Mac OS X Drivers for the HP Color LaserJet 1600
When you can’t count on HP, the Linux community is fortunately there for us Mac users.
No, there are no “HP Certified” drivers. Yes, there are Mac ones.
I pulled the information from a thread here. Thanks goes out to craigverse for the info.
Before going any further, Leopard users seem to have a very high success rate using the 1st package listed (the drivers I used). Snow Leopard users however have been met with very mixed results – some get it working, and others don’t. If you try and it doesn’t work, there are many possible side-effects: you may end up with printers permanently listed that don’t work, you may have conflicts with other installed printers, and there could be other issues.
First of all, you’ve got to download 3 programs. You can find them at http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/hpijs. The ones you’re looking for are foo2jzs, Foomatic-RIP, and gplgs (choose the gplgs that corresponds whatever verson of OS X you happen to have).
If you’re a little lazy, I’ve zipped all 3 and uploaded them here:
MacOSX_HP_Color_LaserJet_1600_drivers.zip (drivers I used)
MacOSX_HP_Color_LaserJet_1600_drivers_new.zip (new drivers with SL support – not tested)
To install, do it in this order (I bolded the important parts of the names in case you download slightly newer versions):
- Install gplgs-8.63-ub.dmg
- Install foomatic-rip-2008-01-30.dmg
- Install foo2zjs-1.1.2-ub.dmg Note that the one I included in the package is for OSX 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5 (also 10.6 for the new package but read below first). If you’re using 10.2 you’ll want to download the 10.2 files instead. It’s worth noting there’s a terminal/text part of the install you’ll have to answer questions in (for me #2 was the LaserJet 1600).
-
Note that for Snow Leopard (the 2nd package), hpijs is there in place of foo2zjs and it’s not listed as supporting the 1600 – some seem to have success while many do not – you may want to read through a few comments and see. Alternately you may want to try foo2hp instead although this has NOT BEEN TESTED.
- - Once installed, go to System Preferences, Printers, and add the printer – a driver should now be showing up similar to this:
- Once that’s done, type the following in your browser (or you can click the link):
http://localhost:631/
and press enter. This will open up a printer configuration page. - Go to:
Manage Printers
Set Printer Options
Color Mode: CHANGE TO COLOR
If do skip steps #5 and #6, the printer will only print in black and white.
You may want to print a test page to ensure it’s working properly:
Home
Manage Printers
Print Test Page
That’s it! You should be good to go!
EDIT: Quite a few people have posted with issues logging in to the printer configuration page (Step 5). Here are a few steps to try. Please report back if you find them working (since I didn’t have issues, I can’t test it myself).
- Try using your normal login username/password. Probably won’t work, but give it a try anyway.
- Try the username “root” (no quotes) along with your password. Try “root” and no password. Again, probably won’t work, but try it again anyway.
- It’s very possible the “root” account isn’t enabled on your system. Read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528 on Apple’s site for instructions on how to enable the root account (listed under the How to enable the root user section of that page). It’s 6 steps for Mac OS 10.5 (earlier versions are 12 steps). Once you’ve enabled the root account, try logging into http://localhost:631/ again using “root” as the username (no quotes), and the password you created for the root account.
Step 3 should work, but since I’m not able to try it, I can’t say for sure. There’s no harm in enabling the root account, although you may want to disable it once you’ve adjusted the settings for security purposes (instructions to disable it again are on the same Apple support page).
Please leave a comment if you ran into the password issue, and whether or not the instructions in the follow-up solved it. Thanks.
Thanks for this article, it has been very helpful!
Very helpful article. However, when I try to change the printer settings and apply it, it asks for the username and password. I’ve typed my Mac Laptop’s username and password, but it would not accept it.
Is there an alternative default password for the CUPS interface?
Hello,
You now the Pass to locslhost:631 and cups???
Matthew / Cremasblues:
Just tried it here, and it did not ask me for a username/password. According to the page that comes up though, it says the following:
“If you are asked for a username and password, enter your login username and password or the ‘root’ username and password.”
