As of July 7, 2024 the Gutenprint project has formally deprecated MacOS support. This means that no further MacOS-compatible binaries will be produced.
Gutenprint has not had an active MacOS maintainer for over three years, and the remaining developers lack the technical ability to produce MacOS binaries, much less undertake the substantial amount of work necessary to produce, test, and support binaries on newer (post-Mojave/10.14) MacOS releases.
For older versions (<= 10.14) of MacOS, there is a Gutenprint web page for OS X that answers most questions on how to use Gutenprint and Gimp-Print with OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" and beyond, and provides direct download links.
What is Gutenprint? Why would I want to install it? Gutenprint (formerly called Gimp-Print) is a package of high quality printer drivers for Mac OS X, Darwin, Linux, BSD, Solaris, IRIX, and other UNIX-alike operating systems. In many cases, these drivers rival or exceed the OEM drivers in quality and functionality. Our goal is to produce the highest possible output quality from all supported printers. To that end, we have done extensive work on screening algorithms, color generation, and printer feature utilization. We are continuing our work in all of these areas to produce ever higher quality results, particularly on the ubiquitous, inexpensive inkjet printers that are nonetheless capable of nearly photographic output quality. Additionally, Gutenprint provides excellent drivers for many printers that are otherwise unsupported on Mac OS X.
How can I find out more information about Gutenprint? Where can I get the newest version? For the latest information or the newest version of Gutenprint be sure to check the Gutenprint web page.
I've read this entire document but I'm still having problems. How can I contact the developers? If you're having problems it's a good bet that you are not the only one. If you can't find a solution to your problem in this FAQ or in How to Print with Gutenprint, located on the installer disk, your next stop should be the Gutenprint project forums. These can be accessed from the support page. If you have looked through the forums and you still cannot find a reference to your problem then you may simply be the first person to encounter it. It is helpful to the developers and users of Gutenprint if you post a description of the problem you are facing in the Gutenprint project help forums. When you post in the forums, developers can respond to your post and everyone browsing the forums can benefit from the exchange. Please browse the forums before posting as your question may already be answered.
I added my dyesub printer, but nothing prints. Certain models of dyesub printers need a special manual configuration in order to select a custom "backend" driver in Gutenprint 5.2.10 and above. The specific models include: Canon (SELPHY ES, CP series)
Kodak (Professional 1400, 805/6800/6850/605 Photo Printer)
Shinko/Sinfonia (CHC-S2145)
Sony (UP-DR150, UP-DR200)
DNP (DS40, DS80, DS-RX1)
Citizen (CX, CX-W, CY)
Mitsubishi (CP-D70DW, CP-D707DW, CP-K60DW-S) We do not presently have an automatic way of forcing Gutenprint to use the correct backend. If you are using one of these printers and use the standard backend, it will add successfully, but will fail to print. You will need to add a new printer and explicitly specify the backend by doing the following: If necessary, install the installer package for Gutenprint 5.2.10 or above. Make sure your dyesub printer is connected via USB, turned on, and ready to print. Under the Apple menu, go to System Preferences, then click the Printers & Scanners icon (for OS X 10.5, the Print & Fax icon). Examine the printer list (on the left-hand side of the dialog) to see if your dyesub printer has already been added. If so, remove the print queue by clicking the - (minus) button below the list. Click the + (plus) button below the list. In the new window that appears, look for your dyesub printer in the list of found printers. It will likely show two listings -- one with a Kind of "gutenprint52+usb", and one with a Kind of "USB". (You may need to wait a few seconds for all the listings to appear; on OS 10.5, it may take several minutes, and your system may appear to be frozen.) Select the printer with the Kind showing "gutenprint52+usb". Verify that the Use pop-up menu at the bottom of the windows shows the name of the printer, followed by a string similar to "CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.10". Click the Add button. Close the System Preferences dialog.
