AirPrint Server with Ubuntu - The easy way

With an AirPrint enabled printer, you can easily print over wifi from your Iphone, Ipad, and Ipod Touch.

If you don't have a printer, or your printer is on its last leg, the easy way is to buy a $69 HP Wifi Printer, Scanner, and Fax.


However, many of us like our printers and don't want to buy another. So here is the real easy way to make your old printer AirPrint compatible.

You need to have:

• Ubuntu installed (10.10 was tested)
• The printer working in ubuntu. Usually not difficult, but it is beyond the scope of this blog post.

Steps:

Copy and paste this line into the terminal. You can find the terminal by clicking applications, accessories, terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hughescih/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install airprint-daemon

This will ask for your password to continue. After entering the password, you will see hundreds of lines fly by.
Finally open your printing manager by clicking System, Administration, Printing
Open the printer server settings by clicking Server, Settings
Check the box for 'Publish shared printers connected to this system'
Check the box for 'Allow printing from the Internet'
Click Ok.

Thats it. You can now print from your iphone, etc.

This is based on the blog post here: http://gtk-apps.org/content/show.php/Apple+AirPrint+Support+for+Ubuntu?content=136756