Installing a Printer in OS X

1937 days ago in How do I? by Brent | 7 Comments

One of the most amazingly simple tasks on a Mac is installing a printer. It is very different from the Windows process. I just about passed out when I installed a printer for the first time and discovered how easy it was to do. There was no downloading of drivers (although I know there are driver packages out there from the different manufacturers). There wasn’t any wondering what all the crazy extra photo management software is doing on my desktop and why it pops up every time I try to do anything remotely resembling printing, viewing a photo or even whisper the word ‘fax’. The process is as simple as just a few quick clicks and your printing like it was your job! It is my intention to demonstrate visually through this quick tutorial, the process and how easy it has been installing printers on my Mac.

I’ll start from the beginning. Open up ‘System Preferences’ by clicking on the apple icon in the upper left of your screen.

Once you select that, a windows that looks like this window pops up (top half anyway). Select the ‘Print & Fax’ icon that is usually in the hardware section of the preferences window.

Once you click it, the window will do a little shimmy and then your window will look like this:

Hit the ‘+’ sign in the lower left of the first window it will pop up a new window like the one below, which, consequently, has already has started searching for printers connected to your Mac or on your network as well as looking across the internet for current drivers. Once it finds a printer, it will show up in the list with it’s driver listed below.

Here you see that I have selected my Dell printer and then all I had to do is click ‘Add’ to make it available in the printers list.

Once I have clicked the ‘Add” button, I am taken back to the ‘Print & Fax’ window and it’s now available to use when I want to print something. Done & Done! I couldn’t believe how fast and simple this whole process was. I’m looking forward to more like it.

Disclaimer
I know that all printers can’t be this easy to install, but I have several around my house, the office and other places that I have been. I have yet to find one that wasn’t as easy to install. My applause to Apple for such an smart interface that I have yet to stump. If I missed something, feel free to add it via the comments below.