Use Google Cloud Print without a Phone

Google Cloud Print is an interesting web service that brings wireless printing (well, sort of) to your home without any complicated set-up or hardware upgrades. Once Cloud Print is enabled, you'll be able to send documents and emails to your local printer for printing from anywhere over the Internet.

Google Cloud Print currently supports printing only through iPhones and Android mobile phones but if you find that limiting, here's a new Chrome extension that will let you print documents even from your desktop without requiring a phone.



It adds a little Cloud Print icon to your address bar whenever you are viewing a PDF, a Word document or a text file in the Chrome browser (video demo). Clicking that icon will show a list of all printers that are connected with your Google Account - select any one to start a print job that you can later manage from the Cloud Print dashboard.

In the newer version of Google Cloud Print, you can print documents and other desktop files by directly uploading them to the Cloud Print website without requiring any browser addons.

This works only with files that are already on the web and if you are print your local documents with Cloud Print, you first need to upload them online.