How to Use a Printer Attached to a Windows XP Computer in Mac OS X

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This document gives a detailed explanation of how to set up an HP DeskJet 722C printer that is attached to a Windows XP computer so that the printer can be used by a Mac OS X computer on a local area network (LAN). If your printer is slightly different, or you have a different version of Windows, or you’re using a different Unix than Mac OS X, or you’re sharing to another Windows computer, you’ll have to adapt these instructions with your own creativity.

Be aware that these procedures may not be necessary at all if the printer you have has Mac drivers, and other Microsoft incantations are working properly. You may be able to get off easy, but then, you probably wouldn’t be searching the Internet looking for these instructions. Your mileage may vary.

Thanks to the detailed directions at http://pnm2ppa.sourceforge.net/PPA_networking/PPA_networking-4.html which gave me most of the information I needed to make these detailed instructions.

The process falls into these five general steps:

1. On Windows: Make sure you have a working printer set up on your Windows XP computer (this is not covered here).
2. On Windows: Install the software needed to emulate a Postscript printer and redirect printing ports
3. On Windows: Set up an emulated Postscript printer on Windows XP that will actually print to the (probably non-Postscript) printer set up in step one.
4. On Windows: Set up Unix LPR Printer Services on Windows XP that will point to the emulated Postscript printer in step three that in turn points to the real printer in step one.
5. On Mac OS X: Set up an LPR over IP printer in Mac OS X pointing to your Windows XP computer.

Jump to Step 1

What follows are some email messages that people have sent me about some problem they overcame that I did not encounter. I’m sorry I cannot “boil down” their advice, because I no longer have a PC, but here is what they have to say.

From: trey
Subject: http://iharder.sourceforge.net/macosx/winmacprinter/ is awesome
Date: March 12, 2005 7:50:59 PM CST
To: rharder [nospam] users.sourceforge.net

I have wanted to make Mac->Windows printing work for years 
with a crusty old HP LJ3100, which has a weirdo custom protocol 
that precludes any direct solutions (since there is no driver 
outside HP's bundled Windows software that knows the protocol).  
I used your procedure, in combination with  
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/heretrythis/hp3100/psemuxp.html, 
and it all worked straight away.

One note that you might find interesting and wish to update:  
You don't need to go through all the hassle of installing the 
XP lpr/lpd package and adding an lpr-style printer.  You can 
just share the printer with the RedMon port straight away.  
I'm running Mac OS 10.3.5, and it is able to print to shared 
Windows printers with no trouble.  When you add the printer 
you just use the "Windows" printer type, and you browse for 
it in the typical NetBIOS workgroup/machine hierarchy.

Thanks for writing this up.  It is a huge win for me 
to have this working.

trey

From: paul strasma
Subject: Windows Printer Share under Panther
Date: February 14, 2005 4:59:46 PM CST
To: rharder [nospam ]users.sf.net

Thanks for posting the directions on how to share a USB 
printer connected to a Windows machine. Â I just got an iBook 
and have been trying to figure a workaround for my non-supported 
Canon Multipass printer for some time now.

I'd like to contribute one note for the instructions that other 
multi-computer switchers might find useful:Â 

With 10.3 Panther, one has the option to just share the redirected
printer as a standard Windows share instead of using Unix print services. Â 
I basically just followed your instructions up to step 3, but then just 
turned on sharing. Â I was then able to find the printer from the Printer 
Setup Utility using the “Windows Printing†menu item.

-Paul

Note, not from this email: Another individual has pointed out that 
if you can't get your Mac to fileshare with your PC using Samba, 
then you won't be successful with the stopping-at-step-three part.
Just a thought...

To: Robert Harder
From: Kevin
Subject: Mac OS 9

http://iharder.sourceforge.net/macosx/winmacprinter/ is 
a very useful page. I was using it to set up my MacOs 9 
to be able to print to the windows printer I have hanging 
off my windows xp machine.

I had been using pcmaclan with windows 98. When I upgraded 
to windows xp, I saw from your page that I could set up a 
LPR printer, and no longer need pcmaclan (which understood 
appletalk packets). I could talk to the resulting tcp/ip 
printer directly.

So, knowing that I could setup MacOS 9 to talk to a tcp/ip 
printer, I thought it would be no problem following your 
page directions. I managed to get it to work, but not 
exactly as your page described.

You describe creating 3 printers, right? Only two are needed. 
The LPR printer can use a RPT port (redmon) to send the 
ghostprint results directly to the windows printer. So only 
two printers are needed.

I couldn't get it to work with 3 printers as you described. 
With just two it works. I suspect your configuration 
(OS X and windows xp) will work with just two windows 
printers too.

Just have the LPR printer use the RPT port and ghostprint, 
directly to the windows printer.

Am I misreading your page? or did you try two and it not 
work for you? or ??

thanks in advance,

kevin

To: Robert Harder
From: Kevin
Subject: Win XP SP2

Hi robert. Thought I'd send this heads up.