I am trying to print from (Quark, Phtoshop, etc...) using Gutenprint on Mac OS X Panther (10.3.x) but whenever I include EPS files I get really low quality output. This did not happen on Mac OS X Jaguar (10.2.x). Did the the printing behavior change between Mac OS 10.2 and Mac OS 10.3? How can I get the high quality output in Panther? Yes, printing behavior changed between 10.2 and 10.3, and more so for a certain class of applications that use the so-called 'deprecated printing path,' which means that Apple has discouraged application developers from creating programs that print in this manner. Within this class, the quality and type of printed output generated by the application is dependent on whether the system describes the printer as a raster device or a PostScript device. Your application seems to be a member of this class. In Mac OS 10.2, the system always describes any printer driven by Gutenprint as a PostScript device. Technically, this behavior is a 'bug' and it requires that a PostScript interpreter (such as ESP Ghostscript) be available to CUPS (the underlying print spooler) to enable the Gutenprint driver (or any CUPS raster driver) to print from this class of application. In Mac OS 10.3, by default the system always describes any printer driven by Gutenprint as a raster device, which is technically correct. The reason why your printed EPS files look 'jaggedy' in 10.3 has to do with the quality of raster generated by your application (it turns out that the 'bug' in Jaguar was actually a 'feature' for most end users!). You can force Panther to emulate the 'buggy' behavior of Jaguar by setting a specific 'system default'. Here is the procedure to do that: Quit your application, if it is running open the Terminal application found in /Applications/Utilities/ copy the following command in its entirety and paste it into the Terminal window, then press the return key: defaults write -g com.apple.print.apple.pictwpstopdf YES This setting is permanent, and it affects all applications on your system. If you later decide that you prefer the default behavior then issue this command instead: defaults write -g com.apple.print.apple.pictwpstopdf NO Note: Although you may set the default in Panther to force certain applications to produce PostScript rather than raster, you will never need to install ESP Ghostscript in Panther for use with Gutenprint because the operating system includes software that performs PostScript to raster conversion. Other printer drivers may still require ESP Ghostscript, but installing it in Panther will have no effect on Gutenprint.
I am trying to install Gutenprint on Mac OS X Panther (10.3.x) but when I get to the installer screen where I select the destination volume, there is a large red exclamation mark and I cannot install it. There is an apparent bug in the Panther Installer that prevents the installer from running over "newer" releases. So if you are trying to install 4.2.6 and you have ever installed 4.3.x or 5.0alpha then this bug may bite you. This bug is not present in Jaguar; the workaround in Panther is to run the Gutenprint uninstaller and remove any other versions of Gutenprint.
With Gutenprint, when I go to set up a printer via the CUPS web interface I get to the point where I need to choose a driver, but the Gutenprint drivers (PPDs) are not listed there. They use to be there in Gimp-Print 4.2.5 so where did they go? Starting with version 4.2.6-pre2 of the Mac OS X installer package the Gutenprint PPDs are installed into the "standard" location recommended by Apple, /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj rather than in the CUPS-standard location of /usr/share/cups/model/C which is different from all previous releases. This change was implemented primarily for performance reasons, but it also provides a means for normal users to find a PPD if need be (the previous PPD path is hidden from users in the Mac OS X Finder). As a consequence of this change, the Gutenprint PPDs will no longer be available for printer setup when using the CUPS web admin; the Apple provided user interface is not affected by this change. If you want or need to use the CUPS web admin to create a printer (if you need to create a serial printer, for example) you can still use the CUPS web admin to create the printer, but you will need to select one of the available models and then open Print Center/Printer Setup Utility/Print & Fax system preference and change the driver to the correct Gutenprint model (select the printer in the list, choose "Show info..." and select the correct model).
I do not see the "Advanced" option in Print Center. How can I find it? Make sure you are holding down the option key (on the keyboard) when you click the Add Printer button.
