Windows printing off a Mac-connected USB printer

Apr 20, '06 06:21:00AM

Contributed by: yellowdentin

Here is a hint that may save you some trouble figuring out how to print from your Windows machines to a Mac-connected printer. There have been some really good suggestions on this website, so I tried to put all the info together in one hint (though it's probably still not comprehensive).

I have one desktop PC, one laptop PC, and a Mac mini connected on my home network. My Mac is running the show, and so, my printer is connected via USB to this machine. So my problem was to figure out how to print off the other two PCs to my Canon i960.

The key software you want on your PC to make life good is Bonjour for Windows (it's linked at the bottom right of that page). Get this, and you are gold. When specifing your printer on your Windows machine, do not select your own printer (ie. my Canon i960). Instead, go with Generic Postscript.

Here are some simple steps that I compiled. First install the printer drivers on your PC and Mac. Download and install bonjour on your PC.

On the Mac:

  1. Go to System Preferences and open Print & Fax.
  2. Check to see if your printer is installed (ie. mine shows i960).
  3. Go to the Sharing preferences panel.
  4. Check the following: Windows sharing, and Printer sharing.
On the PC:
  1. Install Bonjour.
  2. Follow the steps for setting up Bonjour.
  3. Once you have found your shared printer on the network and it asks you to specify the driver, go with the Generic Postscript.
And, pretty much at that point, I was printing. Hope this works for you.

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060414230039896