The majority of printers are now being manufactured with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. This changes the way that a printer interacts with the rest of your devices such as computers and mobile phones, because printers are more and more becoming standalone devices, rather than an add-on device to a computer.

Many printer setups revolve around a desktop or laptop PC that is connected to a printer via USB cable. From there, you must enable printer sharing and other settings on the main computer in order to share the printer with other computers. With Wi-Fi printers, the process is much simplified.

Apple calls it AirPrint, HP calls it Wireless ePrint, but no matter what brand of device or printer you have, the technology works in much the same way. Wi-Fi printers have built-in wireless adapters so that they can connect directly to an existing wireless network and even the internet in some cases.

If you have an HP printer, you can setup your printer for Mac, PC, and even mobile devices like iPhone and iPad without ever connecting the printer to a computer, using a USB cable. Here is a quick review on how HP printers work.

HP Printers with Wireless printing and ePrint have a built-in LCD screen. This screen can be used to check ink levels, align print cartridges, and other maintenance tasks. However, you may also setup your printer for Wi-Fi, directly from the built-in screen. Each HP printer is a little bit different, but the process is fairly straightforward.

To get started, make sure that the printer is powered on and that you are at the home screen. The printer that I have is an HP Photosmart with TouchSmart screen. The home screen may have numerous options, depending on your specific model. The home screen on my HP printer has Copy, Photo, Scan, Apps, Setup Menu, and Select button. Select the Setup icon to proceed to the Setup Menu.

From the Setup Menu, you need to find the Wireless Settings for your particular printer. Again, this may be a bit different for different printers, but on the Photosmart, Wireless Settings are accessible at Setup Menu > Wireless > Wireless Settings. The Wireless Settings menu has several different options. Select Wireless Setup Wizard to get started with connecting a printer to a wireless network.

The HP printer will search for available wireless networks, and then present you with a list of networks within range. Select your network, enter the Wi-Fi password, and wait for the HP printer to connect to the network. Once the wizard completes, your printer should be ready to use, but you will still need to setup your computer and devices too.

All of this is done from the built-in screen on the HP printer.

That’s really all there is to it for setting up an HP WiFi printer. Once the printer is added to your home network, Mac OS X will auto recognize it from the System Preferences > Print & Scan menu. Windows 7 and mobile devices such as the iPhone will also auto recognize the printer. Just make sure that you complete the specific WiFi setup for your HP printer.

Aside from standard WiFi printing, HP printers also have a feature called ePrint. With WiFi you need to be in range of your printer’s WiFi network in order to print; but with ePrint, you can actually print from anywhere using your mobile phone. This involves setting up a specific e-mail address for your printer