If you have different accounts on the machine, try the name/password of an administrative one. If all else fails, try using “root” for the username, and using your regular login password.
Dear Matthew
Thank you SOOoooo much for this information. I have looked all over the web and you are the only sane person on it who has actually taken the trouble and time to write point by point instructions on how to get this printer working – I am very grateful to you. I bought one of these as an ‘end of line’ at Staples for £26, yeah I know a bargain…..and if it killed me I was gonna find a way of getting the bugger to work on my Mac running 10.5.6
I had discovered foo2hp.rkkda.com – then of course when it comes to applying any of their clever work – well lets just say that they can’t teach – idiots……it may as well have been in Russian.
Thank you once again.
Best
Paul
I tried all the username/password, all failed!!! Please help me!!! Finally I got the solution from you! Now there is only the last one step!!@Matt Gadient
Thank you so much for this – it worked like a dream. I know can print in colour nearly a year later.
Install is completed and terminal questiones passed. No error occured. But still the driver (like in the picture above) does not show up. I can click the driver (HP COlor LeserJet 1600 Foomativ/foo2hp (recommended)) while setting up optiones for a pdf, though. Any ideas to help out? …please?
Hey I have done everything but I am stock on the settings since I don’t know the user name and password. Please let me know these two so I can be on my way. Thanks
Hey, whoever is in charge of this forum and helping out with this. I can only print black and white. I already registered to CUPS but in the change settings it doesn’t accept my user name nor password, so I can not save the settings with the Color option chosen. What can I do???? that is a mistake of the page, how can it not accept my user name or password if that is the one I use to log in to cups.org
Everything worked perfectly (Thank you for the wonderful step by step instructions!) up until I went into printer settings. I changed it to color but I was also prompted for a username and password…I tried “root” as well as regular username and password but I get an error stating that my username or password for area “CUPS” was incorrect. Any other ideas please?
U r the man!! Bro. its people like you, who make this world a good place to live in.
Well, everything is working (thanks to Matt) but I still cannot print in color because of the P/W and logon requirement. I am the only person on this machine (my home system) and I tried every combination – no luck. Any ideas?
I wasn’t hit with a password requirement. However the number of people having the issue led me to do a little research. The post will be updated shortly with some instructions that can be tried.
EDIT: the post has been updated. Read the bottom section of the post.
Great wrightup!!! Thank you from the bottom of my mac book. I was asked for a password which was my name and administrator password for my mac. Worked perfectly and the color is as good as this machine gets (rather nice actually).
I really appreciate you taking the time to do this writeup!!!
Matt how do I uninstall the drivers, I am using a hp photosmart C8180 All in one that is compatible with Mac. Now the problem I found is that because of your drivers I can only print one copy at a time. Your drivers have disabled the computer settings, so when I press print and I input the number of copies to print I just prints one. HOW DO I FIX THIS??????
paul: Glad it’s working for you
Jonathan: I’ve only installed the drivers here for the LaserJet 1600 (not the C8180), and it probably would have been better for you to simply install HP’s drivers for the C8180 rather than these (you mentioned it’s mac-compatible so I’m assuming HP provides drivers). In any case, you can try grabbing the correct drivers for the C8180 from HP’s website and installing them – hopefully they’ll take over and clear up the issues. I’m not sure how to UN-install the drivers. A recent storm brought some lightning that fried all the computers here so there’s no way for me to trial/error anything. You could try running the .DMG files again – sometimes an uninstall is included with the installer, and it might trigger uninstallation options. Alternately, take a peak at the ZIP and see if any README’s are included with uninstallation instructions. You could also see if any printer-related stuff was thrown in Applications, but again with the computer being toast these are just guesses. Perhaps someone else has uninstalled them and will post instructions. Best of luck!
I have changed my printer options to color and the configuration was successful. I was able to use my root name and password to log in. However, now when I print a test page (or any other page), nothing happens. It says that the job was sent. But nothing prints. If I change the color mode back to black and white, it works again.
Please give me advise on what to do and why I can’t print in color, even when I’m able to change the printer options successfully.