Printing does not work from "Carbon" applications (Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat, Appleworks, etc...), but I can print from "Cocoa" applications (Preview, TextEdit, etc...) just fine. How can I fix this ? The Gutenprint drivers for OS X are CUPS plugin filters. In Mac OS 10.2 and 10.2.1 when users print with CUPS-based drivers from a "Carbon" application the application generates PostScript output instead of the OS X native PDF (this is not the case with vendor-supplied printer drivers). If ESP Ghostscript is not installed the print job simply fails without indication (other than the lack of a print!). If you haven't installed ESP Ghostscript just download the Mac OS X installer and run it.
I want to know more about the new printing system in Mac OS X Jaguar. How do the various components like CUPS, Gutenprint, Ghostscript, etc... interact? The best place to start is with the CUPS documentation. In particular, the CUPS overview will help you understand how the filters are chained together. You'll find more filter information here. When printing, CUPS tries to string together a series of tools in order to convert the submitted file to the format needed by a printer. In OS X the files submitted are generally either PDF or PICT files with embedded PostScript. When printing to a Gutenprint driver, if the input file format is PDF then the OS X PDF to raster filter is run and the raster data handed to the Gutenprint driver. If instead the input file format is PICT with PostScript, then the OS X PICT to PostScript filter is run. In order to get from PostScript to raster, the ESP GhostScript filter is run next in the chain and then the raster data is handed to the printer. So you have the following two chains: PDF file -> cgpdftoraster filter -> rastertoprinter filter -> printer PICTwPS -> pictwpstops filter -> pstoraster (GhostScript) filter -> rastertoprinter filter -> printer The application determines which of these two paths are invoked. Most OS X applications submit a PDF for printing. Certain PostScript centric programs such as Adobe applications cause the second filter chain to run.
I'm trying to set up TCP/IP printing for my Epson 1520 (900N, etc...) with type-B ethernet card. HELP!!! The Epson type-B ethernet card is a curious thing. Typically you can generate a page describing the printer's network interface settings if you press and release the small black button on the back of the printer's network card; you need to use a Mac OS 9 (or Windows) application to configure the card's TCP/IP settings. Epson shipped multiple models of this card and the particular configuration application that you need will depend upon which model of card you own. You can use the configuration applications to set the printer's IP address, default gateway (router), and subnet mask. If you are on a managed network (such as in an office or school) then you need to get the proper settings from the network administrator. If it's just your Mac, your printer, and you then you can follow these guidelines: for simple networks (non-routed) the network interfaces for the printer and computer need unique addresses on the same network (subnet). You can achieve this by using TCP/IP settings for your printer that are very similar to those of your Mac. System Preferences/Network will show you your Mac's settings. Here's an example: Mac network settings Printer network settings IP Address: 192.168.0.100 IP Address: 192.168.0.95 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Router: 192.168.0.1 Default gateway: 192.168.0.1 It would be prudent to open /Applications/Utilities/Network Utility and Ping the new address before you assign it to your printer, just to make sure that the address is not already in use. Start the ping and wait; after a brief delay you should get ping: sendto: Host is down which indicates that the address is probably available. Set the Epson with the new TCP/IP settings and run Ping again to the same address. This time you should get an almost immediate response: PING 192.168.0.95 (192.168.0.95): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.168.0.95: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=3.304 ms If you don't get a response from Ping you won't be able to print; go back and try a different IP Address. As soon as you can ping the printer from your Mac go to page 3 of How to Print with Gutenprint (or the set up section in this FAQ) and follow the instructions for TCP/IP setup.
How can I print using FireWire (IEEE 1394)? In a nutshell, you can't. Not yet. CUPS uses "backends" to transfer the driver code to the printer. On Mac OS X Gutenprint uses CUPS and since there is not yet a FireWire backend available for Mac OS X you can't print with Gutenprint over Firewire. You can print to a printer that has a FireWire port, you simply need to use a different port, such as the USB port, an ethernet port, or the parallel port via a converter.
