Samsung SCX-4521F driver - print to Windows network

After the previous round of problems with printing to printers connected to Windows XP network, this time before I buy a new printer, I thought I should find out whether the new printer that I plan on adding has a OS X driver or not.

So the new printer that I am looking at is the Samsung SCX-4521F multifunction flatbed copy fax scan machine. Does this printer have a driver that allows my Mac OSX to print to it even though the Samsung will be connected to a Windows XP network?

Macbook Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.7), 2GB 667Mhz DDR2, 80GB SATA HD

Posted on Sep 13, 2006 8:30 PM

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18 replies

Sep 13, 2006 9:53 PM in response to greg sahli

Hi Greg,

I don't know if you remembered your previous post on this page here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=574708&tstart=0

You helped me with the installation of the Samsung 1610 and 2250 printer drivers to print from Mac to Windows Network.

But those hpijs, ESP, and GDI packages do not contain anything for this new exotic Samsung SCX-4521F. I wonder if multifunction printers present a higher level of challenge in terms of compatibility?

Sep 13, 2006 9:14 PM in response to macmeup

As far as I know, Samsung doesn't provide CUPS drivers. CUPS drivers are required to use the "standard" network protocols in OS X.

Exceptions - if the printer is a postscript printer, that is supported by just a PPD, by the native OS X driver. Or, if the printer has built-in ethernet or WiFi, Samsung is almost certain to provide a proprietary driver for the network connection.

Sep 14, 2006 12:54 PM in response to macmeup

by the way, this new Samsung does not have wifi or ethernet, so hopefully this will be easier.

Doing a search on linuxprinting.org yields results for 12 Samsung printers "only", and SCX-4521F is not one of them 😟

The irony is, on Samsung's download page, this printer has driver for 98/XP/64/Linux/OSX etc. I just wonder why they don't provide a driver for people with Mac machines printing to Windows Network? Is this not common industry practice? Does this have something to do with Apple?

Sep 15, 2006 2:25 AM in response to greg sahli

You're right, Greg. Doing a quick search on Brothers site reveals that they do have CUPS driver for OSX even for their multifunciton printers.

But the only drawback for Brothers printers is that one has to replace the drum and toner separately which could be less cost-effective over the long run compared to the Samsung printers.

I'm still investigating, and learning something new everyday!

Sep 15, 2006 6:16 AM in response to greg sahli

No, this PPD tells me that Samsung wrote a complete driver for linux cups. The only way you could make this work on OS X is if they recompile it for OS X.

Here was the clue:
*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 rastertosamsungspl"

rastertosamsungspl is a page conversion filter, included in the linux package.

If someone could tell us if rastertosamsungspl output is the same as samsung-gdi (ghostscript), then we could modify the PPD to use ghostscript on OS X.

Sep 15, 2006 6:30 PM in response to greg sahli

I took a look at the User Manual from Samsung's site. It lists the printer Emulation as SPL (Samsung Printer Language). It would be worth a try with the samsung-gdi drivers from linuxprinting.org. Be sure to install ESP Ghostscript also. I think the PPDs in that download are pretty much all the same. You might want to try a couple of them if the first choice doesn't get anything from the printer.

If that works, then it might be possible to alter the 4521F PPD. Sometimes that doesn't work as well as one might think. There are frequently limitations in the driver. The Samsung supplied PPD may fail in some or all circumstances.

Matt

Mac Mini G4; B&W G3/300

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Samsung SCX-4521F driver - print to Windows network

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