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Apple releases Epson Driver update; how to change printer drivers
Apple has released an update to the Epson printer drivers for OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard. The update is a bundle of all the latest drivers for supported Epson printers, which addresses bugs in previous versions under Snow Leopard and adds support for the latest printing and scanning devices.
Epson Printer Drivers v2.1 for Mac OS X v10.6.1
If you use an Epson printer, the drivers should appear automatically in Software Update, but the drivers are also available for direct download here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL900
The driver update package is 288MB, so if you would prefer to only install the drivers for your specific printer or scanner, you should be able to find them on the Epson website. Unfortunately there is no easy way to extract a specific printer driver installer from the package (either with Pacifist or another utility).
Running older scanners and printers, and changing printer drivers
Apple maintains a list of the printer and scanner devices that are supported under Snow Leopard, so if you are having problems with a specific device, then first check this list to see if the printer is shown there. If your printer is not on the list, you may be able to get it running using generic CUPS or Gutenprint drivers. This is particularly true for older printing devices.
To use an alternative driver, open the "Print & Fax" system preferences and click the "+" button in the list to add a new printer. Then select the printer connection type ("Default" for automatic configurations such as bonjour or USB, "IP" for networked printers, and "Windows" for shared printers on Windows PCs). Then choose the "Select Printer Software..." option from the "Print Using:" menu.
Select this option to choose any driver available on your system, including CUPS and Gutenprint drivers
(Credit: Screenshot by Topher)
Select the driver you'd like to use. Here are CUPS and Gutenprint drivers listed along with official ones.
These options are also available for currently installed printers. To change the driver for an existing printer, instead of clicking the "+" in the list, double click the printer itself and you will open the printer queue and status window. At the top of this window, click the "Printer Setup" and then you can select a driver to use from the same list of CUPS and Gutenprint drivers.
The option to change the printer driver in the "Driver" tab of the "Printer Setup" utility
As for scanner support, if you have an old one that you cannot get working on OS X, you may benefit from "VueScan" which supports a variety of older scanner models.
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On Friday, Oct. 9, I received and installed a duplexer for my 1-week old Epson Artisan 700 all-in-one (printer + scanner) (the printer is connected via the network). The duplexer enables the printer to optionally print both sides of each sheet. I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Epson customer support to get it working (resetting my printer system, deleting the Epson folder in /Library/Printers, re-installing the driver from Epson's web site). It still had a few quirks, but I could get the duplexer to work consistently.
The next day, the new drivers showed up from Software Update, so I figured they'd fixed some of the problems. I installed the update. After that the print dialogs indicated I had no duplexer (which is where I had started with with Epson support). So I replayed the Epson support troubleshooting session steps and reverted to the driver on the Epson site. Finally got it working again. I'll be more skeptical when the next driver update appears.
Not so with Apple Drivers : this option has disappeared.
I tried to revert to Epson driver : apparently impossible.
How did you do this ?
Not so with Apple Drivers : this option has disappeared.
I tried to revert to Epson driver : apparently impossible.
How did you do this ?
I tried to do this, of course : choosing non-Gutenprint driver does not change a thing.
In Print and Fax control panel, remove and re-add the affected printer. Test.
If that didn't fix the problem, right-click in the left pane of the Print and Fax control panel, and select Reset Printers. This will remove all printers. Re-add the printer(s). Test.
If that didn't fix it, repeat that last step, then trash the folder /Library/Printers/EPSON/, and empty the trash (restart Mac if some files were busy and couldn't be deleted, then empty the trash again). Run printer driver installer (if the new Apple drivers won't work right, go to the Epson site and download latest Snow Leopard drivers from and repeat all this). Open the Print and Fax control panel again, and add the appropriate printers. Test.
These are basically the steps that I ran through with Epson Customer Support last week.
Good luck.
report in the printer queue. It said rasteroescpll failed. Checking with epson support they said to control click under the printer list icon which brought up a reset printer prompt. After clicking yes the printer disappeared from the list and I clicked the add (+) button and chose my printer and everything works as should be including ink levels now.
