4

My main question: Suppose you are in the street carrying an Android tablet and a WiFi printer. Is it possible to connect to that WiFi printer by Android device and print directly without any LAN network joined to?

I mean is it possible to connect to a WiFi printer like a Bluetooth printer?

Bob
  • 22,810
  • 38
  • 143
  • 225
  • Samsung does it, so surely it is possible. – Blackbelt Jun 26 '13 at 10:19
  • @blackbelt How? can you explain more or suggest a reference? – Bob Jun 26 '13 at 10:20
  • I used a software from samsung with its wifi printer. That's all I know – Blackbelt Jun 26 '13 at 10:22
  • thanks, But I need an Android programming solution – Bob Jun 26 '13 at 10:23
  • I was answering to your question "is it possible to connect to a WiFi printer like a Bluetooth printer". I am sorry I am not able to help further – Blackbelt Jun 26 '13 at 10:25
  • So I guess also, that the printer brand will not matter - right, or it will be a HP printer ? – g00dy Jul 03 '13 at 14:01
  • Printing to an arbitrary networked printer is hard, since you need to have the PPDs for that printer. There are a couple of apps on the Play Store that do that. Doing it over Wi-Fi direct requires Wi-Fi direct support for the printer (not sure if the new ones support it). After that you're back to printing to a normal networked printer. – Delyan Jul 06 '13 at 20:46

1 Answers1

2

Well to answer your question, let me explain you how this works. To print a file via bluetooth you need have corresponding profiles in the phone like

  • BPP - Basic Printing Profile
  • HCRP - Hardcopy Replacement Profile
  • BIP - Basic Imaging Profile etc.

If the phones have this profiles built into the bluetooth stack, then you can develop a top layer application using bluetooth api's and use these features.

For Wifi priting, there are lot of cloud print apps in Google play store which you could use. To achieve wifi printing, you can setup a server and do a cloud push to the server and server pushes the file to the printer. There are lot of material available online to do this.,

blganesh101
  • 3,647
  • 1
  • 24
  • 44