Tachoir

Q: Mountain Lion and Laserwriter 12/640

Is there no print driver for the Apple Laserwriter 12/640 in Mt. Lion.

This printer works great and was perfect with Lion.

 

Let me know.

Thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jul 30, 2012 9:06 AM

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Q: Mountain Lion and Laserwriter 12/640

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  • by John Blanchard1,Solvedanswer

    John Blanchard1 John Blanchard1 Jul 30, 2012 11:19 AM in response to Tachoir
    Level 5 (5,243 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 11:19 AM in response to Tachoir

    It looks like Apple removed this PPD. You can copy it over from an earlier system or use the Generic PPD.

     

    Hope this helps.

     

  • by Frank Melis,

    Frank Melis Frank Melis Jan 27, 2013 11:20 AM in response to John Blanchard1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 27, 2013 11:20 AM in response to John Blanchard1

    I have this printer too, and indeed, Apple stopped printer support for it with Lion.

    After some fiddling with foomatic and ghostscript, I found a simpler method that works perfectly on all my Macs on recent OS (Mac Pro on 10.8, MacBook Air on 10.8, MacBook Pro on 10.8, MacBook on 10.7).

    Get hold of the PPD file with the name "LaserWriter 12_640 PS.gz" from OS X 10.6. I copied this PPD from my old Mac Pro G5. The file is in System > Library > Printers > PPDs.

    Put that file in your Lion or Mountain Lion System > Library > Printers > PPDs with the other PPD files.

    Go to System Preferences > Print & Scan, and add the printer by selecting IP and putting in the IP address.

    It will look for the printer on the network, and once it shows in the box, you will be able to select the LaserWriter 12_640 PS in the driver selection.

    Maybe you need access to an older system that can run OS 9 (native or in Classic) to use the Printer Setup Utility to configure the printer for IP printing. In my experience it works better if you put in a fixed IP address for the printer using that utility.

    Hope this helps. Good luck.

  • by szakál,

    szakál szakál Jan 14, 2016 8:54 PM in response to Frank Melis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2016 8:54 PM in response to Frank Melis

    it works great with the laserwriter 16/600 ps as well. 

     

    and for some reason, on 10.7.5 server, the ppd file was already there, hiding in  /System/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/.  after copying it up 2 levels (and authenticating), it appeared in the options part of the printer setup, and after selecting it, all my printer's options (max ram, optional tray, envelope feeder) automagically™ reappeared.  and the printer test even improved visibly over the "generic postscript printer" setting!

     

    this helped indeed!  thanks.