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Printing on Apple OSX 10.12

First try our standard OSX instructions - if that fails, then continue here...:

Mac OSX 10.12 (Sierra) uses a different version of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) which works with some but not all of our printers. If a printer cannot be added via the automated Bonjour printer discovery, or can be added but fails to print, we must set it up manually. There are a few steps involved.

  • First, install the printer drivers (Kyocera printers only).
  • Second, turn on the Mac's web interface for its CUPS server.
  • Third, use the CUPS admin page (on the Mac) to add print queues for the printers you wish to use.

Install the printer drivers

Most of our printers are HP, and either their drivers are included with MacOSX or they work with the "Generic PostScript Printer" driver. For our Kyocera multifunction printers, however, you must install the drivers before connecting to the printer. They can be downloaded from the Kyocera Document Solutions website.

  • Go to this Kyocera web page.
  • Select "Print" for product category and "TASKalfa 266ci" for product, click Go.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the zip file of MacOSX drivers. Scroll down the licence agreement and click Agree.
  • Open the downloaded folder and double-click the .dmg file then the .pkg file to run the installer. When asked for your password, enter the one you use to log into the Mac.

Now add the printer as described below and be sure to select "Kyocera" for the Make and "Taskalfa 266ci" for the Model.

If you accidentally add a printer with an incorrect driver it is easiest to delete and reinstall it.

Turn on the Mac's web interface for its CUPS server

This may already be running, but if not you will need to start it manually from the command line in the Terminal window. To begin, open your web-browser.

Go to your local printer configuration webpage http://localhost:631/admin

If the CUPS server doesn't have its web interface enabled, you will get an error message "Server internal error" together with a message telling you to start the web interface, which you should do by entering this command in a Terminal:

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

Revisit the web page http://localhost:631/admin and it should now work correctly. You should now be looking at the Admin page for CUPS on your Mac.

Add print queues for the printers you wish to use

Now click on Add Printer.

Your web-browser will prompt for a login. You need to use an account on your OSX computer that can administer the computer (this is NOT your Raven account).

Click the radio button beside LPD/LPR Host or Printer, and then Continue.

In the Connection edit box, type the URI which corresponds to the printer you wish to use. This will be of the form:

lpd://cups-serv.maths.cam.ac.uk/printername 

You will need to replace printername with the name of the printer you wish to use. For example, to use the printer b1south, use the URI:

lpd://cups-serv.maths.cam.ac.uk/b1south 

The full list of available printers can be seen by connecting to the CUPS server on http://lapserv.maths.cam.ac.uk:631/printers/. Conveniently, this also lists the name of the printer driver, together with other details required at the next step.

Once you have entered the URI, click on the Continue button. The next page prompts you for a Name for the printer - use the same name specified at the end of the URI (e.g. b1south) - and then a Description and Location. You can copy these from the corresponding fields on the page from lapserv.maths, which is what we recommend. You do not need to share the printer, so leave that box unchecked. Once again, click Continue

On the next screen you will need to provide details on the make and model of the printer. You can read these from the Printer Driver field from lapserv.maths. Most of our printers are from HP, so we begin by selecting HP as the Make, and then Continue. Now carefully choose the Model. Once you have selected the correct model, click Add Printer. For HP Laserjet Enterprise M577 printers select Laserjet Enterprise M570. Otherwise, if you cannot find the exact make and model then try Generic Postscript Printer.

The final step in this procedure is to set the sensible defaults for the new printer. Almost all of our printers use A4 paper, and most have additional trays and duplex units. The Options installed is where you tell CUPS about additional features the printer has, such as extra trays, duplex units, additional memory etc. The General tab is the place to declare the page size, and that you like to print double-sided, with binding on the long edge. Once these are all okay, click on Set Default Options (at the bottom of the page.)

Finally, verify the settings by printing a test page. There is an option for this from the Maintenance drop down menu, or print a file from your favourite application.

Advanced

Rather than using the web interface, you might want to add the printer from the command line. The following may work. If it fails, perhaps revert to using the web interface.

/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p b1south -E \
-v lpd://cups-serv.maths.cam.ac.uk/b1south \
-P "/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/HP LaserJet 4000 Series.gz" \
-D "DAMTP b1 south P4015x" -L "PavB 1st floor" \
-o PageSize=A4

Trouble-Shooting

If OSX is experiencing problems with printing (after the above) then try any or all of the following:

  • Check the OSX firewall and if it is turned on you can trying turning it off to see if that helps, then turn it back on and add an exception.
  • Apply the latest OSX updates.