TravelSwami

I often find myself (at least before COVID) in airports and or hotels trying to figure out how to find and connect to a printer that's compatible with my phone or laptop. It's not always easy. Wondering if anyone has any good suggestions how to find and connect with printers when you're traveling? Thanks!

JY1024

Welcome!

Moving to the Travel Technology for further discussion. /JY1024, AAdvantage forum moderator

mvoight

At Admiral's club I used to simply email the doc to be printed to the printer. Isn't this how it works now (I meant when the clubs were last open)?
If using a hotel printer with a computer attached to it, I generally just send the document to a online mail account, then login to that account from the hotel computer and print it
I don't know exactly what you mean by "find"... Printers generally have addresses. In some cases you can use that address to add them as a network computer to your phone or laptop either generically or by specifying the model info so your device can load drivers, if needed.

Duke787

+1. DL they have codes for the printers.

Generally though I just use FedEx Office and expense out the printing

javabytes

UPS, FedEx, or PrintSpots, and just email it.

chx1975

One of my favorite things about most USA convention centers is the efficiency of having a FedEx Kinko's in there. Indeed email the stuff ahead, fly in, grab the material on spot, so easy. I like dropping a one page summary on every seat before presenting but I dislike hauling in many hundreds of pages from Canada (in the best case, worst case, from Europe). Most European venues are not so well equipped.

jsnydcsa

I'm always wary of hotel lobby desktop/printer setups and, similarly, Airline Club setups for security reasons and what they "buffer" or "cache" on their systems. That said, I have two primary methods
1) I have a small capacity thumb drive that I transfer docs to, then connect to hotel/club computer and print. I realize this is an opening for malware transfer via the thumb drive. But. (a) most of these hotel/club rigs are Windows based and I'm running an Apple to create my material. Small comfort level. Or, (b) my other Windows laptop rig is so locked down, my laptop automatically re-scans (for what I don't know - ask my IT overlords) the thumb drive every time its plugged in.
2) Previously mentioned throwaway gMail account that I email myself the doc, then login on the hotel/club computer and print.

StuckInYYZ

I'm curious how you handle the security aspect of the document... It wouldn't be hard to install software that would make a copy of any documents printed or USB keys that are inserted into the workstation... If you print directly to the printer, it's possibly safer (I rarely print and it's not quite something I've thought about TBH). But I can see the workstations in hotels and convention centers especially being rigged to copy that information.

I also assume that the majority of the stuff is meant for public discourse, but you never know.

KRSW

It depends on the job. Sometimes I'll order a cheap Brother laser and have it drop-shipped to the hotel room with some paper. Normally these are $80 or less, do 30 pages/minute and have built-in double-sided printing. By the time I mess around with driving to/from a Kinkos, this can be far more cost-efficient for the client. At the end, I'll gift the printer and remaining paper to someone who seems like they'll appreciate it. I've never had a problem finding someone who wants a practically-new printer w/original box. There also are a few hotels we use frequently which let us store things with them between trips and the printer will be waiting for us. For some jobs this may not be the most time-efficient way, but it has the most security. When you get into the 'heavy' stuff, it's great peace of mind.

I almost always have a Fujitsu Scansnap S1100i, a USB-powered portable scanner. Sometimes I'll take my Fujitsu IX500 if I'm expecting to push a lot of paper.

Most of my work has me near friendly offices, be it client or counsel, so I often will give them a USB stick with docs to be printed.

There is a time and place for Fedex though -- Color jobs or large/complex jobs, especially with binding.

javabytes

My operating assumption is that anything I print from a public printer, regardless of the data transfer method used, may be reprinted by somebody else. Even printers themselves sometimes have recall functionality without anybody needing to install special hardware or software to steal docs.

alwaysworking88

Before COVID, I was constantly driving to multiple locations for work. I used to pack a printer and office supplies but it was such a hassle when the print heads would clog or when the printer decided to run out of ink on a Sunday evening after all the office supply stores had closed for the day. I turned to google and read about the Mopria phone app. I had my share of hesitations but after reading that they were founded by Canon & Hewlett Packard, I thought I'd give it a go. I downloaded the app and tried it out the next day. It was so easy to use. I brought my printer along as a back-up but realized quickly that I didn't need it because I was able to print from anywhere. I recommend this to anyone that travels. And if you need additional peace of mind, just take a look at their list of certified printers: https://mopria.org/certified-products

Dubai Stu

I create a link with attachmore and use that link to open it on a public machine.

Yoshamano

If you don't mind actually carrying a printer might I recommend the Canon Pixma ip110

I have the older 100 with optional battery. I used to do freelance PC repair and consulting full time and used this for printing invoices and info sheets. Durability wise it's a tank, but at 5lbs with battery it's a little on the chunky side.