Sharing USB Printers in Mac OS 10.2 and Later

Sharing printers in Mac OS 10.2 or later is relatively simple.


1.From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.

2.Click on the Sharing icon.

3.In the Sharing window, click on the "Services" tab.

4.Click on the "Printer Sharing" checkbox to select it.

Printer sharing should start automatically and any printer appearing in your Printer Center printer list is now available to every computer on your local area network.

In Mac OS 10.3, the procedure is similar to the one used for 10.2 except that it's possible to exclude printers that are not connected directly to your computer. In Mac OS 10.2-10.2.8, users could share printers directly connected to their computer plus printers which they were connected to on their LAN. Users accessing shared printers on another user's computer would often find that the LAN printers would appear in their printer list several times, which was confusing. Mac OS 10.3 allows users to share only the printers attached via USB.

In Mac OS 10.4, the printer sharing setup is different than in earlier versions of the Mac OS. Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and then click on the Printer & Fax icon. In the window which appears there will be 3 tabs, the rightmost one being the Sharing tab. Click on Sharing tab to reveal a list of the printers currently configured for use by the computer. Check the Share these printers with other computers checkbox and then check the boxes to the left of the printers which are to be shared by other users.


In Mac OS 10.5 the printer sharing setup is different than in earlier versions of the Mac OS. Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and then click on the Sharing icon. A window like this will appear


Click on the checkbox to the left of Printer Sharing to turn on printer sharing. Click on the Printer Sharing label to the right of the check box and the list of printers configured for the computer will appear in the right-hand side of the window. Each printer in the list has a checkbox to the left of the printer's name. To share a particular printer check the checkbox next to the printer's name. It's possible to share more than one printer; make sure the checkbox next to each printer is checked. Close System Preferences by clicking on the red Close Window button in the upper left-hand corner of the System Preferences Window.

Categories: mac