Fall 2010’s release of iOS 4.2 brought with it AirPrint, Apple’s solution for printing from the iPhone and iPad.This was a feature much yearned for by the Apple community. Like many Apple solutions, AirPrint is straight forward and simple, but maybe too simple. Selecting ‘Print’ from the share menu of compatible apps like Safari will open a sparse print dialog. Users are only able to select a printer and how many copies to print. That’s it. Fortunately, Printer Pro by Readdle opens the range of printing capabilities.

Printer Pro, like many of Readdle’s other apps, takes advantage of the native iOS “Open in…” feature. Most apps support this feature, which means most apps can utilize Printer Pro to print their files. While in another app, say Dropbox, tap on the share button (the box with an upward arrow) and you’ll see an “Open in…” option. Tap that and select Printer Pro. Printer Pro will then open with the file displayed in an attractive print preview. But the “Open in…” method is not the only way to get information into Printer Pro. On the left hand side are other means such as importing whatever is on your clipboard. This method includes webpage addresses copied from Safari. Printer Pro brings in the entire webpage in a print preview. Like it’s sister app PDF Converter, Printer Pro can also print a list of your contacts and pictures from your iPhone or iPad’s photo library. What about email attachments? Those can be instantly imported into Printer Pro by tapping and holding on the attachment, then selecting the “Open in…” option described above. Your attachment will be beautifully displayed in Printer Pro’s print preview screen.

Once in the print preview, Printer Pro starts to differentiate itself against Apple’s native print experience. From this main view you can select the printer to print from (also works printing to PDF). Then you can choose to print the entire file or a range of pages. Additional print settings are found under the Options tab. You’ll find settings for paper size, orientation, and multi-page layouts. Compared with the built-in iOS print function, these features will doubtless save you time, paper, and ink.

If you’ve got an AirPrint capable printer and want more control over your prints, definitely take a look at Printer Pro. For those without a wireless printer, Readdle offers a desktop helper app that grants Printer Pro access to your printer through your computer’s wired connection. Lastly, if you want to simply create PDFs from webpages or other files, Printer Pro does the job effortlessly. This iOS print utility fits right among Readdle’s other productivity apps as some of the best in the iTunes App Store.

Here are a couple of our other picks of the best productivity apps for iPhone and iPad: