Printing Obsolescence Woes

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clicknz

467 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#133965 9-Nov-2013 14:30

Hi - I've just moved from a trusty 2007 vintage MacBook Pro to a slick new Haswell-chipped, SSD-packing 2013 MBP. Loving the speed and retina screen. Missing DVI & firewire ports, but that's another story.
I've been using a surprisingly reliable Canon A4 inkjet printer (IP400R) that can print over wifi and handle DVD printing. As a photographer there are still some job deliveries that suit a good old optical disk so I'd like to still have this option of printing on the disk (will burn them on another Mac).
I can't find a Canon print driver for Mavericks, but have tracked down a Gutenprint driver that seems to work fairly well for A4 paper, but I can't seem to get the disk print utility to work.... plus it seems that finding Canon '6' ink cartridges is getting increasingly difficult.
Before I biff this piece of hardware just wondering if anyone on Geekzone may have come up against a similar problem and perhaps found a solution, or have some thoughts or suggestions. Thanks very much.

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

Wizzid

51 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#930259 10-Nov-2013 14:33

I have a Canon i9950 A3+ printer which I use for photo prints and cd printing, it has eight BCI-6 tanks. I'd recommend http://www.consumables.co.nz which I've used for many years for BCI-6 ink cartridges. Good prices compared to normal outlets, next day free-shipping.

I'm sorry to hear about your printer driver hassles. It took months after release of Mountain Lion for Canon/Apple to fix it's i9950 printer driver. Now I am apprehensive about changing to Mavericks after hearing your driver issues. I guess I'll install Mavericks on a clone drive to see if anything "breaks".

clicknz

467 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#930287 10-Nov-2013 16:00

Hi Wizzid,

Thanks for the suggestion on ink purchase - it'll be interesting to see how long these inks keep being manufactured. It's good to know that your printer uses these inks too, as it's considered quite a high-end printer I believe... in fact I'm pretty sure I saw a chart (on one of the Canon global sites... sorry not sure which one) that listed compatibility of various printers with different OS's and I think I saw that your one is good to go.

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

Wizzid

51 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#930341 10-Nov-2013 18:42

Thanks for that, good idea, I'll check out Canon USA or jp. My belief is that populist shops like DSE will only stock popular cartridges, but speciallist suppliers will continue to offer genuine or alternative inks. Though I have to say that my only trial of alternative inks resulted in a $300 repair bill for the printer head.

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#930462 10-Nov-2013 22:23

what about installing a virtual OS (mac or windows) that you can fire up just for these cd printing jobs? booting a virtual machine from scratch on a fast cpu and ssd is a pretty painless experience

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

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clicknz

467 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#930509 11-Nov-2013 08:31

Thanks Regs - another helpful suggestion (gotta love the excellent GZ community).... have just started some research on VM's and hopefully this will be a great way to save a good printer from being scrapped.
I must admit tho', I had almost talked my self into a new multifunction machine that supported Apple Airprint so that I could print from iPhone/iPad also.... we'll see how this goes... the old issue of time spent up-skilling my geek side or money spent taking the easy option. Thanks.

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#930537 11-Nov-2013 09:27

Does "another mac" have said drivers, or is it running the latest OS also.

clicknz

467 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#930566 11-Nov-2013 10:15

Hi andrewNZ - yes - at the moment I still have both my old MacBook Pro and an iMac that are running Snow Leopard OS and have the drivers for my printer. Thanks for any further input...

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

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andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#930605 11-Nov-2013 11:07

I really don't have any other input, other than pointing out you still have 2 machines capable of doing what you need. So you could wait a bit and see what Canon comes up with.

clicknz

467 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#930617 11-Nov-2013 11:51

Yep - thanks - I'll certainly be able to use the old machines in the short term, but will be wanting to upgrade both of them at some stage.
From what I've Googled so far it seems that there is an issue running Snow Leopard on a recent Mac. Looks like it has to be a server version of the OS.... plus I don't have install disks... hmm... will keep researching.

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz