I spent DAYS trying to get my 3000cn to print from my Mac, to no avail. Finally, I stumbled across some Linux print drivers, which led to my being able to harness the full functionality of my 3000cn from an officially unsupported platform.
The following instructions will result in B&W and color prints from your 3000cn using Mac OS X over a network.
First off, point your browser to
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-print/espgs-7.07.1.ppc.dmg?download. This will download ESP Ghostscript 7.07.1, an open-source PostScript interpreter. Go ahead and install it when the download finishes. Then, download the hpijs-foomatic package:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/downloads/hpijs-foomatic-2.0.2.ppc.dmg. Install that, too.
Next, open up the Printer Setup Utility from HD>Applications>Utilities. Click "Add." In the next window, make sure "IP Printer" is selected, and for the Protocol, select "HP JetDirect - Socket." Below that, type the IP address of your printer. (If you don't know the printer's IP, you can find it by using the printer's LCD panel to navigate to Menu>Configure>Reports>Printer Settings.) You may experience a small wait while the Setup Utility looks for print drivers, indicated by a spinning circle toward the bottom of the window. When the "Print Using" list becomes accessible, scroll down to "Generic PCL." Once you select "Generic PCL," there will be three options underneath. Select "Generic PCL 5e Printer Foomatic/hpijs." You should also name your printer at this point. I recommend naming it something like, "Dell Grayscale," to indicate that this printer is using the grayscale driver. Once you've done that, click "Add," which will bring you back to the Printer List. You will notice that the printer you just added will have become the default. Open up another application and try printing a page. If everything was done correctly, you should have a nice, pristine grayscale page in a few seconds.
The procedure we just followed was for adding the grayscale printer driver. It is important to select "Dell Grayscale" - or whatever you named it just now - when printing documents that don't require color, due to the fact that if the printer receives a B&W job from the color driver, it will cycle all of the color toners anyway, therefore lengthening the amount of time to print each page by about 400%.
Next, we will add a printer using the color driver. In the "Printer Setup Utility, click "Add." In the next window, make sure "IP Printer" is selected, and for the Protocol, select "HP JetDirect - Socket." Below that, type the IP address of your printer. When the "Print Using" list becomes accessible, scroll down to "Generic PCL." Once you select "Generic PCL," there will be three options underneath. Select "Generic PCL 5c Printer Foomatic/hpijs." You should also name your printer at this point. I recommend naming it something like, "Dell Color," to indicate that this printer is using the color driver. Once you've done that, click "Add," which will bring you back to the Printer List. You will notice that the printer you just added will have become the default. Open up another application and try printing a page. If everything was done correctly, you should have a nice, pristine color page in a few seconds.
After following the above instructions, you will have two printers from which to choose when printing from Mac OS X: a color 3000cn and a grayscale 3000cn. As I stated above, it is important to have two separate driver installations for the same printer because the Grayscale driver will print non-color documents much more quickly than the color driver.
If you have any questions, or if I have somehow made a mistake in my tutotial, please let me know:
yellowhummer10@gmail.com.
Enjoy using the 3000cn with your Mac!
Regards,
Yellowhummer10