HP Laserjet 4L on Macbook

Hi debsanger,

I have connected a HP LaserJet 4L to eMac running Mac OS X 10.3.9 using a Keyspan parallel to USB adaptor cable. You will require the same hardware setup. It is more than a connector, the cable it has a small converter card in it.

Keyspan parallel USB printer adaptor

I have found the HP 4L works with the drivers available in OS X, HP LaserJet 4MP, as well as the old driver downloaded from HP for the LJ4/4M will also work.
A new driver the usbtb also works, as posted by Matt Broughton,
http://buymelunch.org/printing/usbtb/ and that is the driver I am currently using to run my HP 4L without fault.

regards roam

Thanks for that info, roam. Don't know if I'd ever want to hook up my 4L to a Mac, but it's nice to know I can.

Kappy,

Downloaded the stuff to get the 1018 to work in OS X and it works like a charm. If you haven't done it before for another printer, you first need to install "ESP Ghostscript" and "Foomatic-RIP". Which can be downloaded on the page linked to above by Matt. After that, you install the specific printer driver from the "foo2zjs-1.0.U" download. None of these require a restart. Part of the driver installation launches Terminal and runs a script. You choose the printer you're using from the list and it finishes up the installation. You then have to manually close Terminal.

After that, the 1018 shows up in the Printer Setup Utility like any other printer so you can select and add it to your list of printers.

All of this only took about 15 minutes, including downloading the files. After that, there are firmware loaders for those printers that need them (like the 1018) that you need to run each time you first turn the printer on. In this package, it's called "load LaserJet_firmwarev4". Again, it launches the Terminal and loads the firmware to the printer. And again, you then need to close Terminal manually. Not a big deal of course, just hit Command+Q.

Kurt,

Well, kudos to your success and to Matt for alerting all of us to the Open Source drivers!

I had hoped the Open Source drivers had some printer support for my old TekTronix Phaser 560, but alas no luck. The only drivers available for it are not universal binaries and will not work on my Intel Macs unless I force Printer Setup Utility to run in Rosetta. I guess this old monster will remain silent because Xerox has not seen fit to update the drivers and probably never will considering the age of the printer.

Maybe one day the computer printer industry will agree on a single standard so that only one printer driver is needed regardless of the actual printer model.

So... did it work? I just bought my first Mac in 15 years and never thought about how I'd connect my old Laserjet 4L to it. I just bought a new toner cartridge for it (>$80) so I'd really like to get it working.

Dave

thank you Matt Broughton!

the link to buymelunch.org worked for me and my MacBook/HP LaserJet 4L connection!

--baa