As someone who goes through a lot of ink I need to be able to print from anywhere. Unfortunately I frivolously spent my budget on an iPhone, and I cannot afford a new printer, let alone one equipped with AirPrint. So here I am, stuck with a wired printer and no way to print remotely, but then I learnt about FingerPrint.
FingerPrint
I found out that the software is available for Mac and PC. Just go straight to the developers site. While I used a free trial and purchased the software for $9.95 after the trial ran out, FingerPrint now seems to be $19.95 for the license and I could not find a free trial. While this is a steeper price than many people are willing to pay, it is certainly cheaper than a new AirPrint compatible printer.
FingerPrint works by making your PC or Mac look like an AirPrint printer. It automatically finds any printers on your network and you can choose which printers you’d like to share with your iDevice.
Like I said before, there is no separate app for FingerPrint to open up when you want to print. You merely select whatever item you are trying to print, select “print” and choose the printer that FingerPrint has let the iDevice recognize. This works especially well for me when since I have separate printers for photos and text documents and FingerPrint can share multiple non-AirPrint Printers.
Some disadvantages about FingerPrint that can’t be avoided is that your computer must be on for it to work, and FingerPrint must be running as well. When I first installed the app my laptop would either fall asleep due to inactivity or I would forget to open FingerPrint. This would leave me stranded away from home being unable to print remotely. To remedy, I now run FingerPrint in the background and make sure my laptop won’t go to sleep on its own accord.
While the price is higher the app still works great. It is very easy to setup and there is practically no legwork on your end. I printed off a test document within minutes of installing the software; I didn’t even need to restart my laptop. There are competitors to FingerPrint that are cheaper, but they don’t work as well on the new iOS.
About the Author
Carla Eaton has a B.A. in Mass Media and writes on the topics of business, technology, and design. She currently blogs for inkfarm.com, who specializes in Dell printer cartridges.
