RICOH Aficio MP C2500

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RICOH Aficio MP C2500

I have spent hours and hours over the past month trying to print to the RICOH Aficio MP C2500 at work from my new MacBook Pro... without any luck. The most I've been able to print is blank pages and a bunch of garbage.

I tried using the PPD Installer on RICOH's support website ( http://support.ricoh.com/bb/html/drut_e/ra/model/e_3000/e3000en.htm) about a month ago and was still unable to print. I tried again today (in desperation) but got an error about needing to be the administrator or having higher level privileges when trying to run the installer. I repaired my disk permissions, but I still got the error when trying to run the installer. I tried PDDs from openprint and other sites, as well as various different settings in my system preferences.

Most of the time I just end up using my old PC laptop instead. No problem at all hooking that up... just type in the IP address. I want to make the switch to Mac, but it's not as easy as they make it sound.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Sep 9, 2008 1:37 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Matt Broughton

Level 5

4,985 points

Sep 9, 2008 5:04 PM in response to abrick

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Answer 2

Sep 9, 2008 5:46 PM in response to Matt Broughton

Actually, there is an easier way than that, which requires no downloading or even reinstalling the printer. You do not even have to be connected to the printer. In the Print & Fax pane, select the printer, and open the print queue. Then click on the Info button, and click on Driver in the panel that drops down. Then where the Ricoh driver appears, choose "Select a driver to use..." From the list, select the PCL6 CUPS+Gutenprint driver, and you will be all set.

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Answer 3

Sep 9, 2008 5:52 PM in response to Bruce De Benedictis

Bruce De Benedictis wrote:
select the PCL6 CUPS+Gutenprint driver, and you will be all set.

That will allow the printer to produce output, but the Gutenprint generic PCL drivers only support black and white printing. The Ricoh MP C2500 is a color printer.

Matt

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Answer 4

abrick Author

Level 1

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Sep 10, 2008 4:24 PM in response to Bruce De Benedictis

Using a generic PDD already on my Mac would not allow me to print in color or print certain kinds of files with the correct fonts/formatting. This was better than nothing but not ideal.

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Answer 5

abrick Author

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Sep 10, 2008 4:44 PM in response to Matt Broughton

My printer understands these languages: RPCS, PCL 5c, and PCL XL. That is why the drivers on the RICOH website did not work. Why does the RICOH website not have drivers that will work in my situation? In any case, thank you.

I had tried the pxlmono driver from linuxfoundation.org before, but you are right... I did not have Foomatic-RIP or Ghostscript installed.

After installing Foomatic-RIP, Ghostscript, and the pxlmono PPDs, it was a little tricky (for someone who is used to operating a PC) to figure out how to find/select the new drivers. When I clicked on "Select a driver to use...", I was unable to find anything but the old drivers/navigate to a different folder. I had to select "Other..." instead, and then manually locate the new drivers, which I eventually found in Macintosh HD\Library\Printers\PDDs\Contents\Resources\en.lproj\.

Thanks again, though. Everything seems to be working. I am not able to print websites in color for some reason, but I can print them to a PDF and then print the PDF in color.

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Answer 6

jaoneil

Level 1

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Oct 15, 2008 7:32 AM in response to abrick

I have the same printer and same issue...I installed the three software programs but still cannot print in color. Any more advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

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Answer 7

Oct 15, 2008 8:39 AM in response to jaoneil

Two possibilities--
First, check to make sure you have selected the right driver Ricoh Aficio MP C2500 PXL) . It can be confusing as there is also a Ricoh MP 2500 printer that does not support color printing.

Second, look under Printer Features and make sure the Color Mode has been set to Color. Sometimes it defaults to Grayscale when you install the prnter.

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Answer 8

jaoneil

Level 1

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Oct 15, 2008 10:40 AM in response to Matt Broughton

I am good on the driver. And, I can, print color in MS Word. But if the document to be printed is a PDF or web page, Printer Features does not even give me a choice of Gray Scale or Color. Thoughts?

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Answer 9

Oct 15, 2008 5:15 PM in response to jaoneil

jaoneil wrote:
I am good on the driver. And, I can, print color in MS Word. But if the document to be printed is a PDF or web page, Printer Features does not even give me a choice of Gray Scale or Color. Thoughts?

Well then the printer does print color. Now you need to figure out why you are having problems with certain applications and/or files.

When in Word, do you see the option for Color or Grayscale under Printer Features?

Could you be specific as to what applications are not allowing you to print in color? What choices are there under Printer Features -> General 1 -> Color Mode?

You might want to try resetting the printing system to see if that resolves your issue. _ http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341_

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Answer 10

Oct 23, 2008 2:02 AM in response to jaoneil

Same problem here. I've installed all the right packages and the computer recognizes the printer. I've selected the driver specified but when I try to print I always get the message "printer pauzed". I can't get it unpauzed. Does anyone have a suggestion?

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Answer 11

thePooka

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2008 12:38 PM in response to gebo_hardu

gebo_hardu: make sure you use LPD as the printing protocol. I had the same problem as you when I had selected internet printing, but it worked when I used LPD.

-e

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Answer 12

Jan 26, 2009 12:05 PM in response to Matt Broughton

Matt,

I just wanted to say thanks a lot for your very informative/helpful post. I was having the same "garbage PostScript printing" issues with my RICOH Aficio MP C3500, and your suggestions fixed it immediately.

Thanks again,
Steve

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Answer 13

shawnb..

Level 1

9 points

Feb 11, 2009 11:40 AM in response to thePooka

thanks Pooka. Not choosing the LPD protocol was the mistake i was making. I was choosing the IPP protocol.

Message was edited by: shawnb..

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Answer 14

jfort

Level 1

4 points

Feb 15, 2009 11:36 AM in response to abrick

Matt, you said above:

Your printer does understand PCL 6/PCL XL, you can use the pxlmono drivers. The software you need can be found at http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/pxlmono. You will need to download and install three packages -- Foomatic-RIP, Ghostscript, and the pxlmono PPDs. My guess is that your in your previous attempt to use the PPDs from the OpenPrinting site, you did not have Foomatic-RIP and Ghostscript installed. This additional software is needed.

I have a Mac with the latest OS. We have a Ricoh Aficio 2018 and a Ricoh Aficio MP C2000. I have downloaded the drivers from the web site but neither printer will print.

Suggestions? How does one install the three "packages" you suggest?

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Answer 15

Feb 15, 2009 4:56 PM in response to jfort

jfort wrote:
I have a Mac with the latest OS. We have a Ricoh Aficio 2018 and a Ricoh Aficio MP C2000. I have downloaded the drivers from the web site but neither printer will print.

Suggestions? How does one install the three "packages" you suggest?

Each of the downloads is a disk image file (.dmg). You double click the disk image to "mount the disk". Inside, you will find the installer, uninstaller, and documentation. Double click on the installer to run it. The installers are standard Mac OS X installers. Just follow the directions. Please install Foomatic-RIP and Ghostscript before the pxlmono drivers.

After you have installed the software, go to Print & Fax system preference to add your printers.

If you need any further assistance, please start a new topic.

Matt

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