In the increasingly electronic world of today, the ‘hardcopy’ of the printed page is becoming rare. You can read your messages right from the monitor of your iPad, send the same message digitally for your addressee to read it the same way, store the data, and altogether manage the information just electronically, generally without need for printing.

Still, there are times when you must print something, and it sounds good to do it directly from your iPad. This you can do with iPad application –or apps—you download from third party sources. Below are some of them in no particular order of quality.

Print n Share Pro
Print n Share Pro enables you to print from your gadget through wifi printers, or via Bluetooth, USB and others through your Mac or PC, or remotely by 3G/EDGE using a free printware. It also allows you to share documents and files with your PC or Mac, and protect your data by having users individualize storage or accounts within the gadget. That way no one can inadvertently open or intentionally access the files of another.

EuroSmartz PrintCentral Pro
You can print virtually any kind of document with PrintCentral Pro to almost any printer, via wireless or standard direct printing (Bluetooth, network, USB or wifi). With proprietary printer software WePrint, you can also print remotely via 3G/EDGE, so you need not be physically in attendance when printing. Altogether, PrintCentral Pro is a versatile and useful app for your iPad.

Epson iPrint
This is one of those apps designed to work only with single-brand printers, in this case, Epson wireless printers. With this you can print any documents, spreadsheet, slides and text in its various formats. It comes also with a built-in browser so you can directly access your favorite online storage site to print your webpages or photos, and enables you as well to configure the printer options and settings remotely.

Microtech ePrint
This app supports several printer brands with certain printer’s print description language (PDL), and will not work with printers using other PDLs. When usable, you can print webpages, PDFs and other documents, photos, photo calendar and photo cards or use a camera. You can also adjust print settings and choose options via the app features that are pretty much standard for printing apps, whether via tablets, laptops or desktop computers.

Houdah ACTPrinter
This app is optimized for the iPad, and named #1 green app by PCWorld magazine in April 2011. With ACTPrinter you can print any document, emails, and webpages, and sort what you want to print by order, by title or by date, which lessens the hassle of collating printouts afterwards. It automatically connects your iPad directly with your computer and you do not need to write an IP address. ACTPrinter works with Mac OS X Leopard and later, PC with wifi, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

There they are, the more known printing apps for iPads. Other apps are made essentially for other gadgets like Wellala’s Print Magic which is for iPhones although compatible with iPads, and Air Sharing HD which has compatibility issues with iPads, same with Documentz Pro.

So if your gadget is an iPad, check the abovementioned apps first. You’ll probably find one that agrees with you, your iPad and your printer.

This was a guest post by Chris from www.tonerprintercopier.co.uk, an online retailer of printers and office equipment.