Mac OS X: Sharing a printer with Mac OS 9 computers
Summary
Mac OS X 10.2 or later can share printers with Mac OS 9-based Macs using one of the methods listed below, depending on what type of clients will be printing to the shared printer and the version of Mac OS X you are using.
With either method, the steps will need to be repeated if the IP address of the computer sharing the printer changes, so it's best that you assign your Mac OS X computer a static IP address if possible (consult your network administrator or router documentation for information on doing this).
Products Affected
Mac OS 9.0, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.2, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS Printing/Fax (any version)
If both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X clients will use the printer
This method requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later and can be used on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs.
Note: With this method, the Mac OS X computer does not need to have the Classic environment running or installed, and the Mac OS 9 computer does not need to have a printer driver installed for the shared printer. If the Mac OS 9 computer needs to be able to use printer features that are only available when using the printer's driver, use the "If only Mac OS 9 clients will use the printer" steps below instead.
On the Mac OS X computer that is sharing the printer
- Make note of the IP address of the computer that is sharing the printer. Two options for finding it are System Profiler and Network preferences.
- Open Printer Setup Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities).
- Add the printer if it does not already appear in the Printer List window.
- Select the printer in the Printer List, then click Show Info.
- Make note of the Queue Name displayed, then close the Printer Info window.
- Enable Printer Sharing in Sharing preferences.
On the Mac OS 9 computer
- Open Desktop Printer Utility (located in Applications (Mac OS 9)/Utilities).
- In the New Desktop Printer window, select "Printer (LPR)," then click OK.
- Leave the PPD File set to Generic--do not click the "Change..." button in the PostScript Printer Description (PPD) File box.
- Click the "Change..." button in LPR Printer Selection section of the window.
- In the Printer Address field, type the IP address of the Mac OS X computer that is sharing the printer (see above).
- In the Queue field, type the Queue Name found on the computer sharing the printer (see above).
- Click OK.
- Click the "Create..." button and enter a desired name of the printer in the "Save desktop printer as" field.
- Click Save.
The Mac OS 9 computer can now print to the shared printer using LPR.
If you select a different printer in Chooser in the future, and want to go back to the shared printer, see this article for more information.
If only Mac OS 9 clients will use the printer
Follow these steps if only Mac OS 9 computers (and one PowerPC-based Mac OS X computer which is sharing the printer) need to print. Mac OS X 10.2 or later on a PowerPC-based Mac, and the Classic environment, are required. Intel-based Macs cannot use this method.
- On the Mac OS X computer, make sure Printer Sharing is off.
- Quit System Preferences.
- Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
- Locate System Folder in the Finder window, which is different than the Mac OS X "System" folder. If you don't see it, check other volumes for the System Folder, or search for the USB Printer Sharing control panel and skip the next two steps.
- Open the System Folder (not the folder named "System").
- Open the Control Panels folder.
- Open the USB Printer Sharing control panel.
- Classic will start if needed.
- Click the Start/Stop tab in the USB Printer Sharing control panel.
- Click Start, then wait until "USB Printer Sharing On" appears.
- Click the My Printers tab.
- Select the checkbox next to the printer you wish to share.
- Close the control panel.
Mac OS 9-based Macs should now be able to use the shared printer. For more information about Mac OS 9 USB Printer Sharing, click the question mark icon in the USB Printer Sharing control panel.
Do not share the printer with Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X clients at the same time
With this method, avoid sharing the printer to Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X clients at the same time for best results. Stop Mac OS X Printer Sharing before starting Classic USB Printer Sharing, and vice-versa.
If you start both printer sharing services at the same time, the printer may not work as expected. This depends on what make and model of printer you have and which versions of the printer drivers are in use. You may experience variations on any of these behaviors, which should be considered normal, since the printer and its drivers may not have been designed to allow this configuration:
- The printer may intermittently become unavailable to either the Classic or Mac OS X sharing service, particularly when the other service is printing.
- The printer may be available to either Classic or Mac OS X, but not both at the same time.
- The printer may not be available at all.
If this happens, stop both printer sharing services. Start each separately, and test to see if you can print when just one service is active. If you cannot print from one or the other, you should stop sharing and follow standard printer troubleshooting for the affected operating system. See Mac OS X: How to Troubleshoot Printing Issues and/or Mac OS 9: How to Troubleshoot a Printer.
Classic does not sleep when USB Printer Sharing is active
The Classic environment does not go to sleep when USB Printer Sharing is active. If your Mac experiences sleep issues after enabling USB Printer Sharing, try turning it off.
The Classic environment will stop when you log out of your computer. You should restart Classic whenever you need to make the printer available to Mac OS 9 computers. You can configure Classic to start at log in.