Section 78. Add a New Printer


78. Add a New Printer

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

2 Find, Launch, and Quit an Application

73 Create a New Text Document


SEE ALSO

79 Configure Printer Options from Any Application

80 Print to a PDF File


Before you can print anything, you have to add your printer to the system. You might have an inkjet printer connected to your Mac with a USB cable, a laser office printer that's accessible over the network by its IP address or Windows queue name , or a Bonjour -capable network printer that requires no setup. Mac OS X lets you configure any of these printers, add them all to your Mac's printer list, and set one of them as the default printer used by your applications.

Mac OS X comes with drivers for hundreds of popular printers. Many printer models, however, require you to download a driver and install it before it will work in Mac OS X. Most popular printer manufacturers have Mac OS X versions of their printer drivers available on their websites .

1.
Connect and Turn On the Printer

Mac OS X automatically detects most printers you connect directly to the computer through USB (the most common method). Plug the printer in and connect its USB cable to your Mac; then turn the printer on and wait for it to finish its self-test cycle, which for most printers is no longer than about 10 seconds.

78. Add a New Printer


NOTE

If you have a network printer, make sure that it is available on the network; Mac OS X won't be able to autodetect it, unless it's a Bonjour, Bluetooth, or AppleTalk printer.

Most networkable printers traditionally support AppleTalk, and many of the newer printers from Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, and other manufacturers support Bonjour technology or Bluetooth. Consult the specifications for your printer, or on any printer you're planning to buy, to see whether it supports Bonjour, Bluetooth, or AppleTalk.

2.
Open the Printer Setup Utility

Open the System Preferences application (under the Apple menu); click the Print & Fax icon to open the Print & Fax Preferences pane. Click the Printing tab to view the available printers and the options for setting up new ones. When any printer is set up and selected in the list at left, the right pane shows that printer's status and vital information, including its picture, name, location, and model name, as well as a link for buying printer supplies (ink cartridges and print media) from the online Apple Store. There are also buttons that lead to the printer's Print Queue (a window showing you the documents printing and waiting to be printed) and Printer Setup (where you can change the printer's settings).

Click the + button to add a new printer. An application called the Printer Setup Utility launches, with a single window labeled Default Browser . This window displays a list of all printers that your Mac automatically detects (such as directly connected USB printers or auto-detectable network printers), as well as allowing you (through the More Printers button) to search for and define new printers of all kinds, including Windows queues and manually defined IP printers.

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You can also launch the Printer Setup Utility manually from the Utilities folder, inside Applications .

3.
Select a Printer by Type

There are many kinds of printers that Mac OS X can use. Each type of printer has its own set of configuration options; some types (such as Bonjour printers) are all but self-configuring , while others (particularly IP printers) require you to enter a fair amount of information manually.

  • AppleTalk, Bonjour , and Bluetooth printers appear automatically by name in the browser list and usually provide their own drivers. You may need to click the More Printers button to browse for a printer in a different zone than the one you're in.

  • IP Printing requires that you specify the printer's IP address or hostname, the printing protocol ( LPD/LPR is most common), the queue name, and the printer model. Consult your network administrator for details on IP printers.

  • USB printers appear listed by their model number; if a printer is connected to your Mac but a driver is not available, the grayed-out option Please select a driver or printer model appears in the Print Using menu. You'll have to download and install the appropriate driver before that printer will work.

  • Windows Printing (available by clicking the More Printers button) allows you to select a Windows domain or workgroup and then navigate to a machine to choose from the printers connected to that machine. Use the Network Neighborhood menu option in the second drop-down menu in the More Printers sheet to see all the available domains.

You have two options in the Printer Browser window: You can browse for printers that can be auto- detected , using the Default Browser view, or you can specify a network printer by IP address using the IP Printer view.

If you have a printer that's available through a Windows queue or by a direct IP address, click IP Printer in the toolbar. Select the appropriate protocol from the Protocol drop-down list ( Line Printer Daemon - LPD is usually appropriate). In the Address field, enter the hostname or IP address of either the printer or the Windows computer to which it is attached (if it's a networked printer on a Windows queue). In the Queue field, enter the name of the Windows queue if applicable ; if you entered the IP address of the printer itself, leave the Queue field blank.