How can I print using AppleTalk? To set up Appletalk (PAP) printing you first need to open the terminal and type "atlookup" at the command line. After a delay you should get a (possibly long) list of appletalk devices on your network. You want to find the entry for your printer and use that info to form a PAP URI that you will enter in Print Center when you set up the printer. When you type "atlookup" it should look something like this: macosx% atlookup Found 2 entries in zone * ff00.2f.80 Stylus PHOTO EX:EPSONLQ2 ff5f.39.80 imac:Darwin For this example, here is the corresponding pap URI that you would enter in "Device URI" for device (pap) using the Print Center "Advanced" setup: pap://*/Stylus%20PHOTO%20EX/EPSONLQ2 Note that the colon is replaced with a forward slash and any spaces in any names must be replaced with "%20" in the URI. Here it is more generically: pap://zone/Appletalk_Device_Name/protocol
NOTE: : AppleTalk is no longer available beginning with OS X 10.6.
I am having trouble printing with a certain brand of USB-to-parallel converter cable. Which cable brands are supported on Mac OS X? The Gutenprint drivers are not partial about any particular brand or model of USB-to-parallel converter cable. When used with Mac OS X, some cables appear to work better than others. If you are researching the purchase of a USB-to-parallel converter, or if you are experiencing printing problems while using a USB-to-parallel cable with an otherwise-supported printer please check with the cable manufacturer to confirm that the cable is supported on Mac OS X. Additionally, you should try usbtb--an alternative communications software. It is available from the Gutenprint downloads page.
How can I print correctly from Adobe InDesign using Gutenprint? The InDesign application uses a somewhat non-standard printing procedure. The following workaround procedure may help you achieve the desired printer output: Select Print... from the File menu, or press command-P. Within the InDesign print dialog, click the Printer... button (*not* the blue flashing Print button!) Dismiss any warning dialog by clicking OK Set any Gutenprint driver features under the Printer Features popup item. Click Print in the system print dialog (you will return to the InDesign print dialog). Click Print in the InDesign dialog.
This procedure may be necessary for each document you wish to print. On subsequent prints of the same document the regular "Print" button should work as expected.
My multi-function HP Device is not printing over the USB port. What's wrong? Several users have reported USB compatibility issues with certain HP multi-function devices. While the Gutenprint driver generates the correct device code to produce printing, the USB connection (the Mac OS X CUPS usb "backend") may not be capable of communicating properly with the device. If your device fails to print and you are reasonably sure that you set it up correctly then you may be experiencing this problem. As a workaround you may be able to print to your device by using an alternate connection interface (but this method is not well tested). For devices with a parallel port you can try a USB-to-parallel cable, or a parallel-port print server. Devices that lack a parallel port may possibly function with a compatible USB print server.
What files are installed by the Gutenprint installer for Jaguar and Darwin? Where are they installed? I want to remove them; how do I do it? "The Gutenprint drivers for CUPS, and the required PPD files." That's the short answer to the first question. The long answer is that a lot of files are installed into the (typically) hidden BSD unix layer of OS X. You shouldn't need to remove Gutenprint in order to restore your previous printing capability. Just delete any Gutenprint printers. That said, if you are really fired up about saving disk space you can use the Gutenprint Unisntaller. The uninstaller is included on the disk image with the Gutenprint drivers. It is also available as a separate download from the Gutenprint downloads page.
Which versions of Mac OS are compatible with Gutenprint? Gutenprint is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.2.x (Jaguar) or later. It does not work with version 10.1.x or 10.0.x or any version of Mac OS 9.
I have never heard of version "10.1.x" but I have 10.1.5, does Gutenprint work with that? "10.1.x" means "any" minor version of 10.1 such as 10.1.1, 10.1.2, ...,10.1.5. So, if you want to use Gutenprint you should upgrade to at least 10.2.
Is my printer supported by Gutenprint? There is a comprehensive list of supported printers at the Gutenprint website. For printers that are not listed as supported you may still be able to print by trying the driver for a printer that is similar to yours, but the results may disappoint you.
