Trying to print a document when you are on the road is a real hassle. If you even have access to a printer, you need to install a printer driver and connect your PC to the printer or the network the printer is on. Well, that was yesterday’s way of printing. HP is taking the hassles out of mobile printing with new technology that lets you print from virtually any type of device via e-mail to a Web-connected printer.
About 20 years ago, when I was a systems engineer for a software company, I spent hours and hours generating custom printer drivers that would work with my company’s word processing software and an HP Laserjet printer. Every font and every typeface required its own driver. You want Arial? That’s one driver. You want Arial italics? Another driver. Arial boldface? Yet another driver. What an antiquated process! My, how times have changed.
Last month I installed a new HP Photosmart printer for my kids’ PC. I downloaded the printer driver from HP’s Web site and installed it on the computer. I told Windows that this would be the default printer for this PC. I tested the printer by opening a document in my word processor and sending it to print.
This week HP announced its latest evolution in printing. Now you can connect an HP printer to the Internet — no PC required — and print to it from just about any e-mail-capable device, from anywhere you happen to be. HP ePrint technology allows you to attach whatever it is you want to print — photos, documents, maps, coupons, movie tickets — to an e-mail message that you forward to a Web-connected printer using any device with an Internet connection. There is no printer driver to install. Instead the printer is assigned a unique e-mail address when you register it before first use.
HP enables remote printing via an e-mail address
Depending on the model printer you buy, your print job will automatically use the paper tray that’s appropriate for your file; a regular document uses the main paper tray, but a photo will use the photo tray (if the printer has one). Cool. How many times have I forgotten to tell my photos not to print on regular paper from my old (and now nearly obsolete) Photosmart printer?
Taking a lesson from Apple, HP has an application store called the ePrint Center. Choose an application and add it to your printer. Then you can print all kinds of things ranging from Google maps and store coupons to greeting cards, games and letters to Santa. There are practical office applications, too, such as forms and news clips, and you can submit ideas to HP for additional apps.
The HP ePrint platform also allows you to store documents or files in the cloud and print direct when needed. For example, you can use your smartphone to work on documents and queue them to print when you arrive in the office.
I’m betting business travelers will really find this new print technology liberating. Think of the times you’re in a hotel room and need to print something. Unless you pack a printer in your suitcase, you probably have to take your PC (or your document on a USB drive) to the hotel’s business center and connect to a printer to get your document. Now, hotels can install a new HP Internet-capable printer and you can e-mail your documents to the printer. The concierge can have them sent up to your room, and you never need to change out of your pajamas.
But even more exciting will be the new applications and uses that we haven’t even thought about yet.
Notebooks, netbooks and smartphones have allowed us to be very mobile with our use of computers. Now we can be mobile with our printing as well when all we have to do is forward an e-mail to a nearby printer.
Read more about the HP ePrint platform and available printers here.