I've been using your instructions at
http://iharder.sourceforge.net/macosx/winmacprinter/ for a while 
(I emailed you as kevin a while back)

I just installed the xp sp2 patch from microsoft, which has 
enhanced security now.

You should be aware that the default windows firewall it enables 
will block the mac access to the lpr printer you set up. At least 
it did for me. However, they have a nice way to open up ports now. 
For me it was port 515 (I enabled the firewall log and looked at 
what port was being rejected, when the Mac tried to print).

To open up that port on windows,

- go to My Network Places, Network Connections.
- New task on the left: Change Windows Firewall Settings
- click on it, then click on the Exceptions tab.
- Click on Add Port
- enter "whatever LPR" in Name
- and "515" in Port Number
- Leave TCP selected,
- click OK, OK and you're done.

Now it works for me.

The odd thing was that I had File and Printer Sharing for 
microsoft networks enabled, but apparently this isn't enough 
any more. I'm no expert, but thought I'd fire this your way.

-thanks

kevin

To: Robert Harder
From: Jørgen Tietze
Subject: Windows printersharing guide

Hi, I just have an addition for windows 2000 users, after going 
through step 3 of the guide it will not work in windows 2000. 
If a logfile is setup to be created under the port-configuration tab, 
then it will produce the following error output:

"[cut]
Copyright (C) 2003-2008, Ghostgum Software Pty Ltd.  All Rights Reserved.
2005-03-01 gsprint 1.8
Couldn't open Windows GDI printer driver
Requested printer: "LBP810"
Available printers:
  "LBP810"
  "GS810"
"

After googling the error I found the following solution on redmons homepage:

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/

"gsprint can't find any printers because RedMon runs as the default 
user which doesn't have any printers. Copy the printer configuration 
in the registry from the current user to the default user. This problem 
is related to using mswinpr2 on Windows NT."

And the solution is found here:
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/muir.htm

Copying the stringvalue with *the name of the real, working 
printer* (as phrased in part3) found in the registry location. 
Using Start->Run->Regedit (be careful, because it can cause severe 
damage to windows if something wrong is done with regedit):
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionDevices

f.ex. (I suppose in your case, if it was on windows 2000):
String name: "HP DeskJet 722C" (The printername)
String value: "winspool,FILE:"

To the registry location:
HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionDevices

String name: "HP DeskJet 722C" (The printername)
String value: "winspool,FILE:"

I hope it can be useful to other people :-)

Best Regards ~ Jørgen Tietze

To: Robert Harder
From: Zay
Subject: USB connected printer

Hello, first let me express how impressed I am with your detailed instructions 
on how to print from a MAC to a windows shared printer. I followed your instructions 
to the letter, one problem, they worked fine if the printer is on a network with a 
Ethernet card vs connected by USB to a computer. The work around: Instead of using 
the option of not sharing the redirected printer assigned to the redirected port, I shared it. 

As mentioned earlier, when I tested the instructions on a printer shared from a computer 
with an assigned IP address, everything worked fine. When I followed the same instructions 
for a printer connected via USB, the LPR will not print. So I figured why not share the 
redirected port, and it worked great. If anyone ran into the same trouble, point the MAC 
to the redirected printer. Hope I was able to shed some light on anyone who may have 
encountered the same problem.

And now, the instructions.

Step 1: A Working Printer

If you don’t have a working printer set up with your Windows XP computer, consult your Windows XP documentation or get your 10-year old neighbor to help you out.

This document proceeds assuming you have an HP DeskJet 722C printer set up and working and have named it HP DeskJet 722C. For the geeks out there, note that this is one of those “lite” printers like the “Win-Modems” that give non-Windows computers such a hard time–we’ll show them!

Step 2: Postscript and Redirection Software

We need to install the following software packages on the Windows computer:

1. Ghostscript (Postscript emulation software)
2. GSview (Postscript viewer and print processor)
3. RedMon (Printer port redirection)

Ghostscript

Go to the Ghostscript home page (http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/) to download Ghostscript. In February 2009, version 8.63 was available here: http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/GPL/gs863/gs863w32.exe. 64-bit versions are on their website. After downloading this software, double click it and follow its instructions to install it.

GSview

GSview is also available from the Ghostscript site (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/). In February 2009, version 4.9 was available here: http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/ghostgum/gsv49w32.exe. 64-bit versions are on their website. After downloading this software, double click it and follow its instructions to install it.

RedMon

RedMon is also available from the Ghostscript site (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/). In February 2009, version 1.7 was available here: ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/ghostgum/redmon17.zip. After downloading this software, expand it with WinZip and run the Setup program to install it.