OK, I just installed Gutenprint on Mac OS 10.2 (or later) and I tried to print but I can't figure out how to set up my printer in print center. An illustrated set-up guide called How to Print with Gutenprint located on the disk image that contains the drivers. This guide will walk you through the printer set-up process for USB and TCP/IP printers. If you don't have access to this set-up guide the following instructions should help: Setting up printers using the Gutenprint driver can be slightly different than setting up other drivers depending on how you are connecting to your printer. Make sure your printer is supported by Gutenprint see question on supported printers.
USB connection If your printer is supported by Gutenprint and it is connected directly to your Mac with a USB cable then you should follow these steps to set it up: Make sure the USB cable is properly connected to both your printer and your Mac. Turn on your printer. Restart your Mac (if you know what you're doing and you know that you do not have any print jobs in progress you can do sudo killall -HUP cupsd instead of restarting) Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) and Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.x) users should use the Print & Fax from System Preferences. Click on the + (plus) icon at the lower left. A new window will open. In that window, click the Default Browser icon at the top left. Highlight your printer in the section below. Use the "Print Using" pop-up menu near the bottom of the window to select the correct PPD for your printer and click Add .
Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) users should open the Printer Setup Utility and click on the Add icon at the top of the Printer List window. A new window will open. In that window, click the Default Browser icon at the top left. Highlight your printer in the section below. Use the "Print Using" pop-up menu near the bottom of the window to select the correct PPD for your printer and click Add .
Jaguar (OS X 10.2.x) and Panther (OS X 10.3.x) users should open Print Center (Jaguar) or Printer Setup Utility (Panther), hold down the Option key, and click the Add Printer button in the Print Center toolbar. Within the setup sheet, choose Advanced from the top popup menu; then in the "Device:" popup menu select your printer by name (it should be the last item in the menu list). Finally, select the correct PPD from the model browser and click Add . Print a test page.
Network connection If your printer is supported by Gutenprint and it is available over TCP/IP via a built-in network card (such as the Epson 10/100 ethernet type-b card available for certain printers) or an inexpensive network print server (parallel to ethernet converter) then you can set it up for IP printing: First you need to get the IP address and the print queue name for your printer from your network administrator. If you are the administrator for your network consult the documentation that came with your network device to learn how to determine this information (if you don't understand the ins and outs of TCP/IP networking you should find a friend who does). If you can't determine the Queue Name for your print server try using the default queue first. If that fails try a common queue name like lp (lower case LP). If you have the correct IP Address but you don't use the correct queue name you won't print. Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) and Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.x) users should use the Print & Fax from System Preferences. Click on the + (plus) icon at the lower left.
Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) users should open the Printer Setup Utility ( /Applications/Utilities ) and click on the Add icon at the top of the Printer List window.
Jaguar (OS X 10.2.x) and Panther (OS X 10.3.x) users should open Print Center (Jaguar) or Printer Setup Utility (Panther) ( /Applications/Utilities ), and click the Add Printer button in the Print Center toolbar. In the sheet click on the top popup menu and select " IP Printing ". Fill in the IP address of the printer and the queue name in the appropriate boxes. Next, click on the " Printer Model " popup menu and select the manufacturer for your printer, and in the small window at the bottom of the sheet select the PPD file for your printer model. It's important that you select the correct PPD file, and the names are not too descriptive, but if you match your printer model number with the number in the PPD file name you should be OK. Click " Add ". Print a test page.
OK, my printer is printing now, but how do I change the print settings like paper type and resolution? You can access the settings for the Gutenprint driver whenever a print sheet is open. Just click on the popup menu that says " Copies & Pages " or " Layout " and choose " Printer Features ". I do not see any popup menu like you mentioned. Sometimes the print window is collapsed. There is a "disclosure" triangle to the right of the Printer: popup menu. Click on the triangle and the print window will show more options.