Macintosh printer sharing allows you to connect a printer to a single Macintosh, then share that printer over the network to other Macintoshes. Some Macintosh hardware and some printers do not work with version 10.6 or later of Mac OS X; in these cases, you can use versions 10.4 or 10.5 with the Mac that is designated as the sharing computer.
Instructions
1. Install Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) on the computer that will share the printer over the network; one of these operating systems may already be installed on your older Macintosh. Mac OS X 10.6 and later will only run on Macintosh computers using Intel hardware, but these two older versions will run on a Macintosh running PowerPC hardware produced as early as 2002 or 2003. You can therefore use older hardware as your printer server, because upgrading it to at least 10.4 will enable printer sharing.
2. Connect your printer to that Macintosh, and follow the setup instructions provided in the printer manual. Most printers will work with the drivers that are pre-installed in Mac OS X, but some may require custom installation. Refer to the manufacturer's website if you need the printer driver or a PDF replacement for the manual.
3. Connect your Macintosh to the same network as the Macs to which you want to share this printer. You can share printers over wireless or wired networks.
4. Open the Sharing preference pane in System Preferences on the Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 computer connected to the printer, and click on the check box for "Printer Sharing." This will make the printer visible to any other Macintosh on the network running Mac OS X 10.4 or later, including 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Lion).
5. Print a document from one of the other Macs on the network. In the drop-menu with a list of available printers, choose "Add a printer ... " The printer you shared from the print server Macintosh should appear in this dialog box. Select it as your printer, then click "OK." You only need to add the printer the first time you use it from each Macintosh; afterward, it will appear in the list of remembered printers for future print jobs.
Tags: your printer, Connect your, need printer, over network, printer over