Hi Matt, any chance that these drivers will work with Snow Leopard? They are working great for me with Leopard, and they are the only reason I’m holding back from the OS upgrade.
Angie B: I’m really not sure what could be causing your issue (and it’s the first I’ve heard of it). I’ve got a few possible guesses, but again, they’re just guesses:
Colin: Very good question. I haven’t tried the printer with Snow Leopard. I did buy SL for my brother who’s on a MacBook, so next time he brings it by I’ll try hooking it up to the printer to find out. Apple did throw a pile of drivers on the Snow Leopard install DVD (you can choose 3 different options when installing for various levels of printer support in the “Customize” section), although the 1600 isn’t listed on HP’s Snow Leopard compatibility list. Might get lucky and maybe one of the working drivers included does work.
I’ll take a peak when I can and see if either the included drivers, or the drivers I wrote about in the post work.
I installed snow leopard after installing the drivers on leopard. It works fine.
Paul
@ paul tudor
That’s awesome news! Thanks Paul! And by the way, a big thankyou to Matt for posting spot-on instructions, and the drivers as well. They are difficult to find elsewhere now.
I’ve just bought a new iMac with Snow Leopard. I followed the instructions but it didn’t work. I still could not find HP 1600 from the printer driver list.
Anyone can help? Thanks.
Thank you so much for taking the time to solve the problem so many of us have encountered. I managed to get the printer working in colour after entering my username and password
Thank you very much Matt for the HP1600 driver setup. It is very simple to install. I went through you procedure.
I open //Localhost:631 window to change the Color mode from Monochrome to Color then press Set printer options. In the following window I type my Username and Password. A New Window appeared — Printer HP_Color_LaserJet_1600 has been configured successfully — and immediately after a Safari Window appeared — Safari can’t connect to the server, Safari can’t open the page http://Localhost::1:631/printers/HP_Color_LaserJet_1600 because Safari can’t connect to the server Localhost –
I call Apple and they can’t help me since it isn’t their software. Maybe you could help me ?
At least , I am able to use the printer in monochrome, we made some progress.
Jacques:
If you’ve got another web browser installed (Firefox and Chrome are good free popular ones), you can try through one of those instead of Safari.
Otherwise, if still using Safari, try logging in again through http://localhost:631/ and if it throws the same message, manually go to http://localhost:631/printers/HP_Color_LaserJet_1600 . I’m thinking that Safari butchered the localhost port. If you type the url and it gives the same message about not being able to connect to the server localhost, you could also try http://127.0.0.1:631/printers/HP_Color_LaserJet_1600 .
@ Angie B.
Angie, I’ve had the exact same problem under Snow Leopard. In the CUPS-interface, where you set the mode to color, I’ve also set the “bits per plane” to “2 bits per plane”. This has resolved the issue for me.
Little update – I came across a new link for the drivers, so I updated the link and added the drivers to the write-up. They should support Snow Leopard for those having issues with the original package.
Note that I have NOT tested the new drivers – hopefully they work. If anyone has problems please leave a comment.
Following on tread #26, I had the same error with those 2 http addresses. However, I notice that Color mode was still indicating Color. So, I printed a page and a colored page was printed. The difference from yesterday was that, I shutdown the computer and all peripherals. This resetted all registers and it is still printing a color page. It appears the Kubuntu has the same problem. I think the problem is with Unix Printing System response. Thank you for you help, now I have a usable printer.
@ Thiemo
Thanks so much. Your solution also resolved this issue for me. I use HP LaserJet 1600 and Snow Leopard.
Hi, I am not having the same luck here… I am just switched over to a macbook from a pc, and have a hp color laserjet 1600. I downloaded all three drivers and installed them, but when I go into the setting, printer, and from there I am stuck. Under print using: it doesnt bring up the 1600, as shown in the screen shot. It sounds like the same issue roxy had. Any suggestions for the slightly broke graduate student who cannot afford to replace her printer?
I installed
1. gplgs-8.63-ub.dmg
2. foomatic-rip-2008-01-30.dmg
from MacOSX_HP_Color_LaserJet_1600_drivers_new.zip
then I installed
3. foo2zjs-1.1.2-ub.dmg
from the old
MacOSX_HP_Color_LaserJet_1600_drivers.zip
Now I managed to select the printer from the list and get the printer working. BUT it can print ‘black and white’ only.
