Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Use an unsupported printer with PDF Workflow and Classic System
With the introduction of Panther, there's yet another swathe of users whose printers are now unsupported. But rather than just chuck my printer out, I decided to use Classic to print my documents as PDFs. This has been noted before, but to make the process more seamless, I used OS X's PDF Workflow feature, which extends the existing "Save as PDF" print option. All you need is 10.2.4 or above, Adobe Acrobat Reader for OS9, the Classic environment, and OS9 drivers for your printer.
  1. Set up your printer under Classic.
  2. Create the folder /Library/PDF Services.
  3. Create an alias of Acrobat Reader for OS9, and put it in /Library/PDF Services. Rename it to 'Open as PDF in Classic' or something like that.
Now when you open your Print dialog box in any application in OS X, you get a little PDF menu icon. Click this icon, and you can choose "Open as PDF in Classic." A PDF is generated and automatically opened in Acrobat Classic. Print away!
    •    
  • Currently 1.00 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (1 vote cast)
 
[4,981 views]  

Use an unsupported printer with PDF Workflow and Classic | 2 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Use an unsupported printer with PDF Workflow and Classic' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Use an unsupported printer with PDF Workflow and Classic
Authored by: gmachen on Dec 14, '03 04:29:51PM

1) All I get is an "Error while printing" alert. Acrobat Reader 4.0.5a. Am I the only one?

2) As an aside, I can't get Acrobat Reader 5.0 or 5.1 to print under Classic in
Mac OSuX 10.2.6 to my StyleWriter II.

Always get an error message that there's not enough memory.

Yet in the Classic PrefPane, the Memory/Versions tab reveals that
at no time does Reader use more than 6 MB out of 17 MB allocated to it.

But Acrobat Reader 4.0.5a prints fine.

Somebody suggested that maybe Reader needs more "Temporary Memory"
(Process Manager Heap) to print. Panther's Classic PrefPane has an adjustment
to change Temporary Memory, but my Jaguar's doesn't.

- Anyone have general solution for my inability to print in Classic with the latest Acrobat Readers?
- Anybody know a hack to allocate more Temporary Memory to Reader?

Thanks!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Use an unsupported printer with PDF Workflow and Classic
Authored by: nicklandsberg on Dec 24, '03 10:50:05PM

Yep, this works just fine for me!

I have just gotten a new iMAC with OSX 10.3 but had already trashed my Acrobat Reader 4.0 on my old 9.2 machine and replaced it with Reader 5.0 (which is carbonized). A visit to the Adobe website let me download Reader 4.0.5 and now I can print on a printer for which the manufacturer (Canon) has no intention of providing an OSX driver.

Many thanks! You saved me $$$.

P.S. - no problems with "out of memory" as reported by the other respondent.




---
It is futile to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious -
(Paraphrased from A. Bloch).



[ Reply to This | # ]