Can I connect an old PC laser printer to my G5 Imac?

dwatts · #1 November 29th, 2005, 02:41 AM

I have a Canon LBP 430W laser printer, which has had very little use, and I want to know how to connect it to my G5 IMac.

I know I have to make a physical connection and I assume that I need a driver to control the printer.

I know that you can buy a new laser printer for less than $200. But I come from the school of thought that does not like to throw things away unless thay are broken. Plus I like a challenge.

mosx86 · #2 November 29th, 2005, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwatts

I have a Canon LBP 430W laser printer, which has had very little use, and I want to know how to connect it to my G5 IMac.

I know I have to make a physical connection and I assume that I need a driver to control the printer.

I know that you can buy a new laser printer for less than $200. But I come from the school of thought that does not like to throw things away unless thay are broken. Plus I like a challenge.

Don't see any Mac drivers for the Canon LBP 430W. What ports are on it?

You might be able to print to it with CUPS if you can get it plugged into the Mac.

MisterMe · #3 November 29th, 2005, 08:55 AM

Download and install GIMP-print.

dwatts · #4 December 9th, 2005, 05:33 AM

Thanks for the helpful suggestions.
I got hold of a USB to parallel cable which had some (old) software with it (MacJet) and I eventually managed to make the printer work on an old IMac running System 9.2.

I plugged this cable into the new G5 IMac and the Printer Setup Utility recognised the printer. However from the list there was no mention of a driver for the Canon 430W. I tried a couple of the drivers on the off-chance that they may work. No such luck.

I have now started to search/read all the information concerning CUPS and GIMP etc. However, having never meddled in the stuff it is taking me a while.

Any other advice/suggestions greatly appreciated.
Billy

MisterMe · #5 December 9th, 2005, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwatts

....

I have now started to search/read all the information concerning CUPS and GIMP etc. However, having never meddled in the stuff it is taking me a while.

....

Download and install it. It's not going to bite you.

bobw · #6 December 9th, 2005, 08:00 AM

Gimp supports this printer;

(driver) (compatible printer)
Canon LBP-430 pcl-4l HP LaserJet 4L

May work with yours.

dwatts · #7 December 18th, 2005, 06:29 PM

I have downloaded gimp-print, ljet4.ppd and a bunch of other things but what prints out varies from garbage (sometimes 10 pages) to my pages with garbage superimposed on top.
About 2 minutes after printing something, the printer spits out a page with 4 printed in the corner.

When I go through Printer Setup Utility and the Add, in the Printer Browser list I can see the 430W. However when I go through the list of drivers there is no 430W driver. I have assigned the laserjet 4, laserjet IIP and a few others and non of them worked. I found a web site which created a PPD file (based on the laserjet 4 I think) and when I choose that driver nothing prints and I get the following message:
"foomatic-rip" stopped unexpectedly with status 2

Any further suggestions?

I have got the printer to print from SimpleText in the Classic environment (OS 9.2) from this machine (IMac G5) using the MacJet driver and of course the same parallel to USB cable.

perfessor101 · #8 December 18th, 2005, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwatts

I have now started to search/read all the information concerning CUPS and GIMP etc. However, having never meddled in the stuff it is taking me a while.

The CUPS printing system has been built into OS X along with Ghostprint and GIMP-Print since OS X 10.3. So unless you are running 10.1 or 10.2 those are already on your system.

GIMP-Print is now called GutenPrint and the only reason for downloading and installing GutenPrint is to get later drivers than those bundled with Panther or Tiger. But that is an excellent reason to download and install GutenPrint. Their drivers often support printers that are not in the standard OS X distribution and in general offer features unavailable with factory printer drivers. The only complaint I have with GutenPrint drivers is they will not support Epson Print Utility, but you can have the GutenPrint driver and factory driver installed alongside one another and they do not interfere with each other. A genuine win-win.