FIRST, I assume you've installed your printer according to manufacture
instructions. Turn on the printer and make sure it is connected to the
computer you want to print or scan from, either with a USB cable or
through your local Wi-Fi or wired network. Install the best available
print drivers and software on your Mac using Apple Software Update from
the App Store, or directly from the manufacturer. You must install this
software on EVERY system that will be printing, along with the drivers
that are associated with that system. I have FIVE systems on THREE
computers, and any time I upgrade from one system to a newer system,
I must upgrade the printer drivers as well.
SECOND, If you plan to use a printer connected to another computer,
a process known as Bonjour-printing, then you must enable access
on the target computer by checking within "Printers & Scanners"
that "Share this printer on the network" is selected. Also, in
'Sharing" panel you must check 'Printer Sharing'. Do this for
every operating system on your startup disk. I have two systems
on my hard-disk: Yosemite and High-Sierra. Either is running.
================== single system setup ========================
Once that's enabled, other computers should be able to "see" that
printer. On each computer which will use Bonjour-printing, in
System Preferences -> Printers & Scanners, create a new printer
entry by clicking the + button. (You may have to unlock). You
must have the computer with the attached printer running so it
can be found on your local network (LAN).
You should then see a list with an entry for that printer.
Select that, which will fill out several options for you. A
'presets' for that remote printer, with a 'Location suffix',
is created on your system in your ~/Library/Preferences.
I've found it's best to select that printer as the 'Default
Printer' instead of having 'Last Printer Used'.
Check your ~/Library/Preferences to see what you have created.
You should have at least two 'presets' plist files, which both
begin with 'com.apple.print.custompresets'. The rest may be:
.forprinter.printer-name___computer-name.plist
or for the generic presets, just simply: .plist
If your target printer has its own 'presets' plist, AND your
'forprinter' plist with the '___computer_name' suffix is less
than 100 bytes, then you need to replace that stub by your
target 'presets' plist, and edit the name to insert the suffix
before the '.plist' ending. You should then have a 'presets'
plist file that contains the same presets as your target.
The final name should match the original stub name exactly.
The 'computer-name' is shown in the target 'Sharing' panel.
You must restart your system to refresh the printer settings.
With your computer and the target computer both turned on, you
can attempt to print one page. Of course, the printer must be
'on' or the connection will report the page can't be printed.
===================== dual-system setup =====================
I have another computer with dual-systems on its hard-disk.
To get Bonjour printing to work on those systems, I handled
each system separately, following the directions listed above
for a single system. In each case, I simply copied the two
preset plist files from my previously setup single system.
What's probably easiest to do is to copy the two plist-files
(shown above) to a flash drive. I 'Restart' to switch systems,
holding down the Option key. Then mount that drive on my
second system, and copy them to ~/Library/Preferences.
================= Added Info =========================
Plist prefix: com.apple.print.custompresets.
Plist suffix: 1) plist (defaults)
Plist suffix: 2) forprinter.printer-name.plist
Plist suffix: 3) forprinter.printer-name___computer-name.plist
NOTE: There are three underscores ___ between the two names.
1) and 2) exist on the target system(s).
1) and 3) exist on the Bonjour system(s).
1) com.apple.print.custompresets.plist should be over 100 bytes.
2) AND 3) have identical content, just different names.
If 2) and 3) are lower then 100 bytes, they probably don't
contain presets. Normally, 1) contains Apple's default
presets. If it's below 100 bytes, you should replace it.
================== Other Users ====================
If your systems have other Users, you can allow them to print as well.
The simplest thing to do is apply 'chmod 644' to YOUR preset-files.
That makes them readable by other Users. Have each of them 'Login' to
the system, navigate to THEIR ~/Library/Preferences, and then create
symlinks to YOUR presets on that system. Delete old presets as needed.
You can figure that out as you go along. Here's an example for 1):
ln -s /Users/YOU/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plist .
Don't forget the dot at the end. I recommend doing this for both of the
presets associated with the attached printer. Use 2) or 3) as appropriate.
================ Three computers =================
#1 Computer:
Computer-Name: Dick-Guertin
Macbook Pro, 1Tb hard-disk
Two partitions, each ~500Gb
Part 1:
System: High-Sierra
Volume: Macintosh.HD
Part 2:
System: Yosemite
Volume: Yosemite1
1) and 2) presets on both
#2 Computer:
Computer-Name: Dee-Guertin
Macbook Pro, 1Tb hard-disk
Two partitions, each ~500Gb
Part 1:
System: High-Sierra
Volume: Macintosh.HD
Part 2:
System: Yosemite
Volume: Yosemite2
1) and 3) presets on both
#3 Computer:
Computer-Name: Snow-Leopard
Macbook Pro, 250Gb hard-disk
System: Snow-Leopard
Volume: Macintosh.HD
1) and 3) presets
#1 Printer: HP C4700 series
My printer is physically attached to #1.
I can scan on #1 from Yosemite only.