Print & Share iPhone App Review

Table of contents

• Printing from a Brother QL-560
• Printing from a Dymo Labelwriter
• Printing from a Canon iR2016
• Creating PDFs from any file with the iPhone
• In conclusion

Eurosmartz recently made an update to its Print & Share iPhone application, one of which we thought was worth highlighting. The Dymo Labelwriter range has been added to its officially supported devices, which we’ve decided to put to the test. Additionally, you might be curious if alternative brands of label printers will work with Print n Share, more on that coming up. But first, what is Print & Share?

What is Print N Share?

Print & Share is an application for the ever-ubiquitous iPhone, allowing you to print emails, files, web pages, contacts, the whole shebang. It also enables you to share documents with your desktop computer (both PC/Mac compatible) or laptop.

How it works

In order to print from your iPhone, a small piece of software called WePrint needs to be installed on your computer (available from the Eurosmartz website on the previous URL), which will run as the print server. Please note, all the screenshots shown will enlarge when you click on them.

Above is a screenshot of WePrint. See those settings for Server Address & Server Port? They will have to correspond with your Print & Share settings on your iPhone in order for everything to run properly. On the left-hand side you’ll hopefully see the list of available printers.

Back in Print N Share, the first screen you’ll see (as above) is from its main menu. The options for printing are:

• Files – this could be a Word document, a spreadsheet, a PDF etc.
• Emails – from here you can print any contents of an email or accompanying attachments
• Web Pages – for important information to read later
• Contacts – print a one-off, multiple copies or sequential batches of numerous contacts
• Images – an individual picture you’ve taken, a gallery, screenshots or any other image saved to your phone
• Camera – you can take a picture and instantly print it, there and then.

So let’s put it to the test.

QL-560 – printing a sequential label run of 1 contact

Using your contacts, simply select the one you wish to print, as demonstrated in the screenshot below.

Choose your printer from the list presented.

From the far-right screen, simply hit print and watch the magic happen! We prepared a video clip in order to show you the QL-560 doing its thing.

[vimeo width="480" height="360"]http://www.vimeo.com/7432469[/vimeo]

Dymo Labelwriter 400

As for the Dymo Labelwriter 400, it’s much the same process except for one really useful detail. Since it was added to the list of officially supported devices, Print N Share kindly includes all the Dymo Labelwriter Label sizes as selectable templates. Huzzah!

In the left-hand side image above, you’ll see we’re printing a contact. Notice contact layout at the bottom? 99012 is the SKU for this label type (the Large Address / Shipping Labels). Selecting the contact layout will give you a more comprehensive list (see right screenshot). Here’s the result:

[vimeo width="480" height="360"]http://vimeo.com/7434564[/vimeo]

It’s really that simple.

Printing an image from a Canon iR2016 laser printer

Now, let’s see how we get on printing an image with a Canon laser printer.

From the Print N Share main menu, go to Images > Photos and select your chosen image (right).

Hit print, and you’ll see the screen on the left. Here you’ll have the option to select which printer to use and the number of copies desired. You can also alter the image size and orientation, but for the purpose of this exercise we left the defaults.

[vimeo width="480" height="360"]http://www.vimeo.com/7435213[/vimeo]

But wait, there’s more..

One final trick that you might find useful is the ability to create PDFs on the fly from your iPhone. This does however rely on you having a virtual PDF driver printer on your PC (or perhaps the software on a thumb drive if you’re out & about a lot).

In the screenshot above, note the middle Jaws PDF Creator. By selecting this, a PDF is created, ready for emailing or viewing on your iPhone at a later date. Nifty, eh?

The Final Verdict

Print n Share packs an impressive amount of functionality into a small application (we’re still a little surprised at how much it can do!). It’s intuitive, elegant and robust; and an absolute snip at $6.99 from the iTunes App Store. We didn’t encounter a single error or problem in running all three tests on the printers either.

Cynics might argue that this sort of functionality should’ve been expected as a standard iPhone feature, but until that day, Print N Share will do everything you’ll want it to and more.