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.

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 button down for another 10 seconds. Then reconnect all cables and power up again. Sounds weird, but this is the only way it will work.

Next, find the IP address of the print server. After the JetDirect has been going for at least two minutes, just press the Test button once and it will print out its configuration pages. The IP address will usually be 192.0.0.192, with no subnet mask or network server specified. Now change your Mac's IP address to the same range as the JetDirect, so that your Mac can connect (System Preferences » Network » Ethernet). This is just temporary, so take a note of the settings before you do this, including the Subnet Mask and Network Server. Change the IP address to 192.0.0.10 Use Manual settings, not DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol).

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:

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

On the Mac:

1. Open up the Print & Fax Syste Preferences panel
2. Click the plus sign to add new printer
3. 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.
4. Click Add

It took me forever to figure out that the queue must be called lpt1. Hope this helps!

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.]

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.]

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.]

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:

1. Download the open-source Linux drivers for HP printers. Make sure you download the hpijs, Foomatic-RIP, and ESP Ghostscript packages.
2. 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.
3. Install the hpijs package and restart again.
4. Go to the Print & Fax System Preferences pane, and add a printer (click the '+' sign).
5. In the Add Printer window, select IP at the top of the window, and use the following settings:
   • PROTOCOL: HP JetDirect-Socket
   • ADDRESS: 192.168.2.107 -- this is the print server's IP address you figured out earlier
   • QUEUE: leave blank
   • NAME: Whatever you want
   • LOCATION: Whatever you want
   • PRINT USING: HP OfficeJet 5500 hpijs (the driver you downloaded)
   Click Add to add the printer.

Essentially, you've tricked the HP printer into thinking the print server is an HP JetDirect Print Server by setting it up this way. I can print perfectly -- not sure about scanning, though, as I never use it.

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).

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!

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...

1. Download the driver disk image.
2. Mount the disk image and copy the installer package to your desktop.
3. Control-click on the package and choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu.
4. Navigate to Contents » Resources and delete the file InstallationCheck.
5. 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.]