Printing from Mac OS X to an HP LaserJet 4

I own a “vintage” Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 printer to which I wanted to print from my RRC-issue Macintosh PowerBook G4 [updated link] laptop. Given the specifics of the given hardware, I had assumed this would be an easy and straightforward setup. However, it wasn’t. Despite the popularity of the HP LaserJet 4 as a workhorse, business-grade laser printer, it required some special attention. Here are some notes on how I accomplished the setup.

The laptop is a Macintosh PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X (Panther) version 10.3.8. It includes AirPort Extreme wireless networking (802.11g) which I use to connect the laptop to my home network.

The printer is an HP LaserJet 4 with an Adobe PostScript Level 2 module (HP part no. C2080A), a 4 MB memory upgrade (HP part no. C3132A) and an HP JetDirect 400N Fast Ethernet print server card (model J4100A).

The printer is networked through the JetDirect card to a Linksys wireless router model BEFW11S4 [updated link]. The laptop connects to this same network using wireless networking (AirPort).

The key piece of software required for a successful printer installation is the PPD (PostScript Printer Description) file:

A PPD describes all the device-dependent features which can be utilized by a certain printer model. It also contains the coded commands that must be used to call certain features of the device. But PPDs are no closed book, they are simple ASCII text files.

Certain PPDs were already available on my PowerBook as it was supplied to me. The PPDs were located in /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj. Using the Mac OS X Printer Setup Utility I was able to select the PPD files from that location. After trying this the first time the laptop was able to print to the LJ4, however, all that the LJ4 was printing was the raw PostScript code generated by the Mac.

I consulted the Apple web site and found some instructions that weren’t helpful given the need for installation CDs that aren’t customarily handed out to users at the College.

A utility provided by Hewlett-Packard was not useful, either.

A Google search led to an FAQ [updated link] at LinuxPrinting.org [now OpenPrinting at Linux Foundation], and specifically section 16 “HP Laserjet 4/M” [updated link]. This led to an alternate PPD [updated link] which I downloaded. I placed this new PPD in the folder along with the existing PPDs noted earlier. Then I fired up the Printer Setup Utility and succeeded in installing the printer.

While searching for this printer solution, I came across an interesting resource for managing CUPS printers (Common Unix Printing System) through a web-based interface. This allowed me to review the new printer setup and generate a test page from the web interface.