Using a Dell Printer on a Mac

February 20, 2007

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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  • http://nrvliving.typepad.com Jeremy Hart

    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 !

  • Zach Swanson

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

  • http://zachandjeff.com Zach

    thanks for posting. google brought me right to you!

  • kdog

    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

  • Joe

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

  • eric

    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!

  • http://www.tmarkiewicz.com Tom Markiewicz

    @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.

  • http://www.project-insomnia.com/ Andrew Rich

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

  • Sarah

    Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

  • Kage

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

  • http://www.tmarkiewicz.com Tom Markiewicz

    @Sarah, @Kage you’re very welcome!

  • Rob Staley

    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.

  • EBurns

    I've been looking for a solution for this problem for years! It works great, worked with the samsung 1210 driver.

    Thanks again!

  • Curt

    Just did this after installing Snow Leopard and worked. Thanks for taking the time to put this out there!

  • pamg

    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

  • Dennis

    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.

  • Rick

    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

  • dave

    Thank you so much. Perfect.

  • http://twitter.com/arnievw Michael Arnold

    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.

  • http://twitter.com/arnievw Michael Arnold

    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.

  • Dave_hoffs

    I also got this to work on Snow Leopard. The problem I had was that I did not download and install the samsung-gdi-1.816.2.dmg file. Once I had done that I had no problems.

  • Tsaltiel

    You are simply the best !
    Many thanks

  • printerworks

    thank you very much for your (old but still useful) post!!

  • Phil_H

    Worked like a charm!!!

  • Jjmcgra

    Excellent! Thank you – still worked perfectly with the 1210.

  • C Neufeldt

    Yes, thank you so much for posting. I have a new found appreciation for posting. I think I will start to contribute myself.

  • Jay

    Thanks so much! This worked perfectly.

  • Phil

    does anyone know if the mac works with a dell p1500 laser printer?

  • Anonymous

    This is very nice article. I have got Dell 1100 laser printer and i am using Mac OS. So this tips are very useful to me. I will try this tips to take print on Dell 1100 laser printer.

  • Critle

    Thanks Everyone, this worked for the DELL 810 and MAC OS 10.6.7!!

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