If you have another kind of printer, click Default Browser . This shows you a listing of all auto-detected printers, along with their connection types. To add a printer that does not automatically appear in the list, click More Printers . This opens a sheet that lets you select a printer from one of several different connection modes: AppleTalk, Bluetooth, Windows Printing, and several vendor-specific networking protocols, each of which has its own method of specifying the printer's network location. Select the protocol appropriate to your printer and specify the requested information if necessary, such as the Windows workgroup or AppleTalk zone; all printers in the specified workgroup or zone appear in the list. Click the desired printer to select it and then click Add .

The Name and Location fields at the bottom of the window are where you can enter helpful nicknames to label the printer; they don't affect the printer's operation, but help you to identify it in lists of printers. The Name field is automatically set to the IP address or hostname you entered or to the model name that the printer automatically reports if it was auto-detected, but you can type a new name to override it with something more memorable. If the printer's model was not auto-detected (for instance, if the Print Using menu says Generic PostScript Printer or another grayed-out option), select the printer's manufacturer from the drop-down menu; a listing appears below it where you can select the printer's specific model, such as HP LaserJet 5100 Series .

4.
Download and Install Required Drivers

If the Printer Browser indicates that the driver for your printer is not installed (the Print Using menu shows Please select a driver or printer model ), you must install the driver from the printer's installation disc, or download the driver from the company's website. Follow the instructions in the CD or the downloaded installation program to install the driver.

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If you have to restart the computer after installing the driver, the Printer Setup Utility might cancel the restart process if its configuration sheet is open. Be sure to quit the Printer Setup Utility before installing the new printer driver, just to be safe.

You might be requested to restart your Mac after installing the printer driver. If you do, reopen the Printer Setup Utility after you've restarted (by repeating steps 1 and 2 in this task) and verify that the printer's manufacturer and driver are reported correctly in the Print Using menu. Be aware that many printer drivers have odd names , such as GDI For Jaguar 1.0 (or something similarly esoteric). In most cases, the correct driver is what is automatically selected when you click the printer in the list.

5.
Add the Printer

Click Add when you have successfully selected and defined the printer you want to add. The printer appears in the Printing page of the Print & Fax Preferences pane, showing its model name, location, icon, and status. The printer is also available in the Print dialog box in any application from which you can print.

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Use the In Menu check box on the Print & Fax Preferences pane to specify whether the printer should appear in the Printers menu of applications' printing dialog boxes.

6.
Set the Default Printer

If you have multiple printers configured, use the Selected Printer in Print Dialog menu to specify which printer should be the default for your Mac (the default printer is the one that is automatically used when you print a document).

7.
Make a Desktop Printer

A desktop printer is an icon of one of your printers that sits on your Desktop (or in your Dock); double-clicking the icon brings up the queue viewer for that printer. Desktop printers make printing a drag-and-drop process: You can print a document simply by dragging it onto the printer icon.

First open the Printer Setup Utility by clicking Printer Setup in the Print & Fax Preferences pane, or by launching it from the Utilities folder. Choose Show Printer List from the View menu to display a detailed listing of all printers configured for your computer. Click the printer you want to add to the Desktop. From the Printers menu, choose Create Desktop Printer . Enter a name for the printer icon when prompted and click Save . The icon for the printer is added to your Desktop.

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If you'd rather clutter up your Dock than your Desktop, you can add your desktop printer to the Dock. You could simply drag the desktop printer icon itself into the Dock, but the desktop printer is itself just an alias to an item in the Printers folder inside your Home folder's Library . Navigate to that folder and drag the printer icon to your Dock from there. You can then throw away the desktop printer icon.

To print a document, drag the document icon directly onto the desktop printer icon.

8.
Share the Printer

Open the System Preferences application from the Apple menu; click the Sharing icon to open the Sharing Preferences pane. On the Services tab, select the Printer Sharing check box to allow other people on the network to print using the printers connected to your Mac.

Another way to enable printer sharing is to open the Print & Fax Preferences pane (click the Print & Fax icon in the System Preferences application), click the Sharing tab, and then select the check boxes for any of the printers in the list under the Share these printers with other computers check box and heading (if the latter check box is not selected, no printers are shared).

With printer sharing enabled, other Macs on the network will automatically list your computer's printers in their Printer Setup Utility lists and Print dialog boxes. (This is accomplished using the Bonjour technology built into every Mac, which allows each computer to see all the printerswhether they support Bonjour or notthat are attached to any Mac with Printer Sharing enabled.)



MAC OS X Tiger in a Snap
Mac OS X Tiger in a Snap
ISBN: 0672327066
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 212
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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