USB Printing (HP)

vertigo

vertigo

Swollen Member
For any of you with HP USB printers and the developer tools CD (I would imagine the downloadable dev tools are the same thing), there are print drivers buried in the examples folder just waiting to be compiled. Here's how:

- log in as root
- navigate to /Developer/Examples/Printing/Printer
- open printer.pbproj
- make sure the selected target is "All" and click the hammer (or hit command-b) to build them
- you'll get a few compile errors because they #include headers that dont exist anymore. just delete the lines it complains about and try building again. it should eventually compile successfully in this fashion.
- once it's compiled, look in the build folder it creates in the project file's folder. you should see a few .plugin files.
- open another finder window and navigate to /System/Library/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Plugins
- move USBIO.plugin to the IOModules folder
- move HPPM.plugin to the PrinterModules folder
- move PB_USB.plugin to the Browsers folder

log out and back in, and load up the Print Center. it should now recognize your HP USB printer.

I've only tested this with my HP DeskJet 812c, and the pages it prints seem to be off center down and to the right. but it seems to work, anyway :)

good luck
 
Thanks for the instructions. Worked for me. I have a Deskjet 950c. Hopefully HP will get drivers out soon. This will get me by until then. (I hope)
 
I tried the compile and you DO have to log in as root. It worked and my hp 935c works although it shows up as a 930c and prints a header that is about twice what it should be. :) But I can't complain now can I? Maybe I can figure out how to fix this.;) Just wish HP would get their act together and release the drivers before the final version comes out.
 
step 1 was log in as root :) i found out the hard way, too.

but for future experimenters, just use the package i posted. should simplify matters greatly :)
 
worked ok with a 970C. I noticed the quality is shot and it's slower than snot..but it's a good start!



 
I used the HPPM.plugin to get my simple little HP DeskJet 648C (USB) to "work".

For color it printed each page from Internet Explorer at about 60%, and some text was overlapping each other (not usable). From TextEdit, I printed an RTF which had a top margin that was 0.5" too much and a bottom margin that was 0.5" too little, but otherwise it was fine.

So I'm glad that I can make quick printouts from the Public Beta for troubleshooting and examples and such, but I'll have to do my nice printouts from OS 9 still.

 
I was able to compile the printer drivers for the HP USB as described above. It works with my HP 895cse.

The output is slightly smaller than normal, but readable.

I am able to print, but just once. After one page has been printed, the print center will no longer work and just freezes if I try to print another document until I restart.

Thanks for the hack. It is certainly better than no printing options! I wish I knew enough about OS X to try to create a more usable driver. Has anyone taken up this challenge? Maybe I could help.
 
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