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OS X Tips and Tricks

Fusion Systems International is an Apple-certified reseller having many years systems integration and development experience with Macs.

Using CUPS to Create Printer Pools

Submitted Feb 2007

CUPS (Common Unix Printing Solution) can be used to set up printer pools on your Mac, where a printer pool is defined as two or more printers. If you print to the pool, it will select the printer that is not currently busy with a print job. (If prompted for a username and password during any of the following, use your OS X account's short username and password.)

Open Safari and enter the CUPS address: http://127.0.0.1:631/printers/. Click on the Classes button, and then on the Add Class button. Enter the information you want for Name, Location, and Description -- the Description box will be what shows up in the Print dialog. Click Continue when done. Choose the printers you want in the pool from the displayed list; use the Command key to select more than one printer. Click Continue.

You're done. In the regular print dialog box, your pool will show up with the name you used in the Description box. If you print a job to the pool, it will be handled by the printer that is not currently printing a job. You can print another job, and it will be taken up by the next printer in the pool. You can get as many printers printing at the same time as you want.

For more information on CUPS, see http://www.cups.org.

Using ColorSync to Manipulate PDF files

Submitted December 2006

The ColorSync utility that comes bundled with Mac OS X Tiger can manipulate various file types including PDF files. The file manipulation features in ColorSync are new with Tiger (OS version 10.4.x and above).

For instance, PDF files can be compressed for emailing, conversion to monochrome and other changes using the ColorSync utility in Mac OS X Tiger. PDF files can be opened in the ColorSync Utility and modified with Quartz filters. A standard set of filters are provided, and custom filters can be created.

To do this, launch the ColorSync utility located in the Applications > Utility folder. Select Open... from the File menu and select a PDF file. Click on the Filter drop-down menu in the lower left corner of the window displaying the PDF file. Select the desired change from the drop down menu: for instance, "Reduce File Size" or "Gray Tone" and click the Apply button. Select Save As... from the File menu and save your converted file.

Upgrading from OS 9 to OS 10 (X)

Submitted November 2006

The transition from Mac OS 9 to OS X can be challenging for some organizations. Compatibility, software availability and many other issues pose obstacles to full implementation of OS X throughout the enterprise. Fusion Systems has been helping companies for many years now as they transition to OS X. Our experience includes integrating Macintosh, UNIX and Windows systems into newspaper and commercial printing operations' prepress environments.

No more Chooser in Mac OS X. Until the advent of OS X, the Chooser was the Apple utility for setting up printers and fileserver connections. Replacing the Chooser for creating printer connections is the Printer Setup Utility. This utility is located in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder. While in the Finder, holding down the Command-Shift and "u" keys on the keyboard will take you directly there.

Printer Choices. While basic printer setups are quite easy, this utility does pack some extra punch in its ability to make several different types of connections to a variety of printer types. Apple spent a lot of time and effort to make this utility as enterprise friendly as possible. It is simple to connect to AppleTalk printers, as you would expect, by clicking the "Add" button and selecting AppleTalk in the pull-down menu. All of the Appletalk printers on your network should just show up. When you choose one of these printers from the available choices and click the "Add" button, the Utility should automatically select the correct PPD and place the printer into your computer's printer list. This Utility also has "out-of-the-box" support for connecting to Windows printers as well. Holding down the pull-down menu for printer choices reveals support for BlueTooth, IP Printing, Open Directory, Rendezvous and direct USB. Also available are manufacturer specific connections for Epson AppleTalk, Epson FireWire, Epson TCP/IP, Epson USB and HP IP Printing.

Some of these selections do require additional system or networking knowledge, but as a whole they offer the easiest and best connectivity to local and network attached printers of any modern operating system.