I have found that MANY Printers are not supported in the GIMP-Print drivers and if they are in there the printing options and output is crap.

Network Print-servers on OS X Sucks Bigtime. Unless you're using Apple's Airport/Airport Express with their "Bonjour" hack to share your printer on the network.

Well, that and a printer that actually has Network drivers.

I recently pulled out my hair out, too, trying to get a Canon printer to work. I posted my story on Apple's forums to help others -- I should have done it here, also. Here it is.

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Keywrods:
Canon PIXMA iP5200 printer
Linksys WPS54G PrintServer
AmbiCom WBP-KIT Wireless Bluetooth Printer Kit
PrintFab CUP drivers


I'm posting this because I spent many hours and several support phone calls to get my printer to work wirelessly, and it might save other people some work. The USB printer driver that comes with many Canon printers are only good for a direct USB connection. Otherwise, you need to use the CUPS drivers from PrintFab (see below for links).

Configuration 1 (via Linksys Wireless Printer Server)

1. Connect the Linksys PrintServer via Ethernet cable (wired). Cycle power on the Linksys. You need to cycle the power every time you want to change from wired to wireless or vice versa.

2. Use your browser (e.g., Safari) to connect to the PrintServer at IP address 192.168.1.100 (or whatever DHCP address your router likely offered). If you cannot find or guess at the IP address, try using the WakeOnLan application (see versiontracker.com) to identify the address that was assigned. This may take some trial and error and many visits to your router's setup screens.

3. Once you have accessed your PrintServer's setup screens, set a fixed IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.78) in the PrintServer (use the Protocol tab). After making any changes, be sure to save your settings using the "Save" button(s) on the setup screen(s). (If you are happy using a wired connection and don't need the wireless capabilities, skip to step 7.)

4. On the Wireless, Basic tab, set the SSID to match your wireless network name. E.g., "Apple Network." Save.

5. On the Wireless, Security tab, set the passphrase. If you are using an Airport, you might have to fetch the WEP equivalent password (10 hex digits) from the Airport Admin Utility. If you are using an old Airport (Graphite) with 40-bit WEP, select the 64-bit WEP security mode in the PrintServer, and enter the hex password in Key 1. Select "Shared Key" authentication. Save.

6. Disconnect the wired Ethernet from the PrintServer and power cycle the PrintServer. You should now be able to connect wirelessly to the PrintServer setup screen using your browser (be sure to use the new IP address, if you changed it, above).

7. Connect the PrintServer to your printer using a USB cable. The PrintServer Status, Printer tab should show your printer info. The "Print Test Page" might or might not work. An alternate way to print a test page is to push the PrintServer reset button for 5 seconds. Again, it might not print, depending on the printer (it doesn't with the Canon iP5200).

8. If you get stuck or need to start over, you can restore the PrintServer's default settings by holding down the reset button for 5 seconds (using a paper clip) while plugging in the power. This requires the use of three hands.

9. Using Apple Printer Setup Utility, Add, IP Printer, a new printer, select Line Printer Daemon - LPD, enter the PrintServer's IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.78), and "PRINTSERVER" for the Queue. Select the printer's driver from the Print Using list. My printer didn't have a Gimp driver (CUPS), nor did http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net (free). I got a new CUPS driver from ZEDOnet http://www.printfab.net ($50) for the Canon iP5000. It works fine (except for a minor bug in v2.0 when using "grayscale" and "inket" paper -- they will be fixing that.)

10. The Canon iP5200 printer has four color ink cartridges (including photo black), and one pigmented black for text documents. PrintFab offers many settings, but it's not obvious how to force the use of pigmented black only (saving the color inks), you must specify "grayscale" and "plain" paper. A future release might have a setting to force pigmented black regardless of paper type.


Configuration 2 (via Bluetooth)

1. Connect the Wireless Bluetooth Printer Kit to the printer. If your Mac does not have built-in Bluetooth, insert the AmbiCom Bluetooth adapter into a USB port.

2. Using Apple's Printer Admin Utility, select More Printers..., Bluetooth. Select the printer driver (see step 9, above).

Compared to an Ethernet connection, the print speed using Bluetooth is very, very slow. I returned my AmbiCom kit in favor of the Linksys PrintServer.

Other:

Forget about using any of the the above for a multi-function printer (e.g., printer/scanner). You can only send data to such a printer. The scanner will not work (although you can probably still make copies if a computer connection is not required).

If you call Linksys support, be prepared for an Indian who might tell you to "Call Mac and get the IP port numbers" or some other gibberish. But, persevere and get escalated to the next tier -- I received good help from the second tier technicians, although the accent was difficult.

ZEDOnet (PrintFab) has been very responsive to my emails and suggestions.

Good luck,
Jeff