Printing to a non-postscript printer

andy.stephensandy.stephens
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have a new MacBook - running OSX version 10.5.6. The office network is a combination of BNC and wireless, with a couple of printers connected through a mini-hub. The mac recognises one of the printers - as it is postscript, but can't even see the other one. The printer is a Ricoh Aficio MPC3000. Anyone able to give some pointers as to how I would be able to print to this printer.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Does the ricoh have a postscript card installed? It needs that for Mac printing. You then need the PPD for that model and the IP address of the printer on the network. Once you have the PPD, drop it into /Library/printers/PPDs/en.lproj/resources or something like that - choose the folder for your localization. You will see a lot of .gz files in there already.



    Then go to the printer utility (you can use system prefs > printer pane too) and add a printer. Instead of browse, go to the IP printer section and choose IPP printer. Enter the IP address of the printer (you can get this from the printer interface if it has one). Then it should automatically pick the PPD when you type the right IP.



    You should then be able to print to it.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    danmillardanmillar Posts: 3member
    Check this link for printing softwarte for your Ricoh:



    http://www.ricoh-usa.com/downloads/s...?tsn=Ricoh-USA



    The MPC 3000 seems to have a Fiery PS RIP, so PostScript is NOT your problem, but rather the backend connection to the printer which the Ricoh software will fix - hopefully.



    PS: common misconception - printers for OS X, or Macs in general, do NOT have to be postscript. OS X's printing engine(CUPS) uses postscript as a lingua franca for all printing, but the CUPS backend translates it to whatever the device requires - which is why you can use so many NON-postscript printers with OS X. My favourite example - OKIDATA 9-pin dot matrix printers, a technology that pre-dates the PC, work fine with OS X - outputting high-res postscript images and type in black-and-white (well, grey and white on my old machine) at a whopping 96 dpi!!! You have to be a total geek (like myself) to find that amusing.



    nuff said



    dan
  • Reply 3 of 3
    adan daroskiadan daroski Posts: 2member
    I'm looking at the new Epson Stylus C120 @ $90 as interim color/bw printer until I can afford what I really want. I have no experience with non-PostScript (or photo) printers. My assumption is that this particular printer is not PostScript although the specs don't say. I'm a graphic designer using Adobe PostScript fonts. Am I going to be able to print proofs etc. with a non-PostScript printer?
Sign In or Register to comment.