Still no color printing yet.
Thanks.
@ Thiemo
Dear Thiemo, I tried your solution to setup the printer.
Yes, it can print in color now. However, there are two problems happened again.
1) The color is not the exact color what show in the file.
2) Some part of the file cannot be printed.
Can you help us further? Can you tell me what the meaning of “bits per plane” and “2 bits per plane”?
Dear Matt,
Thank you so much for supply us the driver of HP color Laserjet 1600.
I used the “old driver” in Leopard to print in color very well. However, when I update to SL, it cannot work more.
Actually, I can print the color with Safari and Preview, but cannot print the color with Iwork 09. I can only print B/W, not color. It is very strange.
I tried the solution which Thiemo (#27) said, change it from “bits per plane” to “2 bits per plane”. It can print in color. However, it has a very serious Color Distortion. And also, it seems cannot print the whole pages well.
So I delete the “old version” and re-install the “new version”. Unfortunately, it can only print in B/W, even in Safari. I changed from to “2 bits per plane”, the same problem happened. There is a very serious color distortion.
Can you help me??
Best regards.
@ Matt Gadient
I wasn’t talking about your drivers for the c8180 I just want to know how do I turn off the settings from the drivers on this web site. Because of the drivers I installed from this web site any time I print with ANY other printer I can only print one copy at a time. Like I said before and you didn’t understand me, I just have to get rid of your drivers from my system to be able to use the regular computer drivers to use my printers normally without having to use the damn CUPS program
Roxy:
The “2 bits per plane” setting that Theimo and others mentioned have been met with varying degrees of success as far as getting color working goes. It may be worth a try.
Gui:
I never had the chance to try the drivers with Snow Leopard, so I’m not sure why the color distortion’s occuring. Hopefully someone else sees your message who has had the same issue and been able to fix it (hopefully it’s just a setting that needs to be changed).
Jonathan:
Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to uninstall the drivers in the driver package (including the CUPS program, etc). Hopefully if someone knows of an easy way of doing this they’ll leave a comment though.
I found that I couldn’t log in to make the change to the printer no matter what username/password combination I used. I tracked the problem down to the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file, which has the following restriction:
# All administration operations require an administrator to authenticate…
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Order deny,allow
This limits modifying printer settings to anyone in the “SYSTEM” group… which doesn’t exist on my Mac (at least not in /etc/group). If you are an adminitrative user on a Mac, you will belong to the admin group and most likely the lpadmin group, so you need to add those into this section of the file to be able to save your new printer default settings.
So I fixed this issue simply by editing this file (sudo vi /etc/cups/cupsd.conf) to change the line:
Require user @SYSTEM
to:
Require user @SYSTEM @admin @lpadmin
Then restarted cups with:
sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cupsd.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cupsd.plist
Went back into the local cups page in Safari and was able to save my changes. Still not printing in color though… any color jobs sent to the printer show up in the print queue, but the printer itself ignores them. This may be because I’m going through a print server (that also does not support the HP CL 1600), instead of USB.
Hi Matt,
First of all thanks for your detailed information. I’d tried to get the printer running on those drivers before but never got anywhere ’cause the information was always incomplete.
My macbook and imac both reacted differently to me installing the drivers.
On my macbook with OS X I changed the settings to colour, but my username and password were only accepted after having logged out as me (shut down the system) and logged in as root (after having enabled root). But then it didn’t print, I had the same problem that Angie stated in thread #18. After I’d changed the setting to 2bit, it did print and in colour, but totally distorted as Gui said in #34.
My brand new imac with OS X Snow Leopard didn’t accept name and password at all – until I’d installed the new drivers. Now, even with the setting to colour, it only prints in black and white.
I am about to give up on this and try to run the printer on crossover if that’s possible at all (don’t have any experience with it as yet though), but first I’ll install the drivers that’s on the installation DVD, as you suggested. I’d hate to have to give away my printer..
