soundcatcher
08-23-2011, 01:58 PM
I've just spent the day testing every printer app I can get my hands on to print locally only using my Tablet and a HP wifi printer. Most printer apps can do all the main stream stuff like pdf's , docs, etc but very few can easily handle web pages and none of them can handle some webpages, for instance there is not an app out there that can print server side generated pages.
I run an online business and we use ebay as an outlett. The selling manager uses serverside scripting to generate the address slips and invoices. I've spotted that all printer apps copy the address of the page you want printed and then pastes it into the app and uses that address to open the page and then print your image from there. Obviously if your faced with an address like http://k2b-print.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll all you'll get on a printout is 'page not available'.
So this is my suggestion. Somebody needs to please create a browser that has a wifi printer facility built in. The basic concept being that once you've got to the page that you want you just click on the print button and it just works!
Yes I understand that the apps that are around have lightweight browsers. But it's a pain to have to open a secondary app to try and print something. And I normall work in multiple tabs dealing with several orders and this will make the difference between making an Android tablet a usefull piece of kit and not just a usefull device that still requires having a real computer nearby to do the standard stuff that we've all got use to doing every day....
Sorry it's not as exciting as some of the ideas I've been reading about.....
Hopefully someone will think it's a good idea?!
I run an online business and we use ebay as an outlett. The selling manager uses serverside scripting to generate the address slips and invoices. I've spotted that all printer apps copy the address of the page you want printed and then pastes it into the app and uses that address to open the page and then print your image from there. Obviously if your faced with an address like http://k2b-print.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll all you'll get on a printout is 'page not available'.
So this is my suggestion. Somebody needs to please create a browser that has a wifi printer facility built in. The basic concept being that once you've got to the page that you want you just click on the print button and it just works!
Yes I understand that the apps that are around have lightweight browsers. But it's a pain to have to open a secondary app to try and print something. And I normall work in multiple tabs dealing with several orders and this will make the difference between making an Android tablet a usefull piece of kit and not just a usefull device that still requires having a real computer nearby to do the standard stuff that we've all got use to doing every day....
Sorry it's not as exciting as some of the ideas I've been reading about.....
Hopefully someone will think it's a good idea?!