Mac OS X: Printing to an HP printer with binary PostScript

Change a print option if your file prints as garbled text on an HP (http://www.hp.com/) PostScript printer. This article applies to Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

When you send a job to an HP PostScript printer, instead of printing your document, the printer prints multiple pages that have a single line of text and symbols, or fails to print at all. This can happen in applications such as Adobe Photoshop CS3 that create their own PostScript information for the printer.

Affected printers do not accept binary-format PostScript data in their default print queue. This can happen no matter which PPD you chose when you set up the printer. Use any of these solutions:

Print to an AppleTalk queue

If your printer is on an AppleTalk network, follow these steps:

1. Open Print Center (Mac OS X 10.2) or Printer Setup Utility (Mac OS X 10.3).
   
2. Click the Add button.
3. Choose AppleTalk from the top pop-up menu.
   
   Tip: You do not need to first enable AppleTalk elsewhere if it is not currently enabled.
   
   
4. Select your printer from the list of AppleTalk network printers.
   
5. Click Add.

Change the PostScript encoding each time you print

This is an example using Adobe Photoshop:

1. In the Photoshop Print window, click "Show More Options".
2. Choose ASCII from the Encoding pop-up menu.
3. Click Print.

Print to a "BINPS" print queue.

1. Open Print Center (Mac OS X 10.2) or Printer Setup Utility (Mac OS X 10.3).
2. Click the Add button.
3. Choose IP Printing from the top pop-up menu. The Printer Type pop-up menu should now say "LPD/LPR".
4. Enter the printer's IP address or hostname in the Printer Address field.
5. In the Queue Name field, type: "BINPS".
   
   Note: For Mac OS X 10.2, first deselect "Use default queue on server".
   
   
6. Click Add.

"BINPS on <printer address>" appears In the Printer List. Choose this printer when you print from Adobe Photoshop.




Figure 1 Printer List with BINPS queue (Mac OS X 10.3.1)

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only, and does not constitute Apple's recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.