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Using a Dell Printer on a Mac

After more searching than I thought would be needed, I found the steps for getting my Dell 1100 laser printer to work with Mac OS X. From a thread on MacRumors.com, I followed these steps:

1) download and install both drivers on this LinuxPrinting.org page: http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/samsung-gdi/
2) setup the printer as a Samsung ML-1210

These steps worked great and I’m back in business! The Linux Foundation also has a good reference for many other printers.

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Categories: Apple, Technology.

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20 Responses

  1. Sorry it was so difficult to install. Most peripherals are very easy – just plug into the USB and go to town, your machine should find all the plug-ins and stuff you need. My wife likes to say the “i” in a lot of Mac’s products stands for intuitive, everything just works. Haven’t installed any Dell peripherals, but am using a Jabra headset, HP laser and Brother laser printer right now – all three just plug and play.

    Hope you’re enjoying your Mac odyssey !

  2. Wow thanks so much for posting this, I’d given up on getting my 1100 to work with my G5.

    Zach SwansonApril 14, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
  3. thanks for posting. google brought me right to you!

  4. thank you so much bro, no idea who you are. know how we’ve all be in a major printer jam…and NEED to print…i was just in one…i hve a mac…roomate has dell 1100..thought i was screwed, found your site..haha..thanks

  5. This worked for me too, but I had to use the ML-210 driver instead of the ML-1210.

  6. Wow,
    THANKS SOOOO MUCH!! This worked perfectly on my new MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo 2ghz. I was a ***dows user before, never thought Mac would be this easy to use.
    Thanks again!

  7. @eric You’re welcome. Unfortunately, using the same set of drivers at that site, I’ve been unable to get my HP OfficeJet k80 to work.

  8. I also had to use the 210 driver but with that change, it works very well. Thanks!

  9. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

  10. Thanks mate. I thought for a second that I finally found something wrong with my new MacBook pro, but you saved the day!

  11. @Sarah, @Kage you’re very welcome!

  12. I have done all downloads and installed drivers but printer just sends data and then says no job printing. Any help welcome ta. I have a Mac G4 and a Dell 810 printer.

    Rob StaleyJanuary 18, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
  13. I've been looking for a solution for this problem for years! It works great, worked with the samsung 1210 driver.

    Thanks again!

    EBurnsMarch 6, 2009 @ 2:24 am
  14. Just did this after installing Snow Leopard and worked. Thanks for taking the time to put this out there!

  15. I have a dell 1100 printer and I just bought a mac with the newest version of Snow Leaopord 10.6.1, and i really want to be able to use it, the instructions seemed to work for everyone else but I can not figure them out. I am not very computer savy. Can someone please explain in more simplier terms. I click on number 1 in the directions, and I get a new window with this page: OpenPrinting/MacOSX/samsung-gdi. Under the download section, there are 5 different things (maybe drivers) that I can download, I do not know which one to download. But I think I should use the Foomatic-RIP for Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) – Mac OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) or this one Ghostscript for Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) – Mac OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard).

    After I install the right one of these, do I need to download the printer too. If so, I click on the Samsung 1210, then this page really confuses me. Which one of these do I need to download.

    Samsung ML-1210
    BW laser printer, max. 600×600 dpi, works Perfectly
    Recommended driver: gdi (Home page, view PPD, download PPD)
    Generic instructions for: CUPS, LPD, LPRng, PPR, PDQ, no spooler

    If anybody can please help me out I would be really thankful. Thanks

  16. just installed everything on 10.6 (without rosetta)
    first ghostscript, then foomatic rip and then then samsung driver. after that i created a new printer as described here. works VERY WELL!

    Thanks a lot. already thought I would need to get a new printer.

  17. Not really sure what I'm doing. downloaded the linux files to the desktop. Was that right? Will they work from there? And I don't get a samsung 1210 or 210 option in the drivers. I see a lot of samsung, have tried a few, get a whirr and lights blinking but nothing prints. Any suggestions? And try to make instructions REALLY clear and simple… Thanks Rick

  18. Thank you so much. Perfect.

  19. Great post. I had no idea dell used Samsung. Everything I've run across has been a rebranded Lexmark. I didn't see it covered in the comments so if it is just ignore. The Samsung ML-2010 is a carbon copy of the Dell 1100 and has os x drivers on the samsung site.

    http://www.samsung.com/us/support/detail/suppor...

    I guess its not too much more difficult to use Tom's method. It boils down to 1 download verses 3.
    I did both and found no difference in operation of my printer.

  20. Great post. I had no idea dell used Samsung. Everything I’ve run across has been a rebranded Lexmark. I didn’t see it covered in the comments so if it is just ignore. The Samsung ML-2010 is a carbon copy of the Dell 1100 and has os x drivers on the samsung site.

    http://www.samsung.com/us/support/detail/supportPrdDetail.do?menu=SP01&prd_mdl_cd=&prd_mdl_name=ML-2010&prd_ia_sub_class_cd=P

    I guess its not too much more difficult to use Tom’s method. It boils down to 1 download verses 3.
    I did both and found no difference in operation of my printer.



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