Posted by RichRoth at Apr 30, 2004 3:14:42 PM
Mac OS/X printing help needed
Esteemed Hidden Tech Colleagues,
This request comes from a member who is at the lower end of tech
expertise in the group, so please watch your language.

I just upgraded my Mac to OS 10.2.6 from OS 9.2. I find that OS 10 does
not work with my beloved Epson Stylus Photo 700 printer, and Epson has
no supplementary driver for the Photo 700 with OS 10. Trust me. I've
tried every source, even Epson itself, who confirmed this unfortunate
situation.

I got hold of Gimp Print and added the Photo 700 to my printer list
through it, and was told it should work. (The Photo 700 was on its list
of printer drivers.) "Print" at first produced no reaction from my
printer. When I restarted, I found all the documents I had requested it
to print before the restart. I tried printing again (from "Mail") and
got a whole treatise on inkjet printers, but alas not my document.

I would be eternally grateful for any suggestions. At present I cannot
seem to print any of my OS10 docs. No one from "Yes" Computers on down
has been able to help. This would be a real opportunity for someone to
show their stuff. Thanks so much for whatever someone can do to help.

Saludos,
Alan

>
Alan Hurwitz
720 Station Road
Amherst, MA 01002
413-256-0931

Posted by RichRoth at Apr 30, 2004 3:15:53 PM
Re: Mac OS/X printing help needed
well . . .

unfortunately, I think the tech hurdle is there.

someone who is adequately techy with unix stuff could probably get it to
work. but then, it continues to be a hassle as you upgrade or change things.

I had a similar situation with a 14 year old Apple LaserWriter IINT.
That printer just wouldn't die. They don't make them like that anymore.
However, Mac OS X didn't support it. Same situation. I decided I just
didn't want to mess with it. Also, the newer printers are faster, higher
resolution, newer PostScript level (so, better compatibility overall),
more memory, etc. as well as about 1/10th the price I originally paid.

So, I finally bit the bullet and bought a new HP networked laser
printer. Quite happy with it, even if it is throwaway junk compared to
my LaserWriter and will never last 14 years. Hate to think what some of
the other brands look like inside.



---------------

Chris Hoogendyk

Posted by RichRoth at Apr 30, 2004 3:16:24 PM
Re: Mac OS/X printing help needed
I may be repeating facts that you already know, but Mac OS X uses CUPS
(Common Unix Printing System) which is used by many Unix distributions
including Mac OS X. For general information on CUPS see www.cups.org. I
also stumbled upon this page, which discusses configuring CUPS to work
with the Stylus 700:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Epson-Stylus_Photo_700

Hope this helps.

Andrew

Posted by tracemeek at Oct 5, 2004 4:09:19 PM
Re: Mac OS/X printing help needed
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3

There is a newer (August 2004) gimp-print driver available that may help. As with much open-source software, "how to use it" is not necessarily intuitive... Squirreled away in the documentation, I read that you may need to reset your printer spooler in OS X. Which means, go to your System Preferences, select the Sharing icon, then toggle off/on the "printer sharing" item. This will restart your printer spooler.

Another thing that might help would be to upgrade your OS to 10.3. I can't verify this (I still use 10.2.8), but supposedly 10.3 offers major advances in a lot of the file and system services (CUPS, SAMBA, IPv6, IPFW, etc.)