Use a Windows-only Printer on a Mac

Technology
Use a Windows-only Printer on a Mac

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A few months ago, I accidentally purchased a printer that only had Windows drivers available for it. By the time I realized my mistake, I had already unpacked everything, which meant it could no longer be returned without incurring the heinous “restocking” penalty.

Gutenprint to the rescue:

Gutenprint, formerly named Gimp-Print, is a suite of printer drivers that may be used with most common UNIX and Linux print spooling systems, including CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4) and Linux systems that in many cases equal or exceed proprietary vendor-supplied drivers in quality and functionality

The list of supported printers is massive, and there’s even a binary build for OS X, complete with standard installer. Install the driver, add your printer through the system prefernces panel, select the Gutenprint driver for your model, and you’re in business!

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