I'm trying to help my wife use an older label printer (Intermec PF8t) for printing shipping labels from her Mac. It works perfectly on my Windows PC, but unfortunately, there's no Mac driver available for this printer. She's looking for a way to print directly to it without my help, since I usually handle all the printing. I've attempted sharing the printer from my computer, but that didn't work due to the lack of a Mac driver.
One alternative I considered is setting up a script on my PC that would print documents automatically if she uploads a PDF to a shared folder, but that would require my computer to be always on. Ideally, I'd want the printer to be accessible directly from her Mac. Any suggestions?
3 Answers
You could try using a Raspberry Pi as an intermediary to connect your printer. It can manage the printing job and make it available as an IPP printer on your network. Just make sure the printer supports it!
I found out that the Peninsula Group may have a Mac thermal driver for your printer. It could be worth checking out their website for support specifically for your Intermec model.
That site seems like it offers a lot, but I'm only interested in a simple driver. Plus, it's priced too high for my taste; I could buy a new printer for that!
Have you thought about Printopia? It's an app that allows your Mac to use non-supported printers, making it easier to handle printing tasks without drivers. Just keep in mind that it’s a paid app and it requires that your Mac can still connect to the printer, which might not be the case for you.
Yeah, I saw it costs money and it's not guaranteed to help since my Mac can't connect to the printer at all.
Wouldn't that still need a driver on the Pi? Seems like we'd be back to square one.