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We have several printers here at home, and I am thinking about enabling AirPrint. I'm not interested in driver hacks, since they often require a computer to be running with a shared printer.

I am under the impression that there are devices that can be attached to a regular parallel or USB printer which will enable network printing. With this in mind:

Are there any such devices that enable AirPrint? Are there even such wireless devices?

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  • As a software possibility, I believe PaperCut can make AirPrint available to clients for any CUPS queue it manages. This may be beyond your scope, but if you cannot find hardware solution, perhaps the software can bridge the gap. (Note: this isn't a point'n'click solution). FWIW.
    – user76598
    Commented Aug 30, 2015 at 21:19

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The only one I am aware of is the Lantronix xPrintServer.

xPrintServer fills the gap between the productivity of iPads and iPhones and the inability to print from those devices to office networked printers.

*Bold by me

Unfortunately it only works for networked printers.

Using a machine as a potential AirPrint server is at this point still the easiest way to enable this.

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Lantronix xPrintServer is a hardware device which can be plugged into your network to offer AirPrint services to iOS devices. I haven't used it myself, see ArsTechnica for a brief description:

Simply plug it in to your home or office network, and every printer accessible on your local subnet—be it wired or wireless—will now show as an option when using AirPrint. There's no configuration necessary; any printer that supports JetDirect, LPD, or IPP printing will work, and that includes pretty much every printer with network support.

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  • Beat me to it. ;)
    – jaberg
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 14:17
  • The free iPad makes for stiff competition :-)
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 14:20
  • All yours my friend—I only commented because my hitting the Post your Answer was interrupted by the new answers posted notice and our answers were (would have been) nearly identical.
    – jaberg
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 14:28
  • Who knows why Apple didnt use existing network printer protocols?
    – Jonathan.
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 15:19
  • Because nobody wants to spend time tapping away in a window to configure lpd on a goddamned iPad?
    – incumbent
    Commented Jul 21, 2014 at 21:26
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I know this is an old post, but the Synology NAS has this capability to be an AirPrint Print Server

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Actually, the $99 "home" xPrintServer does support USB printers - up to 8 with a USB hub (not provided). It also supports 2 network printers, but they've just announced a $199 "office" product that supports unlimited network printers - though they recommend up to 10 for good performance.

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Make sure you go to the Lantronix site to ensure your printer is listed. It doesn't work with the Canon MF4800 series. But they say it works with the Canon MF9000 series but I think that series already supports AirPrint natively since the MF6000 and MF8000 series do.

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