If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd appreciate some info.
Hey Apple - don't do this again. Perhaps driver updates should always be separate from OS updates.
Snow Leopard majorly sucks as far as I'm concerned... nothing but problems since I got it.
1 - Reinitialize Printers
2 - Re-install all drivers from Epson
3 - Reco,figure printer by clicking "+" in the System Preferences > Printers and Fax.
4 - Be VERY careful to choose your printer in the menu, as it will appear under Apple driver
and under Epson name. For mine, Epson name ended with TCP/IP (even though I was configuring in Wifi).
5 - Click and it's done. I have again the draft options and so on.
That's about as simple as it gets--non-conglomerated and easy to follow. I have found that printers can be one of the more frustrating devices that compliment a computer, but Apple has done a pretty decent job organizing the Printer preferences and providing driver update packages.
Perhaps I should have outlined items such as "If your printer is working then you do not need the driver", and how to check for which printers are supported; however, this is listed in Apple's instructions and would to an extent be reiteration. I agree that some form of recommendation for installation is useful, but keep in mind that what might work for some people may not work for others.
I think we have done a fair amount of clarification and simplification on issues, but I have found in working here that there really are no "regular" folk in this world. Everyone has their own set of expertise that they bring to the table.
If you do not have that driver installed, you need a new one.
If you are currently using that driver you are fine.
Ric
(translated from german 10.6.1): "the system extension "/System/Library/Extensions/CDSDAudioCaptureSupport.kext" was not installed correctly and cannot be used. Install again or ask the manufactorer for an actual version."
I don't know what this extension is used for nor do I know that printer driver use some audio capture functions,
Anyway, I installed the new EPSON drivers again with the separate installer which is available on the apple site with exactly the same results: the mentioned message and the error message ("Error:?rastertoesscpll failed") appearing in the printer window while printing with the EPSON SP R360 Series driver.
So I have to switch back to the Gutenprint driver which doesn't deliver information on the ink usage and is limited in its functions. For EPSON printer utility doesn't run under 10.6.1 I now allways have to switch between the mentioned drivers wether I want to print or to know the actual ink usage.
Hope there will be running EPSON printer drivers soon.
1. Connect your printer and make sure it's working (power on, enough ink, paper in tray etc.).
2. Got to system preferences/print&fax
3. Choose your printer from the list on the left side by clicking on it and then delete it by pressing '-' below the list.
4. Click on the '+' button to choose a printer. A list of all your connected printers available on your system will appear in a dialog box
5. Choose the EPSON printer you want by clicking on its name. Beneath the list immediately three fields are filled out:
5.a. 'name': you can edit the name to your needs
5.b. 'location': The name of your Mac is displayed. I wouldn't change that accept you are knowing what your doing. It's important especially if you are working within a network.
5.c. 'printing with': names the selected printer driver. For example if you use an EPSON Stylus Photo R265 printer the new EPSON driver for this printer will be displayed. In this case it's 'EPSON SP R265 Series' (v. 8.0.7). By clicking on the pull down menue you can choose another driver suitable to your printer. But for now we want the original new EPSON driver shown in first choice.6. Test by printing a document choosing the just added printer in the printing dialog and experience all the fine features of the new driver from within the 'printing list' window.
Please note: all terms I used concerning the system are translated from a non-english system version. So a few of them might be named slightly different on your system if you are using an english version. I apologize for any inconveniences coming along with this or other misspellings (english is not my mothers language).
Hope this helps
MACsCOOL
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by LilaNO
November 1, 2009 5:58 AM PST
- I can't find drivers that will allow roll paper option for my Epson SPro 4000 (IP) for my new IMac with snow leopard. The driver version is shown as 3.09. The driver for my printer shown in the dialog box ( for Print & Fax) says "The driver for this printer can not be changed.". The "Print Using" is shown as EpsonSPro 4000 (1). Are there additional divers that I need? If yes, how do I get them?
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(30 Comments)Thanks-- LMN