Can't print to a shared printer on 10.6.8 iMac from Windows 7 iMac

The UFR2 driver is the problem. It cannot be used when Windows is sharing the printer. But looking at the specs on the Canon Australia web site, this printer also support PCL and Postscript. Not sure if this is the same in all regions but if your 6750 does support Postscript as standard then I suggest creating a new print queue on the Mac, this time using the PS v3.40 driver or the Canon Mac PPD.

With the new queue created and shared on the Mac you can then add the printer on Windows again. And like the Mac, instead of using the UFR2 driver you should install the Windows v20.65 PS driver in the Win7 PC and then select the LBP6750 for the queue.

If your LBP6750 does not support Postscript but it does support PCL, then you should use the Generic PCL laser printer on the Mac and the Canon PCL driver on Windows.

And if your LBP6750 only supports the proprietary Canon UFR2 printer language then you won't be able to use it when shared - in either direction. But having said all the above, I also see this model has an Ethernet port, so rather than using the USB cable and sharing it from one computer I would be connecting it to your local network via Ethernet and printing to it via an IP protocol from the Mac and PC. Let me know if you need help with setting that up.

With the Canon PS driver and PPD not working and the Generic PS producing heaps of garbage pages it does indicate that you don't have Postscript in this LBP. You can confirm this by opening the internal web page of the printer (called Remote UI) by typing in its IP address into a web browser and then looking through the available menus.

For the PCL driver test, I am not surprised that the connection via IPP failed but I would have expected the queue using HP Jetdirect Socket to have worked. This is what Windows will use as a default. Looking at the error log it shows the "destination printer does not exist", which is a result of the IPP port not being available. But I would think that you would get a different message when using Socket. You could also try creating the queue using LPD.

If the connection via LPD and using PCL does not work then you won't be able to get the Windows 7 PC to print via the 10.6.8 share, as the UFR2 driver installed on the iMac print server will cause an error. So you would have to look at setting Windows7 to print directly to the LPB.

Based on what you want to achieve it would be best to determine how much extra the Postscript kit will cost you, as this will provide you with the least amount of trouble. But I really have to question why you want to use the iMac as a print server. When it goes into sleep mode it can impact the spooling of print jobs from the client and to set an iMac never to sleep is tempting fate as I think they overheat more than other Mac's - I've had two that had the electrolytics capacitors on the logic board pop their tops which is an expensive repair.

Thanks for the info. With you listing LIPS as a printer language it shows that you are in Japan or one of its regions, or at least the printer is from there (and looking back at the original post I can see your original salutation of Pahu-san, so I missed that also).

With PCL producing garbage also, ruling that option out, I do think your best option for all that you want to do is see if you can get the Postscript option kit installed in this printer. If the is no PS option in your region then looking at another model or brand may be best, but worry about that later. With the PS kit installed you will be able to share the printer from the 10.6.8 server.

As for tracking and managing users and print quotas, I can recommend uniFLOW, a Canon product after they bought the company that designed the software.

Without Postscript you will have problems doing what you want, ie. printing from all computers via a print server. Your only option with these printers is to print directly to them from each computer.

So if Canon Japan don't offer an LBP with Postscript support (they certainly do in other regions) then I would suggest you get your money back (unless Canon Japan can suggest a working solution) and replace them with a brand that does offer Postscript support. Not sure what brand/model to suggest but the important specification is that the printer supports Postscript. Don't purchase a printer that uses a proprietary printer language. With a printer that supports Postscript, it will allow you to create a queue on the 10.6.8 server and share it to the other computers on the network, including Windows 7.

All the best.

actiononly wrote:

This Canon printer is new and you would think they would be moving forward and making drivers compatible with the latest Apple OS and Windows software. I think Canon went backwards on this one and got lazy. Otherwise, are all new printers this way?

The thing that is hard to comprehend is why does Canon offer Postscript in other regions but not in Japan. With this model in Australia, and others such as the LBP6750 and LBP7680C, Postscript is a standard offer which then makes the machine compatible. So it is not a matter of being lazy but deciding that the Japanese public don't need Postscript. It certainly does have an additional cost, as Canon would have to pay Adobe for using this protocol, but as is often the case there should be an option of having it rather than simply not giving you the option.

I understand you recommended any printer with postscript, but I fear purchasing any printer now. Have you had any success with one of the latest black/white laser printers that are $500-$1,000, drivers that work on iMac 10.6.8 client (or server), iMac Windows 7 client, and can print from Windows 7 client through an iMac 10.6.8 client (or server) shared printer?

Yes, although I'm not sure of its price. I have a couple of the aforementioned LBP6750's installed at a site with 10.6.8 server, a mixture of SL and Lion clients and some Windows clients (from memory a few Dell's running Vista, not Win7). But these printers are using Postscript which made the setup very easy. So if you cannot get this Canon model with Postscript then maybe look at HP LaserJet with PS. It will definitely work the best with your setup.

actiononly wrote:

My understanding from our discussion is that OSX and Windows are unable to share printers because of not having PostScript.

Basically yes. The UFR2 driver installed on OS X server will not allow the Mac or Windows clients to print. The OS X UFR2 driver is designed to print directly from the Mac to the printer. It is not designed for being installed on a print server and shared.

Does that mean it would still fail if the print server/queue were on a Linux machine (I noticed linux drivers on the canon page) and OSX/Windows were printing through it?

I think that the Windows driver may work, although I have not tried it. But the OS X driver will not work. Same issue as being shared from OS X server.

I guess my main question is if there is anyway I can get these printers to print from both OSX and Windows 7?

Yes. Don't have them printing via a print server. Set up each Mac and Windows client to print directly to the LPB via Ethernet and it will work with the UFR2 driver.

Since this connection won't allow you to monitor usage, maybe you could use software like Canon's iW Accounting Manager, which communicates with the printers and retrieves log information from Canon printers. I will have to check if such information is stored in this model and can be retrieved from the LBP6750.