrome://devices then click the Add Printer button that appears, making sure the printer you wish to connect is ticked. Note that you can also manage any of your printers from this same screen.

Step 3: Access

From here, simply click the Manage button next to either printer that you see listed in order to add a new printing job, remove or rename a printer, or share your printer by assigning someone access to it.

Other Options

You can also print from your mobile devices as well; to do so, you’ll need to open the Cloud Print app on your Android device and the print option will appear. This option is not quite as simple, but you can still set the cloud print up so it prints from Google’s iOS apps. As an alternative, you can also use PrintCentral Pro. This setup will also work fine with Chromebooks.

Featured photo credit: Fernando Arcos via pexels.com

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