macosxhints.com printer tips

10.6: Possible solution for printing to HP Deskjet 990cxi

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0800

I have a venerable HP Deskjet 990cxi with a double-sided print feed attachment. It has worked brilliantly through all the versions of Mac OS X I've used. However, with Snow Leopard, I'm stuck with using single-sided printing via the free Gutenberg printer driver, as HP has declined to support this model in Snow Leopard.

After some experimentation, I've found that the native HP DeskJet 9800 series driver seems to work fine -- I've got my double-sided printing back. Additionally, the driver also seems to be giving me ink supply levels details, functionality that the original driver never had.

Hope this is of use to anyone else out there struggling to get this printer working in Snow Leopard.

10.6: Get an HP print server working with Snow Leopard

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:30:01 -0700

Snow Leopard doesn't support AppleTalk, but has IP print protocols built-in. So an HP print server (or a networkable printer) should work, right? Tunrs out it's not as easy as it sounds -- not because of Snow Leopard, but because of a few vital details which HP's help desk and tech forums don't mention.

The following relates to an HP JetDirect EX Plus print server (J2591A), but can be adapted for most hardware. First, do a Cold Reset of the print server. This step should never be omitted, as it resets to factory defaults and makes the server reachable on a network to change its details (more on that later).

Doing a Cold Reset on most HP products is not as simple as turning the power off then on again. For the JetDirect, remove all cables (including power). Then plug power in while holding the Test button down for 10 seconds, then unplug power holding the Test ...

Canon printers and the Siemens Gigaset SE551 router

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:30:01 -0700

Here's what's needed to setup a Canon USB printer as a network printer using the Siemens Gigaset SE551 router. First, on the router:

Plug the printer into the router
Log into the router's web interface (default is 192.168.2.1)
Select Advanced Settings » USB » Print Server
Turn on Print Server and verify the router detects the printer

On the Mac:

Open up the Print & Fax Syste Preferences panel
Click the plus sign to add new printer
Select IP in the toolbar, then set the following:
- Protocol: Line Printer Deamon - LPD
- Address: 192.168.2.1 (or whatever address your router is)
- Queue: lpt1 (in lower case)
- Name: Whatever you want
- Location: empty
- Print Using: Don't use Generic PostScript Printer; select a driver to use. My Canon MP150 worked with the Canon PIXMA MP150 - Gutenprint v5.1.3 driver.
Click Add

...

10.6: Fix some Kyocera printers in Snow Leopard

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:30:00 -0700

Adding Kyocera printers connected via network (IPP) will cause a Printer paused status as soon as the first job is queued in Snow Leopard.

Reinstalling the drivers for 10.5, changing the owner:group of /usr/libexec/cups/filter/kyofilter to root:wheel, and choosing LPD in the Printer setup dialog will fix this problem.

[robg adds: I missed this hint in the queue when scanning for potentially time-sensitive Snow Leopard hints; if it's no longer applicable (i.e. there are new drivers out that fix the problem), please let me know.]

10.6: View queued job counts and ink status

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:30:00 -0700

Leopard's printer icon now has a badge, showing the number of jobs queued and the Print tab shows a low ink icon -- only when the ink is low, obviously -- that if clicked shows the ink levels.

[robg adds: I'm not sure if this works for all printers, or only certain printers.]

10.6: Quick Look print jobs

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:30:04 -0700

In the new printer apps in 10.6, there's a small arrow button (like in the iTunes Library) next to each print job. Click that button, and you will see a Quick Look preview of that file.

[robg adds: I imagine this could be very useful if your printer routinely has a huge queue; I typically can't see my occasional queued jobs because they disappear so quickly.]

Print via Linksys print server PSUS4 and HP OfficeJet 5500

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:30:01 -0700

I finally got my Mac (Mac PowerPC G5 running OS X 10.4) to print via a Linksys print server PSUS4 to my HP OfficeJet 5510. I had to compile a number of different hints in order to do this, but wanted to make it easier for the next person.

First, find out the static IP address for your print server -- it's easy to find if you have a PC on your network (which I did; sorry I'm no help on how to figure it out with a Mac). Then do the following:

Download the open-source Linux drivers for HP printers. Make sure you download the hpijs, Foomatic-RIP, and ESP Ghostscript packages.
Install the Footmatic and Ghostscript packages, then restart. You will not be prompted to restart, but it is necessary before you can install the hpijs package.
Install the hpijs package and restart again.
Go to the Print & Fax System Preferences pane, and add a p...

