My printer won't print in color with my Mac

Question

My printer won't print in color with my Mac

I'm very new to using Macs and just got my MacBook a couple of months ago. I hooked up my HP printer that I had been using with my Dell and it works fine for black and white printing but it won't print in color. Does anyone know why my printer will print color with my Dell but not my Mac? Any advice on how to fix it?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Apr 11, 2010 2:53 PM

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Answer 1

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Apr 11, 2010 3:10 PM in response to ineveryseason

Go to HP support or troubleshooting website. You probably need to download a few drivers that are compatible with Snow Leopard.
After you install the drivers, make sure you repair permissions and restart your computer - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751

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Answer 2

Apr 11, 2010 4:34 PM in response to ineveryseason

Thank you!

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Answer 3

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Apr 11, 2010 4:58 PM in response to ineveryseason

You're welcome

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Answer 4

Apr 11, 2010 6:53 PM in response to CMCSK

Same problem here, but this is a brand new imac with 10.6.3. Can't print any text or graphics in color, but no problem printing photos.
Ran software update, restarted no good.
Repaired disk permissions, restarted, no good.
Downloaded complete driver package from HP, restarted, no good.
Repaired disk permissions, restarted, no good.

I have tried in iwork, word, excel and mail and none can print in color. Iphoto, aperture and photoshop can print in color.

Printing from the previous computer running older software is still fine.

Searching the web it seems that there a fair number of people having similar problems, with HP, Epson and Lexmark printers so it isn't a manufacturer specific or driver specific issue. This seems to be a 10.6.3 issue....

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Answer 5

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Apr 11, 2010 7:27 PM in response to bob_compton

Searching the web it seems that there a fair number of people having similar problems, with HP, Epson and Lexmark printers

I use an Epson printer and have not experienced any problems in regards to printing.

Downloaded complete driver package from HP

Have you tried the gimp drivers? http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php

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Answer 6

Apr 12, 2010 6:51 AM in response to CMCSK

Interesting update. If you look at "Color Matching" in the print dialog, every application is defaulting to "Vendor Matching". If you switch this to "Colorsync" everything prints properly. I'm on the phone with Apple right now trying to figure this out, but it appears to be narrowed down.

And before anyones says 'just use colorsync' - don't bother. There are many reasons why someone would want vendor matching, and if it's available it should work.....

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