New Mac convert. Printer setup question.

[Randomizer]

Hi all. I am in the process of converting my house / family etc to a Mac household. Always been PC in the past. Two new iMacs running Mountain Lion in the house and replaced my old D-Link router with an Airport Extreme. I have a Canon MP970 connected to the network via LAN to a D-Link switch which is connected to the Airport Extreme. I did not install any drivers because I thought OSX would do that but I am not 'seeing' the printer. I would like to be able to print from both iMacs and also from the iPads and iPhones in the house. I may have been wrong but I thought the conversion to the Airport Extreme might make this easier. Am I better off looking for a new printer - Airprint capable? The Canon is several years old now but has done a nice job.

[hallux]

What happens if you go into System Preferences then the Print and Scan panel and click the + under the box on the left? It SHOULD scan your network and find the printer on the network and ask if you want to install it.

[Randomizer]

It did not find it earlier but it is finding it now. Guess this solves the the iMac printing. But will it allow printing from the iPads?

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Also - will I be able to scan to the iMacs (or even to a NAS attached to the network) across the network?

[hallux]

That won't solve the iPad printing issue.

You should be able to scan over the network, if the device supports it. I do it all the time with my HP printer.

[desertman]

If you want to use your printer from your iPad you need either an "Airprint capable" printer or a little tool that lets you use any printer from any iOS device. There are two such tools available:

handyPrint (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35969/handyprint)
Printopia (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35936/printopia)

HandyPrint is almost free and works good for basic printing. Printopia costs $20 but offers additional possibilities like Send to Mac and Send to Dropbox on Mac.