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Printing something from your phone

There are two situations: you have a printer, or you are taking it to a shop. They need different preparation.

Printing to your own printer

The printer and the phone have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. That is the requirement people miss, and a printer connected by cable to a computer will not appear on your phone at all.

On Android:

  1. Open what you want to print.
  2. Tap the menu, then Print. In Chrome it is under the three dots; in Google Photos, share then print.
  3. Tap Select a printer. If yours is not listed, install your printer brand's plugin from the Play Store: HP Print Service, Canon Print Service, Epson Print Enabler and so on.
  4. Set copies, colour and paper size, then print.

On iPhone, tap the share icon and choose Print. This uses AirPrint, and if your printer does not support AirPrint it will not appear. The fix is the printer manufacturer's own app, such as HP Smart or Epson iPrint.

Taking it to a printing shop

The important step is turning whatever you have into a PDF first. A PDF prints exactly as you see it. A Word file opened on a shop computer without your font shifts its layout, and a photo of a document prints at whatever size the shop's software guesses.

Then get it to them without handing over your unlocked phone:

  • Email it to yourself, and open your email on their computer. Sign out afterwards.
  • WhatsApp it to the shop's number, which is what most shops in Ghana prefer.
  • Put it on a USB drive if you have an adapter.
  • Google Drive, shared as a link.

Do not hand an unlocked phone across a counter. Your WhatsApp, your mobile money and your photos are all on it.

Getting the size right

This is where printed documents go wrong.

  • Documents should be A4. When you make the PDF, choose A4 rather than fitting the page to the photo, or a page comes out at an odd size.
  • Passport photographs need exact millimetre dimensions, and printing one alone wastes most of the paper. Put several copies on a single 4 by 6 inch sheet and ask for one photo print, which is far cheaper than a sheet of paper from a printing shop.
  • Set the shop's printer, or your own, to Actual size rather than Fit to page. Fit to page silently shrinks everything by a few percent, which ruins anything that has to be a specific size.

If it prints wrong

  • Cut off at the edges: margins. Re-make the PDF with a margin, or choose Fit to printable area for that one job.
  • Tiny print in the corner: the paper size in the print dialog does not match the paper in the tray.
  • Comes out blank: ink or toner, or you printed a page that was blank on screen too. Check the preview.
  • Sideways: set orientation to match the document, portrait for most things.

Tools that help with this

Free, and they work inside your browser without uploading anything.