• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Bluetooth Printing from your Android / Droid device

Given that the guy who started this thread has remained completely silent for eight months, I'm going to assume that he's moved on and isn't concerned with this thread or this project anymore, sadly. It's still something I'd love to have, but I guess we're not getting it from him.

Either that, or he's been feverishly slaving away over the project for eight months straight (which would be quite a long time for something like this, I'd imagine :) ).
 
Upvote 0
Given that the guy who started this thread has remained completely silent for eight months, I'm going to assume that he's moved on and isn't concerned with this thread or this project anymore, sadly. It's still something I'd love to have, but I guess we're not getting it from him.

Either that, or he's been feverishly slaving away over the project for eight months straight (which would be quite a long time for something like this, I'd imagine :) ).

I purchased an app for bt keyboard pairing to my droid from this developer. In landscape mode, it has a bug, and won't let you backspace or otherwise go up to correct or add anything- you can only work on the line you are actively on at the end of the document. The only response from the developer was a terse reply saying that his app was fine, and it must be user error or a problem with whatever I was typing text in to. That, and the fact that you get auto added into his android discussion board to get your activation key for the app you purchased, makes me tell others to avoid this joker.
 
Upvote 0
Sorry everyone.... I know that was uncool for me to have left the way i did. I was working on this project for a while back a few months but after spending hours of trying to find a solution I just threw it on the shelf and went to work on gaming and keyboard stuff.

The problem I ran into back then and still to this day is that there are soooooo many mail clients that run on Android but none of them or Android's API provide a way for programmers to extract mail contents. Without this there is nothing I can do to print email.

I was able to get a print SDK done for PCL and ESC/POS bluetooth printers for developers but coming up with a off the shelf printing app for Android power users is the most difficult task I've run into and I don't have a solution for. Not because of the requirements but because the APIs available is just not mature enough for certain kinds of applications.

Until some new features are added my hands will be busy coding other projects.
 
Upvote 0
I hope you get back to working on a Bluetooth printing app. I have a HP Photosmart with Bluetooth and while I can print photos with the HP app, I would love to be able to print other kinds of docs including pdf files, text files, web pages and email. Let us know when you try it again.

Check out the app printershare. It just got updated, and that update includes bluetooth printer support. I don't have a bluetooth capable printer, so I don't have a clue on how it works, but perhaps the comments on the app will give you some insight.
 
Upvote 0
Check out the app printershare. It just got updated, and that update includes bluetooth printer support. I don't have a bluetooth capable printer, so I don't have a clue on how it works, but perhaps the comments on the app will give you some insight.

I'm a printershare user and noticed the same on the recent update, Bluetooth is now included. Also, their help page provides information on how to use their API if you want to include print capability when building an app.
 
Upvote 0
I use FileLinx for file transfers over WiFi and 3G, but they just released an update that includes printing of photos and pdf's over WiFi and 3G too. It installs a small app on your PC and one on your Android using Java. The two communicate over any network. No other fees involved. It prints with any printer connected to the PC. Easy install. Works for me. It's on the Market.
 
Upvote 0
I use FileLinx for file transfers over WiFi and 3G, but they just released an update that includes printing of photos and pdf's over WiFi and 3G too. It installs a small app on your PC and one on your Android using Java. The two communicate over any network. No other fees involved. It prints with any printer connected to the PC. Easy install. Works for me. It's on the Market.
Thanks for the info, but if you read carefully, that is definitely not what the people in this thread want.

We want to be able to print from our phone directly to a printer. If there's a computer in the middle, that just won't work.
 
Upvote 0
We own a trucking company and have been looking for over a year for an app or scanner/printer that is capable of not only printing from the phone but also will send the scans that our drivers do to their phones to make emailing the paperwork easier. We have tried several of the apps on the Market. Some work partially but none do exactly what we want. Looked into custom programming and was informed that it would cost as much as $100,000.00 or more to get what we want. We decided that we would just continue to use the scanner and laptop method that has worked very well for us for quite a while. If anybody has anything that can do what we need. We would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
 
Upvote 0
Wow, $100K? That seems weirdly high. I would think there would be some developer out there who would do it for much less...

But vertical software is very expensive because you'll be the only ones using it. Perhaps you could think about software that might be an app that could go on the App Market and appeal to others, that way the developer could make some more money later on by selling to other people.
 
Upvote 0
Back again. After hours of failed attempts at trying to extract data from the various file format i.e pdf, word, etc. I decided to leave that up to the document experts and just focus on (*.txt) file utility that users can print text content and for developers to be able to access bluetooth printers via BlueTxT utility. The BlueTxT utility has a built in text editor for creating text documents that includes Copy/Cut/Paste/Open/Save (*.txt) files. The bluetooth output is compatible with Epson compatible ESC/P mobile printers and HP-PCL compatible full-size mobile printers. Basically it’s like printing on your desktop printer from Windows Note Pad. The only difference is BlueTxT has built-in features that allow users to create professional business related documents such as receipts, delivery notice, invoice, etc. and print it anywhere in the field on these bluetooth printers. For developers wanting to add printing to their applications, BlueTxT can receive data from remote/external applications so you can send text data to BlueTxT for printing. I’m working on a method that for printing graphics but that will come as an update. The only thing left is working on Android Market license requirements and will release BlueTxT as soon as that’s completed.

For those waiting on a Bluetooth document solution, I must respectfully bow out as document processing is just not in my expertise. Peripheral device driver is where I’m more experienced in.

Thanks,
 
Upvote 0
I was just about to start a new thread when I came across this one.

I'm quite sure that one of the first things I tried when I got my GS2 was printing via bluetooth to my Epson R300 from the phones gallery with no problems.

Now that I need to print a photo the printer rejects the request so I came here for a solution. However, as I found this thread I tried again by going into the phones photo editor and then sharing with no problem, The photo is now in my hand although it has printed with a border.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones