In October we launched Xerox PrintBack, a free mobile app which lets you print from iOS and Android-based smartphones and tablets to the default printer you already have installed on your Mac or Windows computer. My last article covered the features of PrintBack. Here I will share some additional tips and tricks to help you get the most out of this new mobile solution.
Saving photos on the fly
Transferring photos taken on mobile devices over to our computers for saving or to use in documents is a hassle. We have to remember to sync our tablet or smartphone, or email the photos to ourselves.
Photo Shoot mode in the PrintBack app lets you take new photos for instant printing. If you use the “Save a Copy” feature with Photo Shoot, you’ll also instantly save these photos to Dropbox or the Downloads folder on your computer. Take photos on the go without the hassle later.
Printing to different printers or locations
Let’s say you have different computers and printers at home and at work and would like to print to both locations using PrintBack. Install the PrintBack agent on each computer and set up separate emails for each. Before sending the print job from your smartphone or tablet, simply change the email address in your settings to the one associated with the location you want to print to.
If you take your laptop to multiple locations and want to use PrintBack when you’re on the go, try using the Mobile Express Driver (MED) as the default print driver on your laptop. The MED allows your laptop to discover and print to printers available on the network it is attached to. Even better, the MED recognizes the last printer you used on that network and can automatically print to it without you changing the default printer and associated driver on your laptop.
Screen capture to print
Some smartphones and tablets don’t include images and formatting when you copy and paste and some web content can be difficult to select for copying. In these cases it can be just as easy to take a screen capture of the content you are viewing, particularly on tablet-based devices. From there, it’s as easy as printing a photo from within the PrintBack app.
Give these tips a try and you may find new ways that PrintBack can help. And if you have any tricks to share I’d love to hear them!
Wow, wonderful one. And thank you for to share about this Xerox’s PrintBack mobile app. I will definitely try this software.
Wow, wonderful one. From now we can take a print out from the mobile phone. This is really a useful application.
I would like to try it but the site to download the PC part appears to be broken.
Hello Jerry,
Thank you for the comment. The team here double-checked the site and downloads were working this morning without issue. The link is http://www.xerox.com/downloadprintback, and the agent for your PC is available on the “Drivers and Downloads” tab. Let me know if you continue to have problems.
Lisa Graham
Manager, Social Media Marketing and Communications
Xerox Indirect Channels Business Group
Shows promise, however I’m in the UK … any file I try to print asks for paper size 8.5 x 11in.
I can’t find any setting to be able to print to A4.
Hi Neil –
For documents (Office/iWork/PDF), jobs submitted with PrintBack will use the default paper size the driver is set to use on the computer with the PrintBack agent installed. For photos, the Windows agent has the same behavior as described above for documents. The Mac agent works differently with photos, where the paper size is hard coded to 8.5 x 11. We are expecting to release an update for the Mac PrintBack agent in mid-2013 that will correct this behavior.
If you’re seeing this beyond just photos, we’d love to get some more information from you (particularly what OS level is on your Mac, language setting, what printer you’re using and if you’ve got the accompanying driver installed or are using the Mac generic printer driver, and the document type you are seeing this occur with).
Thanks for the feedback!
Rob Houston
Product Marketing Manager
Xerox Corp
How would you propose setting up PrintBack for multiple users on a single Windows 7 PC?
Hi Hakon. This is Nathan with Xerox Social Marketing. I have forwarded your question to our support team to provide the assistance you’re in need of. In the meantime, you might find your answer on our PrintBack support page: http://www.support.xerox.com/support/xerox-printback/support/enus.html
Hi Hakon. PrintBack was designed for use by one person who wanted to enable printing from their iOS/Android mobile device to the default printer they already use with their computer. Shared set-ups like the one you’re trying to install weren’t proactively considered within the scope of PrintBack.
I do have a tip you could try – I can’t guarantee it’ll work the way you want it to, but thought it worthwhle to share. You could set up a unique email address for your shared PrintBack installation – like OurOfficePrinter1234@gmail.com or something unique but descriptive, and set the PrintBack agent on the Windows 7 PC to watch that account. Then have the multiple users point the PrintBack app on their devices at the same account – this will enable those users to effectively send jobs to the one Windows 7 PC and its default printer.
If you have basic security or access concerns, you can use the “Print Password” feature to enable a pin code that authorized users will also need to input into their apps to enable printing.
Hope this helps, and thanks for contacting us!
Rob
Printback not working it shows off and status stopped. Will not turn on.
Hi Ernest. Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with PrintBack. I found the following in our support knowledge base:
http://www.support.xerox.com/support/PRINTBACK/support/en_US.html?objGUID=3291
I hope it helps.