[Spartan24]

Hi all,

Well, at my suggestion a friend bought 2 new 20" iMac G5's for he and his wife. I assumed that their printers would not be a problem making the transfer from PC world.. However...geez

I cannot find Mac drivers for these HP printers anywhere and from all I can see in searching, they just won't work with Mac. Does anyone have a workaround or know where I might be able to find some drivers?

Thanks, in advance, for your response.

[davidflas]

I have two questions regarding this issue: 1. How old are these units? 2. Do they have USB ports or just parallel? If they don't have USB ports it might be cheaper to just buy new replacements. I believe there is a piece of third party software that provides OSX drivers for older printers just as Vuescan provides drivers for scanners. Hope that helps

[Spartan24]

Thanks for the comments. They both are USB printers and are maybe 2 years old.

[davidflas]

The link below is to a piece of software which may do exactly what you're looking for. Both of the units you mentioned are on the list of unsupported printers that will still work (its the long list at the bottom of the page)

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/p_..._Printers.php3

[Spartan24]

Thanks davidflas,

I reviewed the material for these printers and I must admit it looks like a pretty complicated process of setting up the gimp-print and the cups settings to make either of these printers work. I'm not sure I'm sophisticated enough with the Mac to completely understand this so I guess I would like to ask if once these gimp drivers are set up, will the actual user (much more of a novice than I) simply be able to click on "print" and the printers will work as if they were actually supported by OSX?

Personally, I'm thinking that there is a lot of work involved for what appears to be drivers for these 2 printers that may or may not be compatible. Clearly in the FAQ at gimp-print, the officejet printers appear to be a real PITA? LOL

Whatever, I think you have answered my original question and pointed me to about the only solution available.. Thanks

[davidflas]

Here's an interesting page from hp's support site: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...name=c00062013
It appears that your friends have the ONLY unsupported photosmart printer.


Here's a chart showing which HP all-in-one models are supported by MacOSX:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...dlc=en&lang=en

No direct support of the K60 The list at the bottom of the page does list alternate HP drivers that could be used, but they may only support printing...

As for gimp-print. I've never used it personally, so I'm not sure how easy it is to use once it is set up. I would suggest that your friends look into a new printer. Canon makes great inkjets. Their software is much better than HP's. Canon's all-in-ones aren't supported on the Mac, but Brother's, Lexmark's, and HP's new models are. I hate to say it, but the best solution here may be to buy new printers.. Check out Newegg.com for great pricing on these items....