If your printer connects over Wi-Fi, sharing it is almost trivial — every computer on the network can add it independently. If it's connected by USB to a single computer, sharing takes a bit more setup. Here's both routes.
If your printer is connected to your Wi-Fi network directly (not plugged into one specific computer), every other device on the same network can add it independently, without needing the original computer to be on or even in the house. On Windows, go to Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners → Add device, and it should appear in the list automatically. On Mac, go to System Settings → Printers & Scanners → Add Printer, and it should show up the same way. This is genuinely the entire process for most current printers — no shared drives, no permissions to configure.
If the printer only has a USB connection to one specific computer, that computer needs to explicitly share it over the network for other devices to use it.
On the host computer (Windows): Go to Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners, click the printer, then Printer properties → Sharing tab, and check "Share this printer." Give it a clear share name.
On the host computer (Mac): Go to System Settings → General → Sharing, and enable Printer Sharing, then select the specific printer to share from the list.
On other computers: Add the printer the same way as a network printer (Windows: Add device; Mac: Add Printer). It should appear listed under the host computer's name, since the network is how it's now being discovered, even though the physical connection is still USB to the host machine.
The important limitation with this method: the host computer needs to be turned on and awake for anyone else to print, since it's acting as the bridge between the USB-connected printer and the network.
If you regularly need multiple people to print and don't want to depend on one computer being on, a small wireless print server or print server-enabled router feature can convert a USB-only printer into a network-visible one, avoiding the host-computer dependency entirely. This is inexpensive hardware and a common solution for exactly this situation.
Each computer connecting to a shared printer generally needs its own copy of the correct driver installed — Windows and Mac sometimes handle this automatically during the add-printer process, but if a shared printer isn't working correctly from a second computer, manually installing the official driver on that machine (from the printer models search on this site, or the manufacturer's site) resolves most of these mismatches.
Search our driver library to get the official driver for any additional computer.
Find your printer driverThree ways to get any printer onto your network.
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