Using Windows Shared Printers on Mac OS X

I've run into many situations where someone on a Mac needs to print to a Windows printer. Normally this isn't a problem, but newer HP printers won't work through Windows shares and Dell printers just do not have drivers for Mac OS X. A quick trip to Google found this article, but the method described is too complex for what really needs to be done. My take on the method skips the LPR setup and uses the Windows share for the transport.

Ghostscript

Ghostscript is used for converting the postscript data into something your printer can understand. Go to the Ghostscript website and pull down the latest version of three programs: Ghostscript, GSview and Redmon. Installation is trivial for all of these applications. Run the setup program for each in the previous order and accept the default options for each.

Setting Up The Windows Printer

Open your "Printers and Faxes" window and double-click the "Add Printer" icon. Click "Next" at the welcome screen. We want to install a Local Printer, but make sure that the "Automatically detect..." option is turned off before you click "Next". On the next screen, choose "Create a new port" and select the "Redirected Port" that we installed earlier. When you click next, you will be prompted for a port name. The default is fine.

At this point, you will be asked to select a printer. The document I got these instructions from suggests the "Apple Color LW 12/660 PS", which is a standard Postscript printer. It's probably best for you to choose the same. You may be prompted to keep or replace the existing drivers on the next screen. Select "Keep..." and continue on. For the printer name, I like to use "Virtual" and then the printer name to help distinguish between the two.

The next screen sets up the sharing properties. There have been bugs in Mac OS X where shares with spaces in the name do not work correctly. Since I have a Deskjet 5440, I choose "DJ5440". You can specify some extra information in the next screen if you want, but you don't have to. Lastly, do not print a test page, yet. We have more configurations to do. Finish off the wizard to continue.

Connecting the Virtual and Real Printer

Right-click on your newly created printer and select "Properties". Choose the "Ports" tab, select the RPT port you just created and click the "Configure Port..." button. We are going to redirect the output of this printer through Ghostscript, so for the first option in the dialog, put the path to the gsprint.exe program you installed earlier.

C:\Ghostgum\gsview\gsprint.exe

The next option is the command line arguments for the program. You will need to know the Windows name of your real printer for this part. For my setup, it is "HP Deskjet 5440". Check your "Printers and Faxes" window for the correct name. Put the following line into the section box of the dialog, but switch the name to the printer on your computer. -printer "HP Deskjet 5440" -color -

Lastly, we don't want the program to be visible when it runs, so change the "Run" option to "Hidden" and then click "OK". Try printing something through the virtual printer from Windows. If it works, you are ready print over the network.

Setting Up The Mac OS X Printer

In Applications: Utilities, run the Printer Setup Utility.app. At the top of the screen, click the "Add" button and then click the "More Printers..." button. Choose the "Windows Printing" options and then navigate to your Windows computer and select the shared virtual printer. For the printer model, select "Apple" and then select the "Apple Color Laser Writer 12/600 PS" model. Click the "Add" button.

You should be ready to print now. Unfortunately, there is no printer test page for Mac OS X. Find an email or a picture and send it to the printer. If you watch your Mac and Windows machine at once, you will see the document jump from the Mac queue to the Virtual queue and then to the real queue.

This was posted on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 16:25. It is filed under Windows and Mac OS X.
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