Printing out of the cloud

Most PC users have used a networked printer at one time or other. Soon, printing documents over the Internet may become just as commonplace. Especially if Google has its way.

Google’s long-awaited Cloud Print service was unveiled as a beta earlier this year. The service allows users to setup a printer and then print to it over the internet. This includes being able to print from a mobile device to a remote internet-connected PC anywhere in the world.

How to hop on the cloud printing bandwagon

There are two ways to use the Cloud Print service. The best one is to have a cloud-ready printer. This relatively new generation of printers do not need a PC to be connected to the internet.

Since most users don’t yet own a cloud-ready printer, there is another method to connect existing printers to the cloud. It requires a version of Google’s Chrome browser newer than version 9, installed on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Having used the “Under the hood” options tab to sign into their Google account, users can register printers connected to their machine with the Cloud Print service.

Once this is done it is possible print e-mails and documents from an Android or iPhone device to a home or work printer, even when on the road.

For now, users are limited to sending print jobs from an iPhone or Android mobile phone, but with an API to be released by Google in the near future, it is likely that most devices (including remote desktops) will be able to print using the Cloud Print service.

Support

Google Cloud Print currently supports most cloud-ready printers, such as ePrinters from HP, but by using the Chrome browser virtually all printers can be connected into the cloud.

Not all mobile applications support Cloud Print, but the obvious ones such as Gmail and GDocs for mobile do include Cloud Print support. In theory any mobile application can connect to a cloud printer, but until the client API is released the range of applications that can use Cloud Print will be limited. Despite this, Firefox developers have released an add-on for Firefox Mobile that enables Cloud Print services on that browser.

Google’s Chrome OS, the netbook-focused operating system, will use Cloud Print exclusively for its printing needs.

Printing out of the cloud << Comments and views