Dell 3000cn Color Printing on Mac?

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Dell 3000cn Color Printing on Mac?

I'm new to the Mac, having been a long-time Windows user. I have a Dell 3000cn color laser printer, hooked up by USB to the MacMini. I cannot get it to print in color although it prints OK in black and white. In order to use its color function, I have to switch to Boot Camp and run pure Windows. It will not print in color in Parallels either.

I've read several comments on this board and others about how to set up the printer on a Mac but still have been unsuccessful. If anyone knows how to get a Dell 3000cn to print in color, I'd very much appreciate hearing from you (preferably from a person who has this machine and has been successful but I'll certainly welcome any comments).

Thanks very much for any comments.

James

MacMini Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Apr 29, 2007 8:30 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 30, 2007 5:20 PM in response to jesschoen

In the hopes of attracting more responses, let me provide some background. James contacted me privately by e-mail and to date I have been unable to help him.

The Dell 3000cn can use the the same printer driver as the HP ColorLaser Jet 5000 or 5500. I suggested he try the pxlmono driver. This has proven very successful on at least one other printer of the same make/model. His printer gave an error message.

I then suggested the use of the HP Color LaserJet 5000 driver from the hpijs package. This has also worked for others with the Dell 3000cn. Apparently, this also did not print in color for him.

The Gutenprint driver for the Color LaserJets will only produce grayscale. This is a limitation of the Gutenprint drivers.

I hope I have missed something simple and someone else can help him.

Matt

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Answer 2

jesschoen Author

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Jun 19, 2007 12:36 PM in response to jesschoen

Color is now working! Matt's instructions turned out to be correct but there is one thing to check on the Dell printer if they don't work. On the front of the printer there is a menu screen to change various settings. I had previously been advised to check that the printer was set on color which I did on more than one occasion. However, today I had to reinstall the printer driver and decided to check the menu again. I saw that it was set on color but then I discovered within color, there is a black setting and a color setting. To change it to color, you have to select color and make sure there is an asterisk next to color. Now I can print in color both from the Mac side of the house and in Parallels.

Thanks very much, Matt.

James

MacMini Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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