How to print from your Chromebook

Hello! Welcome to Chromebook Guide’s printing tutorial!

“How do you print from a Chromebook?!?”

As a Top Contributor in Google’s Chromebook Central product forum, I’ve spent a good deal of time helping users with that question. Topic titles like “can’t print from my Chromebook” and “Chromebook won’t recognize printer” are all too common. The reason for the confusion is that Chromebooks don’t print like your typical Windows or Mac machine, where you insert a disc or download some drivers from the internet. Chromebooks don’t allow you to install software or drivers (which is why they’re so fast, and secure) so we must rely on alternate methods of printing.

Currently, there are 3 different ways to print from a Chromebook.
1. You can add a printer via your settings. This is not supported by all printers, so don’t be surprised if this method doesn’t work. You’ll need to find your printer’s IP address, so you’ll need to reference your printer’s documentation to see how to find that before attempting this method.
2. Google Cloud Print. This method will work for any printer, but will be easier/more difficult depending on whether your printer supports Google Cloud Print right out of the box. If it does, setup should be fairly easy, if it doesn’t, there’s another step involved, and we’ll get into that in this tutorial.
3. HP Print for Chrome. As the name implies, this method only works for HP printers. But of the 3, it’s by far the easiest method. If you own an HP printer, then add the Chrome extension HP Print for Chrome and follow the steps.

So, if step 1 doesn’t work for you, and you don’t own an HP printer, you’ll need to use Google Cloud Print. In this tutorial, I’m going to first explain how Google Cloud Print works. I think it’s important to understand how Google Cloud Print works, and how it’s different from what you may be used to.

After that, I’ll get into specific printer manufacturers and how to setup their printers with Google Cloud Print. If you’re already familiar with how Google Cloud Print works, and you’d like to skip ahead to the setup bit, click here. If you’re not already familiar with how Google Cloud Print works, I recommend taking a couple minutes to let me explain how Google Cloud Print works.

Thanks for visiting
-James