Snow Leopard lousy for some printers

Maybe if certain responders to post would be less of a smart (won't finish the rest)more would be accomplished.I see this all the time in Apple forums.

Holger Jensen wrote:
My original question was how do I get rid of the Gutenprint driver. But thanks for your sarcasm anyway.

Why do some people here treat others +so rudely+?

Holger was asking a genuine question and doesn't deserve to be pilloried.

Re: smart-unfinished and sarcasm

This is a question: +"How can I remove the Gutenprint drivers that SL has installed so that I can get back to the Epson drivers for my printer?".+ That question would probably have got a quick answer and no sarcasm.

This isn't: +"As far as I'm concerned, Snow Leopard is just a version upgrade with no significant speed or functional enhancements that I find useful, just some bells and whistles not worth 25 cents .... and so on".+ For the people who answer questions her (on their own time, and voluntarily), that's just unpleasant and unattractive. And note that attached to the sarcasm was a pointer to the solution.

The problem with drivers that used to work is that they are 32-bit and won't work directly on a 64-bit program.

If you have the old drivers installed (they may need reinstallation and re-recognition of the printer) I think the solution is to open a printer dialog from the program you are using and do not print but save as PDF. Set Preview or Acrobat Reader to run in 32-bit mode permanently and print the PDF from there.

I haven't had time to try this fully, but it does give the full printer dialog box rather than the restricted Gutenprint one.

A-ha:

The 32- vs. 64-bit info may provide part of the answer for SL's behavior. Although my experience is with HP printers, there is a common factor: after SL installation, the list of available printers at home was empty. Trying to add a "new" printer showed the HP LJ1006, served by TimeCapsule, but the "Add" button was grey, and no printer driver was found. Funny, since I've installed HP's driver under 10.5 as Leopard's "generic" driver wasn't very good. After re-installing HP's driver (without even closing the "Add a printer" dialogue box!), SL recognized the driver and allowed adding the printer.

One might kvetch that SL should have recognized the installed and previously utilized printer driver (heck, I've set it to be the default! …and I doubt that HP's driver CD, obtained a year ago on a clearance sale, contained a 64-bit driver), and one might be fully justified… just not here. Echoing nick101's original sentiment: no (end-)user can provide any help with that.

In turn: pleading with or shouting at Apple (which sometimes does work, some of their programmers do visit these fora, do respond and quite helpfully at times, and do pass on the info...) should have been clearly noted as such. Oh, well...

Finally, for my 2¢'s worth, other than the reinstallation of the HP LJ 1006 driver and the disillusionment with a particular haxie-manufacturer's by now notorious lag in updates, everything… e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g on my MBP (and a dozen or so Macs at school that I maintain) seems to run seamlessly, and IMHO snappier.

The printer issues have certainly generated some heat, haven't they.

Personally I'm not surprised that some people are miffed about the problems, given the "ease of connection" claims made in the online advertising for Snow Leopard.

I find myself wondering too, though, whether some of the printer companies may have been "caught out" (even more than usual) by the "fast tracking" of Snow Leopard with the consequent earlier than expected release date (nice as that was for many users). Some printer makers are always a bit slow off the mark when it comes to changes necessary for Mac OS updates, but I would imagine the early release can't have made things any easier.

A bit of tolerance all round seems necessary on this issue for me. Yes, as many people regularly point out here, it is up to the printer manufacturers to get their drivers sorted out, but in this case perhaps they had a bit more excuse not to than usual. Similarly, it is understandable that users who get "caught out" by the problem feel somewhat annoyed. Finally, as others have remarked, there isn't much point blasting Apple about the issue here either.

A bit of tolerance and patience all round seems to me to be the order of the day, with people focusing on solutions, rather than the "issue", while not getting too het up when other people express a bit of frustration either! (Yes, I know this post itself disobeys this suggestion to some extent, but I think the point is worth making).

Cheers

Rod

Hi, Holger:

Perhaps this thread should then be closed by marking the question as answered?
(Only you can do that. 🙂 )

Cheers, Tristan

Rod Hagen wrote:
I find myself wondering too, though, whether some of the printer companies may have been "caught out" (even more than usual) by the "fast tracking" of Snow Leopard with the consequent earlier than expected release date (nice as that was for many users). Some printer makers are always a bit slow off the mark when it comes to changes necessary for Mac OS updates, but I would imagine the early release can't have made things any easier.

That's true. But some of us are angry that our printer manufacturer has specifically decided that our printers, which are still working fine, are never going to have new drivers because the manufacturer (HP for me and several others) says they re too old.

Hi, mythmaker:

It's not a myth: we live in a disposable World.
('cos we make more money off of each other by forcing the purchase of new than by maintaining and repairing the old. 😟 )

Cheers, Tristan