MacLife - UK (2020-04)

Master your printer

in Catalina

Control a printer with your Mac’s built–in tools

REQUIRES

A Mac, a printer with Wi–Fi

or USB cable

YOU WILL LEARN

How to connect

a printer to your Mac

via USB or Wi–Fi

IT WILL TAKE

5 minutes

ONCE UPON A time, all

printers would be packed

in a box with a nice big

manual, a USB cable and

a CD with all the software you needed

to control the printer. Nobody uses CDs

anymore, though, and most modern

printers now have built–in Wi-Fi, so

|rxġoo#riwhq#Ľqg#wkdw#|rx#grqġw#hyhq#jhw#

a cable to help you set up the printer.

Most manufacturers do provide an

online link so you can download the

printer software — but that’s often

not necessary because macO itself actually

contains the software you need to control

a new printer, and a scanner too.

Everything you need can be found in the

Printers & Scanners panel in your Mac’s

main System Preferences. We’ve focused

on macOS Catalina here, but the printer

features in macOS haven’t changed much

in recent years, so the steps will work

with older Macs (and older printers too).

CLIFF JOSEPH

Quick install

Most recent printers enable you

to download an installer program from

the manufacturer’s website. But macOS

can help you to install many different

types of printer even without the

manufacturer’s own software to hand.

Printer preferences

The Printer preferences panel

shows all printers that are connected

to your Mac. Just click the “+” button to

add a printer, and your Mac automatically

looks for any printers connected via a

network or USB cable.

Available from Apple

This Epson printer shows up on

our network. It’s an old printer, and we

lost the installer CD years ago — but

macOS helpfully tells us that “printer

software is available from Apple”. Click

Add to download the software.

HOW TO Set up your printer from macOS

Create

86 APR 2020 maclife.com Image rights: Apple.