Set the Epson Print Monitor to launch in the background

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:30:02 -0700

My wife's Epson RX680 is used by everyone in the house via printer sharing, so she gets pretty annoyed when the Epson Print Monitor pops up suddenly on top of whatever she's working on. Today she made it annoy me enough so that I had to figure out a proper fix. The fix is to tell Launch Services to launch it in the background.

This requires editing a file within the application Epson Print Monitor, so be sure to back this application up first! The file to back up is /Library » Printers » EPSON » EPW » EPSON Printer Monitor.app.

Once that's backed up, Control-click on it and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. In the Contents folder, you'll see the Info.plist file; we're going to add a new key, LSBackgroundOnly, specifying that this should be true (i.e. launch in the background). I use the pico editor from within Terminal: ...

10.6: Use a Dell 5100cn laser printer in Snow Leopard

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:30:05 -0700

You've probably discovered that your Dell 5100cn color laser doesn't play well with Snow Leopard. Before you list the 5100cn on Craigslist, try this:

Delete your old Dell printer in the Print & Fax System Preferences panel. Install a new printer, but select the Mac-installed Samsung CLP-770 Series PS, and presto! You are back in business, complete with duplex printing and toner supply levels. Sweet!

10.6: Install Canon printer drivers in Snow Leopard

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:30:00 -0700

Because the Canon printer driver installation program will not recognize Mac OS X 10.6, you can't install your printer drivers even though Snow Leopard is a minor update.

To install your Canon printer drivers...

Download the driver disk image.
Mount the disk image and copy the installer package to your desktop.
Control-click on the package and choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu.
Navigate to Contents » Resources and delete the file InstallationCheck.
Now double-click the package and install the drivers normally.

[robg adds: I'm not sure if future Canon updates in 10.6 will be included in Software Update or not -- that is one of the supposed features of Snow Leopard, but I'm not sure exactly how it will all work.]

Create a 'PostScript to file' CUPS print queue

Fri, 29 May 2009 07:30:02 -0700

I came across this page, an archive of a mailing list post written by Kurt Pfeifle, that gives detailed instructions on how to print PostScript to a file by creating a CUPS backend using a shell script.

It took me ages to find, so I thought it should be more prominently featured. Here's what Kurt has to say about the process:

You can enable a very simple file:/ backend by putting FileDevice Yes into cupsd.conf. However it will not allow raw printing of application/octet-stream files. And the second job will overwrite the first one (because you need to give a filename to the backend, in the device URI, like file:/tmp/print.prn)

You could write your own CUPS backend. Here are the rules for that:

make sure it can read from SDIN and write to STDOUT

make sure if called with zero arguments it responds with a message similar to the other ba...

10.5: Fix HP DesignJet 130 under OS X 10.5

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:30:00 -0800

If you're unable to print to your HP DesignJet 130nr after upgrading to 10.5.6 (see this thread at Apple Discussions), here's the solution. First, you'll need to update your firmware:

Open System Preferences » Print & Fax, then highlight hp designjet 130nr. Select Open Print Queue, then Utility. On the lef...

10.5: Canon iP2600 CUPS printer driver fix

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:30:00 -0800

I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.6 and bought a Canon PIXMA iP2600 printer and installed the Printer Driver for OS X (CUPS) Version 10.2.0.0 (released on 09-06-2008, file ip2600sosxcp10200ea8-2.dmg) from this European Canon site.

Supposedly, all I had to do was open System Preferences » Print & Fax, and select the Canon iP2600 series. Doing so, however, requires three properties to be set: Name, Location and Print Using. The last property Print Using was not auto-completed, and required me to select a driver. The Canon driver was not showing in the subsequent list. So here's the fix.

I used an application called Find Any File (see this hint) to search for anything with PPD in its name. Thi...

10.5: CUPS and Open Directory printers in OS X Server

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:30:00 -0800

Well, this one had been plaguing me ever since which switched our systems over to Leopard in Summer 2008. I found very few hints and nothing that really led to a solution. The following isn't a true solution either; it's more of a brute-force work-around. As of the writing of this post, we are running 10.5.6 across the board and still require this workaround.

First, the problem: You upgraded to Leopard Server and want to push printers out to your clients. You set up your Open Directory (OD) workgroups and computer groups, configure your printers on your print server, then drag them into the User's Printer List in Workgroup Manager (WGM). Check your clients, and sure enough -- all the printers are there, happy as can be. You go on with your day.

