Thursday, March 24, 2011

How to test your print functionality without a printer

AirPrint is the technology that allows you to wirelessly print your photos and documents directly from your iPad to any AirPrint enabled printer.

Sometime back we  were unable to test the print functionality of one of our apps because we didn't have a WiFi printer. We debated quite a bit about buying a WiFi printer. What held us back? Do we really need to invest in a WiFi printer which could be expensive and the purpose of which is just to test a print functionality?

Fortunately, apple has solved this problem for us in a very cost-effective manner.
If you install the iOS 4.2 SDK, you will have access to the print simulator tool. You can use this to easily test your printing functionality.

You will find the Printer Simulator software at Macintosh HD\Developer\Platforms\
iPhoneOS.platform\Developer\Applications. Just copy it to your applications folder and run it. Now all you have to do is open up your app and click the print option. Once the printing is complete, the printout automatically pops up on your screen.

Does it get any easier than that?

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