Written by the FamilyAlbum Editorial Team, drawing on our user research. FamilyAlbum is our own app, so read this as an informed-but-interested guide. Facts current as of July 2026.
“Print from iPhone” can mean two different things, and knowing which one you want saves a lot of confusion. Either you want physical prints mailed to you (the family-photo kind), or you want to run a page out of a printer at home right now. This guide covers both, starting with the one most people actually mean when it’s photos.
The quick version: To get real photo prints without owning a printer, order them in an app: with FamilyAlbum you pick photos from your shared album or camera roll, choose a size, and they’re mailed to you (11 free a month per family member, then $0.33 each, plus $3.99 shipping). To print a photo on a printer you already have, use AirPrint: open the photo, tap Share, tap Print, pick your printer. Two different jobs, both easy.
Option 1: Order prints in an app (mailed to you)
This is what you want if you don’t own a photo printer, or you want proper photo-lab quality without the hassle. Because your photos already live in a sharing app, ordering from there skips re-uploading anything.
In FamilyAlbum, the flow is straightforward: choose the photos you want (from your shared album or your phone’s camera roll), pick a print size, and place the order. A few things worth knowing (FamilyAlbum Prints):
- Everyone in the family gets 11 free prints a month. You pay $3.99 shipping; extra prints are $0.33 each.
- No paid plan needed. Ordering prints works on the free plan.
- Three small sizes, all $0.33: retro (2.8 x 3.4), square (3.5 x 3.5), and rectangle (3.5 x 5). For sizing help, see our print sizes guide.
These are small, album-and-mail sizes. For a large framed enlargement, a drugstore kiosk or a dedicated lab is the better fit.
Option 2: AirPrint to a printer you own
If you have a printer and want a page in your hand this minute, iPhones print without any app to install. Almost every modern printer supports AirPrint.
- Open the photo in the Photos app.
- Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow).
- Scroll down and tap Print.
- Tap Select Printer and choose your AirPrint printer.
- Set the number of copies and paper size, then tap Print.
The catch is quality: a home printer on regular or even photo paper rarely matches a real lab, and ink adds up. AirPrint is great for a quick copy, a coloring page, or a document. For photos you want to keep, the mailed-print route usually looks better.
What if some of your family is on Android?
This is where ordering in an app earns its keep. A lot of families are split across iPhone and Android, with grandparents and cousins in different states and on different devices. AirPrint is Apple-only, and AirDrop and iMessage don’t reach the Android side at all. A shared family app doesn’t care what phone anyone holds: the iPhone parent orders prints, the Android grandparent sees the same album, and everyone stays in one place. If your family is spread across devices and time zones, that cross-platform common ground is the practical reason the app route wins. For a fuller look at the options, see our comparison of family photo sharing apps that work on both iPhone and Android.
Which one should you use?
- You want keepsake photo prints, mailed: order in an app (Option 1). Best quality-to-effort, no printer required.
- You need a page right now and own a printer: AirPrint (Option 2).
- Your family is split across iPhone and Android: an app keeps everyone in one place, unlike AirPrint or AirDrop.
FAQ
Order them in an app. In FamilyAlbum you choose photos from your shared album or camera roll, pick a size, and they’re mailed to you: 11 free a month per family member, then $0.33 each plus $3.99 shipping (FamilyAlbum Prints).
Use AirPrint: open the photo, tap Share, tap Print, select your printer, then Print. Works with most modern printers, no app needed.
No. Print ordering works on the free plan. You get 11 free prints a month; you only pay $3.99 shipping (extra prints are $0.33 each).
Yes. A shared family app works across iPhone and Android, so everyone sees the same album regardless of device, unlike AirPrint or AirDrop.
FamilyAlbum offers three small sizes, all $0.33. For a full breakdown, see photo print sizes, and for all your options, how to print photos from your phone.
Sources
Ready to start? Try FamilyAlbum for free.
Written by the FamilyAlbum Editorial Team. The perspectives here reflect patterns from our user research (more than 160 interviews), not any individual user. FamilyAlbum is our own app. Facts current as of July 2026.