In no time at all, everyone is calling because the printers aren't responding as intended. Printers pause for users at random, ...

Avoid a problem caused by a Samsung color printer

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:30:00 -0800

After installing the software for a Samsung CLP-610 color laser printer, we started having issues with the machine (a PowerMac) crashing at random times. It turns out the hard drive was being filled to capacity with files named 49?????????? in /private/var/tmp. Through a process of elimination, I finally determined the culprit was a Samsung application called SPanel. Renaming this application (located at /Library » Printers » SPanel » Samsung » SPanel.app) resolved the problem.

Hope this helps someone save the very frustrating amount of time I spent tracking this down.

10.5: Disable printer queue password requirements

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:30:00 -0800

Mac OS X 10.5 requires you to enter an administrator's password to pause/resume a print queue, where no previous version of OS X has done so. This is extremely annoying in a lab setting -- if there's a paper jam or something, the queues on all the computers need to be restarted by an administrator, instead of the user just clicking Resume. I haven't seen a solution to this elsewhere, so here's what I came up with:

As root, or in a Terminal session with su privileges, edit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.

Find this section:

<Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Print...



Print to an HP Laserjet 6L via a parallel-to-USB adapter
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:30:01 -0700
I have tried adding an HP LaserJet 6L printer via Printer Setup Utility many times, and I always got the USB device to show under the default browser, but I could not add the printer. So I went to More Printers (holding down the Option key), clicked Advanced, and tried selecting USB Printer. This brought up usb://, but I could not find address using System Profiler or USB Prober.



Anyway, my grandson comes in, and asks "what's that Unknown button right at the bottom of the Advanced panel?" So I click it, and it comes up with a URL: usb://Unknown/Unknown?serial=0. I tried this, using the Gutenprint HP 6L driver -- and it works perfectly, even waking the printer if necessary.



This works with OS X 10.4.11; hope it helps others -- I googled for help on this, but didn't find anything on the subject.


One way to print to Serial and AppleTalk printers
Fri, 16 May 2008 07:30:03 -0700
Some of us, including me, still use old but cheap and reliable LaserWriters (I have the LaserWriter 4/600). Others use serial or USB printers. Not all work hassle free under OS X. But there's a simple solution. You need:

An old Mac with a working (serial) printer (StyleWriters, LaserWriter, USB-printer -- no QuickDraw printers).
A network connection (wired or wireless) from your new Mac to your old Mac, which will soon become a print server.
The free software Print66, which is a print server / spooler.

Here's a bit more detail on the problem and solution...from time to time (i.e. from system version to system version), there may be problems (or not) printing via AppleTalk. Leopard 10.5.2 and/or AirPort, for example, do not find any LocalTalk printers at the moment (perhaps Apple will address this issue, but nobody knows). Furthermore, you must now use OS 9 on the elder machine, which allow...


Print to an HP all-in-one printer via Time Capsule
Thu, 15 May 2008 07:30:02 -0700
Here's how I managed to get my HP 5510xi all-in-one printer working wirelessly when connected to a Time Capsule. First, you   need download the open-source Linux drivers for HP printers from this page. Make sure you download the hpijs package, but also download the Foomatic-RIP and ESP Ghostscript packages from that same page.



Install the Footmatic and Ghostscript packages, then restart your Mac. You will not be prompted to restart, but it is necessary before you can install the hpijs package. After the restart, install the hpijs package, and restart again. Now go to System Preferences » Print and Fax » Add Printer (click the '+' sign).



In the Add Printer window, select IP at the top of the window, and use the following settings:

PROTOCOL: HP JetDirect-Socket
ADDRESS: Obtain and enter the IP of the Time Capsule: 192.168.1.100, or whatever it actually is.
 ...


How to print to a PC-connected HP Photosmart 7960
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:30:01 -0700
My partner is a Windows guy. I am a Mac guy. He was on site with a customer trying to get a new MacBook Pro (MBP) to print to a shared HP PhotoSmart 7960 which was connected to a WinXP Pro SP2 PC. Should have been a five minute job.



The printer works just fine when directly connected to the PC or to the MBP using the HP drivers. It simply would not work via the shared printer queue. We tried everything!  Reviewed all of the online literature, etc. After an hour of this, we finally decided to try the Gutenprint drivers (the new name of Gimp-Print) that come with Leopard. Worked like a charm!