# can my imac print to a dell printer?



## pdomico (Aug 22, 2008)

My nonprofit was generously given dell 948 printers - but we use imacs. is there anything we can do?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

I don't know. I do believe that there is a technical way of getting the printer part to work with the Macs, as they are postscript printers as far as I can tell. As for the scanner part, that would be tougher. It's unfortunate that Dell does not support Macs in any way, shape, or form. There are a couple of things that could be tried, but it requires some working in the Unix core of OS X. But I would need to know what iMacs you have, and what OS they are running, and you would have to be comfortable with getting really geeky.


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## pdomico (Aug 22, 2008)

Well, I suppose I'm willing to try. I am using Mac OS X Version 10.4.11. I think as long as I can print, I should be okay. I really appreciate your help!


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## ShosMeister (Jan 19, 2008)

I've never heard of a postscript ink-jet printer, especially an all-in-one as the Dell 948 appears to be. What are you seeing Sinclair that I'm missing?

Since you are "happy" with just printing, have you even tried plugging it in yet via USB and see if you can add it with the generic driver?

Figure it may be worth a shot.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Oops, I misread something. They had the printer conneced to a PC running Windows, and the Mac set up to treat that PC as a postscript printer. Now it seems that this is one printer that has no hope on the Mac. I'm not sure what to do now without having one t try on my own. And I'd hate to try to walk you through the several different ways of getting unsupported printers to work on the Mac, only to end up hoseing the Mac OS. 
-edit-The only other option that you might have is if this is one of the many printers that Dell buys from a standard printer maker (ie Lexmark, Canon, HP, ect.) and rebrands. If it is, and we can figure out the standard printer, you can sometimes get it to print using the drivers for the other printer. 
-edit-So far my search seems to show this Dell printer to be a Lexmark 6570. I'll look to see if any of the *nix printing systems that work with OS X have this printer, as it is more likely to work then the Lexmark driver. But if you are comfortable with trying it, you can download and install the driver from Lexmark and see if telling the Mac you have one makes the Dell print. But you will have to know if you have an Intell iMac or not for the 10.4 driver.


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## pdomico (Aug 22, 2008)

Shoe: Uh, yeah, we made sure to plug into the usb...
Sinclair: We never had these printers connected to any PC - we just got them as they were donations. Now, if this is a rebranded Lexmark, I will try and find out if I can go the Lexmark driver route and try my luck. Our imacs are intel. Thanks for the help!


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## pdomico (Aug 22, 2008)

Update: I downloaded the driver for the lexmark 6570 and followed the install steps until the very last, where it gives you the "add" button to add the finally printer - but the button is not active. It's the same thing when trying to straight up add the dell printer. The computer recognizes the printer button the add button is not active.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Then it seems that Dell did tweak it a bit, and you may just be out of luck trying to use it on your Macs.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

I'm not going to read the above posts but i'm going to guess the resolution is GIMP DRIVER <<<click that link ray:


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

Now i'm going to do some research and come back...


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

Aight it looks like it might be hard to get to work but if you do get it to work I would only expect basic printing and nothing special. Try the GIMP driver and then look over this DISCUSSION:wave:

But then if you really want to go the round about way to print... install bookcamp... and windows on that bad-boy... and then install the driver from DELL.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

oh, i'm not sure if your imacs support bootcamp my be the SINNER can advise you about that...

what are the specs on your imacs?


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## pdomico (Aug 22, 2008)

Thanks for responding! Specs for the iMacs are intel core duo, 2.16 ghz, running os x 10.4.11

I'll
Try the gimp!


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

Don't forget there is a link in that discussion that might help... and looks like you are good for bootcamp...


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