How to print from your Android phone

By Tinyfair · Updated October 22, 2026 · 5 min read

Short answer

Connect your phone to the same Wi-Fi network as the printer. Open the photo, PDF or web page, tap the three-dot menu or Share, and choose Print. Pick your printer at the top, set paper size, copies and colour, then tap the printer button. If no printer appears, turn on Default Print Service or install Mopria Print Service or your printer maker's plugin.

Step by step

You need:

An Android phone
A Wi-Fi printer that is switched on and has paper
The Wi-Fi network the printer is connected to

Put the phone and printer on the same Wi-Fi. Most home and office printers are found over the local network. Check the printer's screen or network report for the network name and make sure your phone is on the same one, not on mobile data or a guest network.
Turn on a print service. Open Settings and search for Printing. Turn on Default Print Service. If your printer still does not appear later, install Mopria Print Service or the plugin from your printer's maker from Google Play and turn it on here.
Open what you want to print. Open the PDF, photo, document or web page in its app. Look for Print in the three-dot menu; in some apps it is under Share.
Choose your printer. At the top of the print screen, tap Select a printer or All printers and wait a few seconds while the phone searches the network.
Check the settings. Open the small arrow to choose paper size, copies, colour or black and white, orientation and a page range. A wrong paper size is the most common reason for cut-off edges.
Tap the print button. Tap the round printer icon. A notification shows the job; tap it if you need to cancel.

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Printwren puts the choices in one place before Android's print window opens. Pick a photo, PDF, text file, web page link or a fresh camera scan, or share a file to Printwren from another app, then choose the page range, A4 or Letter, fit or fill, black and white and the number of copies. A printer check looks at the print service, Wi-Fi and printer plugins and links to Mopria Print Service when that is what is missing, and you can add a printer by its IP address. Printwren prints through your phone's print service, or straight to a network printer you add by its IP address, so it does not print over Bluetooth or USB and cannot reach a printer that is not on your network. It is free on Google Play and printing has no limit. Pro, yearly with a 7-day free trial, monthly or one lifetime payment, adds 2 or 4 photos per sheet with 4x6 and 5x7 inch prints, longer scans, full History with search, several PDFs in one print job, and removes ads.

See Printwren

When the printer is not showing up

Confirm both devices are on the same network. Dual-band routers sometimes split them; a printer on 2.4 GHz is still reachable from 5 GHz on the same router, but not from a guest network.
Restart the printer and turn Wi-Fi off and on again on the phone.
Install Mopria Print Service or your printer maker's plugin and turn it on in Settings, Printing.
Print the printer's network configuration page and note its IP address. Some print services let you add a printer by that address.
Very old printers without network printing support may not work from a phone at all. Check the printer's manual or the maker's website.

Print service plugins by printer brand

Android finds many printers on its own, but the printer makers also publish free print service plugins on Google Play. After installing one, turn it on in Settings, Printing, and its printers appear in every app's print screen.

HP: HP Print Service Plugin.
Canon: Canon Print Service.
Epson: Epson Print Enabler.
Brother: Brother Print Service Plugin.
Any brand that supports Mopria: Mopria Print Service.

Printing without Wi-Fi

Many printers offer Wi-Fi Direct, a small network of their own. Turn it on from the printer's menu, connect your phone to the printer's network name in Wi-Fi settings, and print as usual. Some printers also accept a phone over a USB OTG cable, but this depends on the printer maker's plugin.

If there is no way to reach the printer, choose Save as PDF on the print screen and print the file later from a computer or at a print shop.

Tips that save paper and ink

Print a page range instead of the whole PDF when you only need a few pages.
Choose black and white for text documents.
For photos, set the paper size to the photo paper you loaded so the picture is not cropped.
Word or Excel files print best if you save them as PDF in the office app first.

Printing scanned paper

To copy a paper form without a scanner, take a photo with the page flat on a dark surface and in even light, crop it to the edges, and print it as a document rather than a photo so it fills the page at the right size.

Questions people ask

Why can't my Android phone find my printer?

Usually the phone is on a different network, or no print service for that printer is turned on. Join the printer's Wi-Fi, then turn on Default Print Service or install Mopria Print Service or the maker's plugin.

Do I need my printer brand's app to print?

Not always. Many Wi-Fi printers work with Android's built-in Default Print Service or with Mopria. Some models need the maker's print plugin.

How do I print a PDF from my Android phone?

Open the PDF in a viewer such as Files or Drive, tap the three-dot menu, choose Print, select the printer and pages, and tap the print button.

Can I print from my phone without Wi-Fi?

Yes, if the printer supports Wi-Fi Direct; connect to the printer's own network and print. Otherwise save the file as PDF and print it from another device.

Why are the edges of my page cut off?

The paper size on the print screen does not match the paper in the tray, or the file is set to fill the page. Match the paper size and choose fit to page.