Full Printer Support

[Maxtoid]

Hey all,

I am having issues with the printer support on lion. One of my FAVORITE things about Mac, and one of the things I always advertised to people, was that if you chose to install all printer drivers on install, you could plug it into almost ANY printer and it would just work.

Well. - With a clean install of lion, that appears to have gone away. I've searched and searched, and all I can find online is the fact that with lion, you can no longer install all printers, it will just choose to download drivers once you plug the printer in through software update.

Is there ANY way to get all printer drivers back like you used to be able to during snow leopard and previous installs?

 

[Intell]

Nope. Removing the printer drivers is one of the ways Apple made the OS small enough to download.

 

[Maxtoid]

So the only way to get that kind of printer support again is to do a clean install of snow leopard with full printers during install and then upgrade to lion? There's no other way of installing them?

Nobody else knows anything about this?

 

[Intell]

Apple did design Lion to be an upgrade for Snow Leopard. Not to be clean installed on Macs. Some things are missing, printer driver happen to be one of those things.

 

[Victor Star]

So the only way to get that kind of printer support again is to do a clean install of snow leopard with full printers during install and then upgrade to lion? There's no other way of installing them?

Nobody else knows anything about this?

I upgraded Lion from Snow Leopard and it didn't help any with my printing problems. In my case the top row of tabs is missing from the print screen dialog in Lion so I can no longer make some changes. It now defaults to printing any image full sheet and centered. I can change the full sheet setting but no way to get the print to start at the top, left corner. May not be a big deal for other people but I do glass etching and the "paper" I print on is a couple of dollars each. If I can orient the print out to the top, left corner I can use the sheet several times and use most of the sheet.

Lion does load what it thinks is the proper drivers and I've tried several others from Apple and Epson but no help. Right now my only option to print properly is to use Windows XP in VM Ware. {Parallels didn't work because they use HP drivers}.

The short version of this is an upgrade from Snow Leopard came out with the same results as a clean install of Lion for my printer.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Don't really see the issue here. Whether or not it works out of the box or updates through the internet. As long as it works in the end.

When I had Leopard Snow it worked out of the box, but a day later it installed updated drivers. Exactly the same thing happened in Lion. It worked after the install of Lion and a little later, it again updated the drivers through the internet.

The main thing I would worry about if it did not work at all or with issues.

 

[Maxtoid]

Don't really see the issue here. Whether or not it works out of the box or updates through the internet. As long as it works in the end.

When I had Leopard Snow it worked out of the box, but a day later it installed updated drivers. Exactly the same thing happened in Lion. It worked after the install of Lion and a little later, it again updated the drivers through the internet.

The main thing I would worry about if it did not work at all or with issues.

It actually is a huge issue. The way it was before, I could plug into virtually any printer I could find and it would just WORK, no setup, no installation, it was just there as if it were my main printer. Now, it has to download software, sometimes as much as 200mb, for each MODEL of printer. It's ridiculous.

I am at the point right now that if nobody has figured out how to install all the printer drivers from snow leopard, then I'm going to have to completely reformat with a clean install of snow leopard and do the upgrade. Nobody has ANYTHING on this??

 

[Krazy Bill]

It actually is a huge issue. The way it was before, I could plug into virtually any printer I could find and it would just WORK, no setup, no installation, it was just there as if it were my main printer. Now, it has to download software, sometimes as much as 200mb, for each MODEL of printer. It's ridiculous.

I am at the point right now that if nobody has figured out how to install all the printer drivers from snow leopard, then I'm going to have to completely reformat with a clean install of snow leopard and do the upgrade. Nobody has ANYTHING on this??

I don't understand. After you plug in the unknown printer, Lion will ask if you want to download a driver for it.

You're griping because you now have to wait for it to be downloaded? (Even though the ones for snow leopard were most likely outdated and you had to download them again anyway?)

 

[Maxtoid]

I don't understand. After you plug in the unknown printer, Lion will ask if you want to download a driver for it.

You're griping because you now have to wait for it to be downloaded? (Even though the ones for snow leopard were most likely outdated and you had to download them again anyway?)

Actually believe it or not, I'm a systems administrator, and I have to plug and play between hundreds of different printers across campus, so having to download drivers Every time as opposed to having it just work is Quite a hassle, despite our 1gbps line.