Step 3: Emulated Postscript Printer

On your Windows XP computer, click Start and then Control Panel. Then double click on Printers and Faxes. You should see something that looks like this:

Click on Add a printer which you will find on the left side of the window. You should see the first panel of a wizard, and it will look like this:

Click Next. The next panel you see should look like this:

Select Local printer attached to this computer and make sure that Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer is not checked. Click Next. You should see the following panel:

Select Create a new port and select Redirected Port from the popup list. Click Next. A little dialog box should pop up that looks like this:

The port name RPT1: is a fine port name. Click OK. You should be back at the next panel of the wizard:

Select a nice Postscript printer. Since we have a color printer, we will select the Apple Color LW 12/660 PS, a fine printer. Do this and click Next. You may or may not see this:

If you do, select Keep existing driver (recommended), and click Next. Now you should see this panel:

Give your printer a name. I recommend not using spaces. We will call the printer Ghostscript722C to indicate that it is an emulated Postscript printer (using Ghostscript) that prints to an HP DeskJet 722C. You do not want to make this your default printer. Select No. Click Next. You should see this:

Select Do not share this printer. No, I haven’t lost my mind. You’re welcome to share this printer if you want so that other Windows computers can print to an emulated Postscript printer, but this won’t get you any closer to printing on Mac OS X. Click Next. You’ll see the following test page panel:

Select No. It wouldn’t work now if you did try to print. Click Next. You should see the following summary:

Click Finish. You should be back at the Printers and Faxes control panel.

Right click on Ghostscript722C and select Properties from the popup menu. You should see this:

Click on the Ports tab to take you to this panel:

With RPT1: Redirected Port Ghostscript722C selected, click Configure Port… to bring up this panel:

In the Redirect this port to the program box, enter or browse to the gsprint.exe program. Its default location is C:Ghostgumgsviewgsprint.exe. (It appears that more recent versions put it here: C:Program FilesGhostgumgsviewgsprint.exe)

In the Arguments for this program are box, enter -printer “HP DeskJet 722C” -color –. It is essential that you precisely identify the name of the real, working printer (in this case, “HP DeskJet 722C”) and that you include the trailing hyphen that stands alone.

In the Run box, select Hidden.

The default value of 300 in the Shut down delay box should be sufficient. If you find that jobs are getting lost because it takes longer than this to begin printing your document, you may come back here and increase this value.

Click OK.

Go back to the General tab:

Click on Print Test Page. A test page should come out of your printer.

You have completed the third step.

Step 4: Unix Print Services

Now we must set up print services for Unix. Click Start and then Control Panel. Double click on Add or Remove Programs. It should look like this:

Click on Add/Remove Windows Components to bring up this panel:

Double click Other Network File and Print Services to bring up this panel:

Select Print Services for Unix. You will probably need your Windows XP CD. If your computer came with XP installed, you might have to dig through the CD’s that came with it to find the XP disk. If this fails, and you legitimately own a copy of XP, you might consider borrowing a friend’s XP CD to install the required driver files. Click OK. To go back to the Add/Remove panel. Close it.

Open Printers and Faxes again and click on Add a printer:

Click Next.

Again, select Local printer attached to this computer and be sure that Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer is not selected. Click Next.

This time after selecting Create a new port, select LPR Port from the popup selections. Click Next to bring up this dialog box:

or

In the Name or address of server providing lpd box type your computer’s name. My computer’s name is tigger, so that’s what I typed. This may actually be a sore point when you get to your Mac OS X computer, so you can alternately type in the IP address of your Windows XP computer on your LAN. To get the IP address, go to Start -> Run and type cmd followed by return. When the command prompt window opens, type ipconfig followed by return; that will give you your IP address. If you use DHCP to dynamically assign an IP address, it’s time to reconsider that approach, nice as it is.

In the Name of printer or print queue on that server box type Ghostscript722C just as we named it before.

Click OK.

Again select the Apple Color LW 12/660 PS printer and click Next.

Select Keep existing driver (recommended) and click Next.

In the Printer name box type GhostscriptLPR (or some other name if you like). Do not make this your default printer. Click Next.

You do want to share this printer, so select Share name and type GhostscriptLPR. Click Next.

When it informs you that your printer name is too long and thus cannot be accessed from DOS computers, just click Yes, unless you need to print from networked DOS computers, in which case click No and type in a smaller name.

Type in something descriptive in the Location and Comment boxes, and click Next.

You’re welcome to print a test page to see if it works. Click Next.

You have now completed the fourth step.

Step 5: Print Center on Mac OS X

We will now set up Mac OS X to print to the Ghostscript LPR printer. Open System Preferences and click on Print & Fax. You’ll see something like this:

Click the Plus (+) sign in the lower left to bring up the window for adding a new printer.

Click the IP button (looks like a sphere) and enter the relevant information like so:

Click the Add button. You have finished step five. Try printing from a Mac application to see how wonderful this is.

Other Notes

• Since you aren’t really printing to a LaserWriter Color 12/660 PS, you won’t be able to use all of the options that are presented to you in the Print dialog box on your Mac. Many of the options will simply have no effect. Experiment.
• Your print quality will largely be determined by the default settings you’ve given your real Windows printer. In my case I leave the default print quality on Draft, so everything I print from my Mac is in Draft mode. You may want a different behavior for your computer.