For a long time, iPhone and iPad owners were looking for a way to print documents from their iOS devices. For a while, the only option was to transfer documents to your Mac or PC and print from there, but the addition of the AirPrint feature to iOS finally made printing possible. However, for many people, this still proved problematic.

This is where Printopia can help. The functions of the app are two-fold. Firstly Printopia makes it possible to share a printer that is connected to your Mac so that it can be accessed by your iPhone or iPad. The second option is to ‘print’ documents as PDFs which will then be sent to your Mac ready for use.

No special printer is needed – any laser printer, inkjet, network or USB printer can be used in conjunction with Printopia. The app makes use of Dropbox to make it possible to send documents to your Mac as PDF or JPEG files so you can queue up documents for printing wherever you may be, regardless of network coverage.

It does not matter if you have a printer that is connected directly to your Mac or if you are making use of an AirPort or Time Capsule – set up and use is equally simple no matter how your system is configured.