How To: Set Up Google Cloud Print

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Variety may be the spice of life, but it can be a bitter pill for service providers offering technical support. For them, consistency and standardization are the keys to providing fast, high-quality service. But few companies deploy even a single brand of printer, let alone one means of printing from the road.

One way of bridging these disparate gaps is to use Cloud Print, Google's cloud-based infrastructure for outputting to office printers from mobile devices anywhere in the world.

If the printer can connect to the Internet on its own -- and virtually all modern networked printers can -- then there's a good chance it's compatible with Cloud Print.

From a machine running ChromeOS, Mac OS X or Windows that's on the same LAN as printers to be shared, launch Chrome and open the Settings page. Scroll to the bottom and click Advanced Settings. Scroll down to Google Cloud Print. Checking the box here will display an alert on this machine whenever a new Cloud Print-compatible printer is available. Click the Manage button to set up available printers.

Each compatible printer on the network will be listed here with a Register button at its right. To register a printer, click the Register button. A confirmation message will be displayed on the printer being registered.

To share with others in an organization, click the Share button and add email addresses.

There's one more step required, and that is to Cloud Print-enable the mobile device(s). For Android, it's as simple as installing Google Cloud Print for Android.

PUBLISHED MARCH 11, 2015