Brother iPrint&Scan 4+

Its a good app but i cant count how many times my images i print out for my clients tattoos were either too big or too small not due to client but due to the fact for example ill want a 6in image i have to guess and hope for the best im using the PocketJet 773 airprint the app doesnt show a reality layout of the paper i wish the app had a ruler for width and length on bottom and one side for the actual measurements of paper so you can size and edit it accurately also app doesnt have a label to show which side is the top or bottom of sheet that leads to my next concern i don’t understand why we cant add multiple images in one sheet you gotta keep rerunning for each image and thats when the problem with which is up and down ive printed out a image over another image several times because ill forget which is top or bottom of layout a app update on that would be fantastic honestly

I would rate the user interface as “fine” by 2009 standards, and just not up to date compared to today, but this app works shockingly well for faxing out, scanning to Files app (big one for me), printing (though I usually just use AirPrint natively in files), and machine/ink status for my 7 year old Brother MFC J480DW on my iPad Pro 3 11” running 15.4.1. The fact that I can do this stuff relatively smoothly from my iPad to my ancient printer on a different VLAN’d subnet is insanely cool*.

Four stars for doing the job reliably and in some cases above expectations (for the most part), but not five because boy it hurts to look at.

*Since mDNS and therefor Bonjour is a multicast service, the printer is only “visible” to things on its own subnet; you need to get Avahi Reflector running somewhere on your network to cheat and bounce the mDNS Bonjour packets between the subnets for interVLAN routing, EVEN if your interVLAN firewall is set up correctly, or the app won’t see the printer advertising and therefor won’t know where to find it; same with Airplay and AirPrint and Roku across subnets. Once Avahi is reflecting packets between the subnets, you’re home free. Make sure to set Avahi’s cache size to 0 or the printer and device names start to get real funky after a few weeks.

I decided to update my printer from my 8+ year old HP work-horse to the brother INKvestment. The printer itself has superior printing/scanning features compared to my last printer, but I LOVED the HP app. I scan almost all of the paper documents in my home and print a lot for work. The HP app’s scan function is so awesome and I do it all on my phone. Even the interface on the old HP LCD screen on my prior printer was somewhat modern and very intuitive. Why is brother a) so outdated looking and b) so insanely complicated! Updating firmware was automated and easy with my HP and I’m still having issues getting my new brother to update it’s firmware. Sadly, the app and brother’s website for changing the printer’s features, is so awful, that I think I’ll be returning this, despite how awesome the hardware is. Why isn’t the website that controls how to edit printer features integrated into the app?! Why do I need to go into 2 different things to get settings changed? So disappointing. Great machine, but if I can’t use it simply and easily when I need it, what’s the point.