Thanks to the advent of smartphones, we’re getting more and more work done away from the desk. Thankfully, Android has been embraced by many printer manufacturers, making it easier than ever to print directly from your phone or tablet, if you know the right app to use. There are countless printer apps on the market, each with different pros and cons, and we’ve done our best to narrow down the list of options to a handful of the very best. Here’s what you need to know about each one.
The best printer apps for Android
1) StarPrint – Free with ads
If you’d like to avoid brand-specific apps, StarPrint is as good as it gets. Print via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or even USB if your printer supports it. StartPrint makes it easy to print documents, web pages, maps, emails, and pictures from your camera roll or Instagram. Heck, it can print from your calendar if you like. With over 4000 printer models from HP, Canon, Epson, Brothers, Samsung, Kodak, and more supported, you should have no problem getting started.
One of the areas StarPrint shines is its wide range of print media options. Most of these apps allow you to select paper size, but StarPrint can handle anything from Letter to Legal to Executive to Postcard to a 3-inch CD. StarPrint pays for itself with in-app ads, but they won’t impact your printing. If you find them annoying, don’t worry. For a small fee, you can have them removed. Even with the ads, StarPrint is one of the best and most powerful printing apps available for Android. Make sure you give it a try before you go anywhere else.
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2) Cloud Print – Free
Most users don’t need a lot of bells and whistles from their printer apps. For those users, we recommend Cloud Print from Google. Cloud Print allows you to print to any Google Cloud-connected printer from anywhere in the world. Pull from any images and documents you have saved in apps like Gallery and deliver them directly to your Google Cloud printer. You can keep track of jobs, print, and connect to other Cloud Printers. That’s it. If you just want something that works, Cloud Print is a great, simple app.
3) Epson iPrint – Free
Epson’s iPrint app makes working with Wi-Fi-enabled Epson printers a dream, allowing you full access to the printer’s feature set from anywhere in the world. Print, scan, and share documents with the press of a button. The app makes it easy to configure your job to match your needs, down to selecting paper size, type, weight, and the number of copies. Need to print the web page you’re currently reading? iPrint can handle it from the app. With support for Word, Excel, and PDF, you’ll rarely come across a standard office document it can’t work with. If you need to grab a file from Box, Dropbox, Evernote, or Google Docs, iPrint offers full support for those apps. And, should you run out of ink, there are handy “Buy Ink/Toner” options available.
4) HP All-In-One Printer Remote – Free
HP All-In-One Printer Remote is a solid printer app that allows you to set up new HP printers, print, and even optimize documents from your Android device. Using your phone’s camera you can create high-quality JPEGs and PDFs of images and documents, and then print them directly to your printer. Grab images and documents from the cloud using Dropbox, Box, Evernote, and Google Drive or even social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. HP All-In-One-Printer Remote works with most HP printers from 2010 on, but make sure you check this page to ensure compatibility before buying a new model. Just in case.
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5) Samsung Mobile Print – Free
Samsung’s Mobile Print has largely the same feature set at the Epson and HP apps mentioned above, with a few minor improvements. First off, it’s clean interface is simply a joy to use. Epson and HP can sometimes feel cluttered, but Samsung’s navigation panels make jumping from functions easy as pie. Using the app, you can print, fax, or scan documents with ease, pulling from your cloud sources like Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox but also from social media sites like Tumblr and Facebook. Samsung Mobile Print lets you scan documents directly from the app, which can be a big time saver when you’re on the go. To see if your Samsung printer is compatible with the Mobile Print app, check out the model list at the bottom of its Google Play store.
