The Mission
Setup your iPad Pro to draw on at an event while still being able to print and display on a TV without relying on any wireless technology.
We all know the frustration of printing from an iPad at a gig. Especially when working in a trade show environment where there is usually so much wireless interference. AirDropping to a Mac laptop has often been the backup option when AirPrint won't work, but that too is wireless and often subjected the the same interference. Even when AirPrint works properly, I always found the printing extremely slow, as well as not allowing me to move on to my next drawing until the printing was complete. Working under these conditions just stresses me out, so I'm always looking for ways to get around this so I can concentrate on my drawings and not troubleshooting. These hacks were a recent discovery and will be my go-to setup for working on my iPad Pro at events from now on. It's actually allowed me to more fully embrace the iPad Pro over my Cintiq's for future gigs. You may too, or just as a backup if you'd still rather go with the simpler wireless printing option.
We all know the frustration of printing from an iPad at a gig. Especially when working in a trade show environment where there is usually so much wireless interference. AirDropping to a Mac laptop has often been the backup option when AirPrint won't work, but that too is wireless and often subjected the the same interference. Even when AirPrint works properly, I always found the printing extremely slow, as well as not allowing me to move on to my next drawing until the printing was complete. Working under these conditions just stresses me out, so I'm always looking for ways to get around this so I can concentrate on my drawings and not troubleshooting. These hacks were a recent discovery and will be my go-to setup for working on my iPad Pro at events from now on. It's actually allowed me to more fully embrace the iPad Pro over my Cintiq's for future gigs. You may too, or just as a backup if you'd still rather go with the simpler wireless printing option.
The Basics
The setup will require you to have a Mac laptop in the mix. Not sure if this will work with a PC laptop. You will connect your iPad Pro directly to the Mac laptop via the USB (USB-C for newer models) cable, WITHOUT the HDMI adaptor dongle. This will not work with the adaptor connected. You'll then connect your printer and TV to your Mac laptop.
PART 1: Once connected, and everything powered on, you'll open a Finder window on your laptop and look for the iPad Pro in the Sidebar on the left under Locations. Click on the iPad Pro and the finder window will turn into a General Info window about the iPad Pro. Within the window near the top you'll find a row of options: General; Music; Movies; TV Shows; etc. Towards the end of those options you'll find "Files"! You may need to stretch the window out more to see the Files option. Click on Files and the window will reveal a set of folders created by a number of apps you have installed on your iPad Pro. You can essentially access these same folders from the Files app on you iPad Prod. Sorta. Not all the folders appear when you open the Files app and look under On My iPad. No biggie, since all you need is one folder that you can access both on the iPad and the laptop. I use my Clip Studio folder since that's the app I use to draw on. So when I finish my drawing, I save it directly into that folder via the Share option. Once saved, I'll have access to the file on the laptop. I'll have to drag and copy the file over to my laptop's drive, double click on it to open it up in Preview, then print the caricature using the laptop with all its printing option glory.
Note: Creating a new folder outside of the ones already there for their apps will not show up on the laptop. You can create a new folder within one of the app folders and that folder will appear on the laptop, but you won't be able to open that folder on the laptop.
Also, the File folders on the laptop won't automatically refresh as new files are saved on the iPad. You'll most likely have to close then reopen the folder on the laptop so see the newly saved file. It's not perfect by any means, but still faster and more reliable than wireless printing, in my opinion.
PART 2: To make the file transfer work from iPad Pro to Mac laptop work, you'll have to eliminate the use of the HDMI adaptor dongle. A direct connect is required for this. So how do you then mirror what's on your iPad onto a TV? As mentioned earlier, you'll now connect the the HDMI cable to your laptop. You'll setup the TV as a separate display (NOT mirrored). If the TV is mounted in portrait mode (sideways), you should be able to set the display to that rotation so that any window moved between the two displays is upright and not needing to be viewed sideways.
Once the TV display is setup, you'll open the Quicktime Player app on your laptop. Go to File; New Movie Recording. A new window will open, probably with you on it due to the laptop camera being activated. Towards the bottom of the window you'll see the red button to start recording. To the right of the red button is a small arrow. Click on that arrow to reveal the different input options. Under the camera options you should find one for the iPad Pro. Click on it and the window should then be mirroring whatever is on the iPad Pro. No need to hit record. Now just move the Quicktime window over to the TV display. Once the window is displayed on the TV, click on the Green button on the upper left of the window to Enter Full Screen, filling the TV display with the window mirroring your iPad Pro.
The benefits to this is no more need to work sideways on your iPad to match the TV. Without the HDMI dongle on the iPad, the iPad tends to stay charged better. And it's really not much more complicated of a setup, especially considering the confidence of faster, non-stress printing. A few more steps, yes, but well worth it for wired printing.
Hope you find this information useful.
Al Rod
PART 1: Once connected, and everything powered on, you'll open a Finder window on your laptop and look for the iPad Pro in the Sidebar on the left under Locations. Click on the iPad Pro and the finder window will turn into a General Info window about the iPad Pro. Within the window near the top you'll find a row of options: General; Music; Movies; TV Shows; etc. Towards the end of those options you'll find "Files"! You may need to stretch the window out more to see the Files option. Click on Files and the window will reveal a set of folders created by a number of apps you have installed on your iPad Pro. You can essentially access these same folders from the Files app on you iPad Prod. Sorta. Not all the folders appear when you open the Files app and look under On My iPad. No biggie, since all you need is one folder that you can access both on the iPad and the laptop. I use my Clip Studio folder since that's the app I use to draw on. So when I finish my drawing, I save it directly into that folder via the Share option. Once saved, I'll have access to the file on the laptop. I'll have to drag and copy the file over to my laptop's drive, double click on it to open it up in Preview, then print the caricature using the laptop with all its printing option glory.
Note: Creating a new folder outside of the ones already there for their apps will not show up on the laptop. You can create a new folder within one of the app folders and that folder will appear on the laptop, but you won't be able to open that folder on the laptop.
Also, the File folders on the laptop won't automatically refresh as new files are saved on the iPad. You'll most likely have to close then reopen the folder on the laptop so see the newly saved file. It's not perfect by any means, but still faster and more reliable than wireless printing, in my opinion.
PART 2: To make the file transfer work from iPad Pro to Mac laptop work, you'll have to eliminate the use of the HDMI adaptor dongle. A direct connect is required for this. So how do you then mirror what's on your iPad onto a TV? As mentioned earlier, you'll now connect the the HDMI cable to your laptop. You'll setup the TV as a separate display (NOT mirrored). If the TV is mounted in portrait mode (sideways), you should be able to set the display to that rotation so that any window moved between the two displays is upright and not needing to be viewed sideways.
Once the TV display is setup, you'll open the Quicktime Player app on your laptop. Go to File; New Movie Recording. A new window will open, probably with you on it due to the laptop camera being activated. Towards the bottom of the window you'll see the red button to start recording. To the right of the red button is a small arrow. Click on that arrow to reveal the different input options. Under the camera options you should find one for the iPad Pro. Click on it and the window should then be mirroring whatever is on the iPad Pro. No need to hit record. Now just move the Quicktime window over to the TV display. Once the window is displayed on the TV, click on the Green button on the upper left of the window to Enter Full Screen, filling the TV display with the window mirroring your iPad Pro.
The benefits to this is no more need to work sideways on your iPad to match the TV. Without the HDMI dongle on the iPad, the iPad tends to stay charged better. And it's really not much more complicated of a setup, especially considering the confidence of faster, non-stress printing. A few more steps, yes, but well worth it for wired printing.
Hope you find this information useful.
Al Rod