Putting in a printer on a mac is usually a easy venture. You should not ought to do plenty extra than join the printer in your mac, turn the printer on, and then let your mac automatically installation the printer for you.

While the automatic printer installation technique works most of the time, there can be instances whilst you may have to use the manual install technique to get a printer up and running.

A chunk of history: for many years, manually installing printers became the normal method of having a mac and a printer to communicate.

It generally required a ride to the printer producer’s website to get the maximum current printer motive force, jogging the motive force installation app that came with the printer software, and subsequently, opening mac’s system alternatives, selecting the printer preference pane, and running via the printer setup, which united the printer with the newly set up driving force software.

It wasn’t a difficult technique, and it allowed the usage of older versions of printer software, or even regularly occurring printer drivers while suitable drivers were not available from the printer producer.

However apple likes to make the mac as clean to use as possible, so with the advent of os x lion, it brought computerized printer installation because the default method of having a mac and a printer to work collectively. However every now and then, especially for older printers, the automated process doesn’t paintings, typically because the printer producer in no way provided apple with an updated motive force.

Fortuitously, you can use the guide printer installation method we’ll describe here.

For this guide, we are going to installation an older canon i960 usb printer on a mac walking os x yosemite. The technique we define should work for maximum printers, as well as future versions of os x.

In case you’re trying to installation and use a printer related to a windows laptop, check: the way to set up printer sharing with windows computer systems

The usage of the printer & scanner preference pane to put in a printer

• Connect the printer on your mac the use of a usb cable.
• Make certain the printer is nicely configured with ink and paper.
• Flip the printer’s electricity on.
• Release machine preferences with the aid of deciding on device choices from the apple menu, or clicking at the system alternatives icon inside the dock.
• Click on the printers & scanners desire pane.
• If your printer is already listed inside the desire pane’s printer listing sidebar, cross on to step 18.
• In case you do not see your printer at the listing, click the plus (+) button near the bottom left facet of the choice pane sidebar to add the printer.
• In the upload window that looks, pick out the default tab.
• Your printer should seem within the listing of printers which are linked in your mac. Pick the new printer you wish to put in; in our case, it is a canon i960.
• The bottom of the upload window will automobile-populate with data about the printer, which includes the printer’s call, the vicinity (the name of the mac it is related to), and the motive force it is going to be the usage of.
• Through default, your mac will auto-select the driver. In case your mac became able to discover a proper motive force for the printer, the driving force’s call can be displayed. You can click the upload button and then go directly to step 18. If as a
• substitute, you see select a driving force, then proceed to the subsequent step.
• In case your mac wasn’t capable of find a usable motive force, you’ll be capable of locate one yourself. Click on the use: drop-down menu and pick pick software program from the drop-down list.
• The printer software program listing will seem. Scroll via the listing of to be had printer drivers to see if there is one that suits up in your printer. If now not, you could strive a familiar driver if one is to be had. If you find a driving force to apply, pick the driving force from the listing and click adequate. You can now click the upload button and then go on to step 18.
• If there is no matching printer motive force software listed, you may visit the printer producer’s website and down load and install the most current model of the printer driver.
• On the grounds that we’re seeking to deploy a canon i960, we went to the canon printer help website in which we determined that the latest driver model canon has for the i960 is for os x snow leopard. Although that is a pretty antique version, we decided to download the driver anyway and deploy it the use of the set up app included in the download package.
• Once the motive force installation completes, go back to the printers & scanners preference pane. If all went well, your printer need to now show up in the printers list sidebar within the preference pane. Soar to step 18
• If the printer wasn’t mechanically added to the printer listing, cross back to step 7 and repeat the stairs. The os ought to both automobile-locate the driver or list it in the choose software drop-down list of printer drivers.
• Verifying that the printer is working
• After clicking the add button, or automobile-adding the printer with the aid of the usage of the producer’s motive force installation the app, you are geared up to check to look if the printer is really operating.
• Open the printers & scanners desire pane, in case you previously closed it.
• Choose your printer from the printers list sidebar.
• Information about your printer will seem inside the right-hand vicinity of the window.
• Click the open print queue button.
• The print queue window will open. From the menu bar, pick printer, print check web page.
• A take a look at web page will appear within the printer queue window and be despatched to the printer for printing. Be affected person; the primary print can take some time. Many printers perform special calibration routines on a primary print.
• If the test print is ok, you are ready; revel in your printer.
• In case you had troubles with the check print, inclusive of the page no longer printing in any respect, or looking unusual (incorrect colours, smears), take a look at the printer’s manual for troubleshooting pointers.

In case you nonetheless have issues, and you manually selected a prevalent driver for your printer, attempt some other driving force. You may do that by way of deleting the printer from the printers & scanners desire pane, and repeating the set up steps above.

By the manner, we were successful in getting our seven-year-old canon i960 printer to paintings with os x yosemite. So, simply because the remaining to be had printer driving force would not encompass assist to your modern-day model of os x, it doesn’t mean that an older driver won’t paintings together with your mac.

Through the way, if you aren’t able to efficaciously deploy your printer, do not surrender hope resetting the printer gadget may be all that is had to repair the difficulty.