iOS Haunting Me For Years: Slow Air Print

[loon3y]

Does anyone have an alternative for printing from their apps?


Air Print is incredibly slow, I've heard that with some new printer models it improved by a couple seconds, but if the user has to wait 25 seconds, 22 seconds doesn't help that much.

This has been haunting me from day one. Our app is used in TradeShows and our customers print orders via local Wi-Fi connection to Air Printers. The response time of the printers to star the job is incredibly slow. I know 22-25 seconds isn't THAT long, but in the TradeShow environment it is. Our customer's buyers constantly complained over the years and there just an awkward waiting time from when the printing is responds from the iOS device, the actual printing afterwards is fine.

God forbid they edit the order and add couple more items and print again.

 

[PhoneyDeveloper]

I googled this issue just now and slow AirPrint printing seems to be a common problem. WiFi at a trade show might be problematic. One discussion on the HP web site suggested changing the Bonjour name from the default name to a shorter unique name for your printers.

What have you tried?

 

[loon3y]

I googled this issue just now and slow AirPrint printing seems to be a common problem. WiFi at a trade show might be problematic. One discussion on the HP web site suggested changing the Bonjour name from the default name to a shorter unique name for your printers.

What have you tried?

I haven't tried that yet, Will do next time. I tried multiple printers, updating firmware. Reducing the size of the data that gets sent to the printer (i don't know if that helps, but i was trying anything).


I tried directly connecting the air printers to the local router via Ethernet, its nearly all the same. I had an extremely hard time turning off the 'Sleep' mode for any printer. Its nearly impossible and after couple days at the trade show figuring this problem out, the show is over.

The sleep would help by a couple seconds. I thought it might be a bandwidth problem since there are so many different routers for each booth, but i don't think thats an issue.

I have yet to try it on a 'newer' model, I'm hoping one of our customers will get a newer model. But its hard because the customers want to travel with a model that is compact as well. I mean if there is a printer that ultimately responds faster than I would recommend that regardless if its not as compact as they would want it to be, but I haven't found any.


I'm thinking its something that Apple needs to improve on? That's what I've been telling the customers because I really have no explanation. The thing that sets us apart from other TradeShow systems is that we don't need a 'Laptop' Local DB thats replicated to bring with them.

Just: iPads/iPhones, LineaPro/Scanners, Router, Air Printers.

 

[PhoneyDeveloper]

Googling shows this to be a somewhat common problem. I would try to get help directly from the printer manufacturer, on their support forums or directly through email.

I would think that if the printer is directly connected to the wireless router that would be the best configuration. Also, the fewer printers connected the better, and they shouldn't have the same Bonjour name. Also, this should work the same from a Mac and an iOS device as long as you're using AirPrint on the Mac, which is the easiest way to print from a Mac these days. Do you get exactly the same problem at a trade show as at your office? Wireless networks at a trade show are going to be problematic.

It might be possible to troubleshoot this using a Mac and wireshark, to a certain extent, but the printer manufacturer should know the answer.

 

[loon3y]

Googling shows this to be a somewhat common problem. I would try to get help directly from the printer manufacturer, on their support forums or directly through email.

I would think that if the printer is directly connected to the wireless router that would be the best configuration. Also, the fewer printers connected the better, and they shouldn't have the same Bonjour name. Also, this should work the same from a Mac and an iOS device as long as you're using AirPrint on the Mac, which is the easiest way to print from a Mac these days. Do you get exactly the same problem at a trade show as at your office? Wireless networks at a trade show are going to be problematic.

It might be possible to troubleshoot this using a Mac and wireshark, to a certain extent, but the printer manufacturer should know the answer.

Thanks,

I'll try all these options and let you guys know. This air print thing has been killing me! I just blame it on apple, but still need to find a correct solution.