Shouldn't it be possible to find the printer package on a snow leopard disk and install it that way?

 

[MisterMe]

It actually is a huge issue. The way it was before, I could plug into virtually any printer I could find and it would just WORK, no setup, no installation, it was just there as if it were my main printer. Now, it has to download software, sometimes as much as 200mb, for each MODEL of printer. It's ridiculous.

...

First World problems

Actually believe it or not, I'm a systems administrator, and I have to plug and play between hundreds of different printers across campus, so having to download drivers Every time as opposed to having it just work is Quite a hassle, despite our 1gbps line.

Shouldn't it be possible to find the printer package on a snow leopard disk and install it that way?

Where to begin?

My God, what did you do when you upgraded to Snow Leopard? Your current problem is self-inflicted. It was your choice to do a clean install which, in turn, wiped your printer drivers. OTOH, the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard installed a new printer engine. New drivers were required irrespective of how the upgrade was done.

You may have hundreds of different printers, but you do not have hundreds of manufacturers. Download the latest printer driver packages for Brother, Epson, HP, and any other package available on Apple's website. Download each package once, copy it to a jump drive or to a server on your LAN, and install them on each computer as needed.

 

[Maxtoid]

First World problems

Where to begin?

My God, what did you do when you upgraded to Snow Leopard? Your current problem is self-inflicted. It was your choice to do a clean install which, in turn, wiped your printer drivers. OTOH, the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard installed a new printer engine. New drivers were required irrespective of how the upgrade was done.

You may have hundreds of different printers, but you do not have hundreds of manufacturers. Download the latest printer driver packages for Brother, Epson, HP, and any other package available on Apple's website. Download each package once, copy it to a jump drive or to a server on your LAN, and install them on each computer as needed.

I get what you're saying, and I don't mean to make it sound like it's the end of the world because Mac lost a key feature... because it's not. - I just wanted to know if it was possible to install the printer package that came on the snow leopard disk or not. Apparently not.

 

[MisterMe]

... I just wanted to know if it was possible to install the printer package that came on the snow leopard disk or not. Apparently not.

Just to be clear, printer drivers did not ship with Snow Leopard. Drivers were downloaded for each specific printer when you setup your printer. Over the life of Snow Leopard, driver updates were released and installed via Software Update. For the most part, Snow Leopard printer drivers will work with Lion. However, there may be compatibility issues. In any event, printer drivers for Lion take into account the dates incorporated into Lion's printer engine.

 

[Maxtoid]

Just to be clear, printer drivers did not ship with Snow Leopard. Drivers were downloaded for each specific printer when you setup your printer. Over the life of Snow Leopard, driver updates were released and installed via Software Update. For the most part, Snow Leopard printer drivers will work with Lion. However, there may be compatibility issues. In any event, printer drivers for Lion take into account the dates incorporated into Lion's printer engine.

I actually believe that to be incorrect. When installing snow leopard, I would always choose more options and choose to install all available print drivers. I would then be able to plug into any printer I could find and print without any driver setup (even without internet) without any issues.

 

[MisterMe]

I actually believe that to be incorrect. When installing snow leopard, I would always choose more options and choose to install all available print drivers. I would then be able to plug into any printer I could find and print without any driver setup (even without internet) without any issues.

I have no idea what you believe, but the facts are different. The OS detected your printer and went out and downloaded the correct driver when you first setup your printer on Snow Leopard. Apple had been quite clear about it at the time. It was an issue for some printers that did not yet have Snow Leopard print drivers available. For the most part, the process went smoothly.

 

[Maxtoid]

I have no idea what you believe, but the facts are different. The OS detected your printer and went out and downloaded the correct driver when you first setup your printer on Snow Leopard. Apple had been quite clear about it at the time. It was an issue for some printers that did not yet have Snow Leopard print drivers available. For the most part, the process went smoothly.

I really wish someone who knows what I'm talking about would chime in here. It's not about what I believe, it's the facts. Guaranteed if I chose that install method, I could plug into any name-brand printer that wasn't brand new, and it would print without downloading anything from the internet. Fact. Anyone else care to chime in?