Ruth
Who can help me????
Hi Matt,
Finally my Mac is printing on my HP Color LJ 1600. Thanks so much ;o)
Regards
Jeppe
hello everyone…
Thanks for the help thus far… here is my problem, i am running leopard and when i print in color it looks awful… nothing like printing with my PC
any ideas?
thank you
mikey
Hi Matt
I got the printer up and printing in B&W. I had the same issues mentioned by a few above, where I can’t change the default printer settings in CUPS. Have used the new driver package for SL and even after enabling the root password, it won’t allow the change.
If anyone has any other ideas please let me know. Appreciate the help so far – at least I have a B&W laser now.
Thanks
Thanks for all the help above. I finally got it working with SL.
1st I installed the updated drivers for SL.
Then I updated the printer settings in CUPS – at 1st I couldn’t get the changes authenticated, so I enabled the root password as described above. After enabling root, I had to:
– restart my machine
– then log on as root
– then make the changes to the settings
– then log back on with my own ID
Note that I had to set the Bits per plane to 2 to get it to print in colour.
I hope this helps someone, the way all the info above helped me.
Thanks a lot
Andy
2 bits per plane worked for me. Thanks@Matt Gadient
Hi,
I’m having the same problems. 2 bits per plane makes it print in colour, but it’s half black and white and it looks terrible. Any more suggestions?
Thanks,
Debora
Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have not been able to use my printer for soo long and had to transfer files to my pc to be able to print!!!!
Hi,
Thanks so much. Finally i can connect with my office printer and print. Just one more problem left, print in color. Anyone have an update on how this issue resolved ? 2 bits per plane can make me print in color, but the color was awful. Really hope anyone can help with this issue.
Crap, I botched my installation from instructions from a forum. Now I have 2 entries for HP Color Laserjet 1600 (foomatic/foo2hp). Neither entry works. How can I delete all my previous drivers and start scratch so I can install this? I tried installing with this but my printer refuses to print. I’m running snow leopard btw.
@Angie B.
I have exactly same problem as Angie B
Matt, thank you so much for putting this walk-through together. I despaired of ever getting to print on my LaserJet 1600 and now it’s working perfectly! There’s a little color funkiness going on but nothing major.
thank u so much!! worked like a charm
The linked-to linuxfoundation.org page doesn’t list the HP Color LaserJet 1600 as covered by the hpijs package, and sure enough in Snow Leopard it’s not showing up after having installed the three packages there (gplgs, Foomatic-RIP, and hpijs). Not sure what “foo2jzs” is but it doesn’t appear on the linked-to page. Am I missing something here?
Paul:
They seem to keep changing things on that site (few months back they moved the page and made changes, and now by the looks of it some more has changed).
The foo2jzs was in the original package, and hpijs in the newer snow leopard package (although they don’t seem to be listing support for the 1600 anymore).
All I could come up with was a driver now at http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-Color_LaserJet_1600 . It’s also got a link to a foo2hp driver (perhaps the successor to foo2jzs) so it could be worth a shot. Unfortunately the foo2hp site ( http://foo2hp.rkkda.com/ ) is currently down, not that I’d have any way to test it at the moment – it’s just making it that much more difficult to come up with any possible solutions.
I’ll strikeout the link for now. Hopefully someone comes up with a new working solution with all the changes. The first thing I’d try would be using foo2hp instead of foo2jzs/hpijs, but keeping the rest the same. Of course this creates a headache if it *doesn’t* work, but trial & error seems to be the only way to go right now unfortunately.
Dear Matt, I download the foo2jzs from the website. However, it should be run in the terminal. I don’t know the commands in the terminal. Can you help us to make it to dmg file so that we can just double click to install the drivers?
Thank you so much!
I am a new Mac user with an HP Color Laserjet 1600. I’m kind of muddling my way through this process and I have almost got the printer working. I used the new set of drivers since I’m running with OS X 10.6 .
My issue is that when I change the color mode to Color in CUPS, nothing comes out on my printer. The process appears to be sending the file to print but nothing happens and the queue clears normally. If I change it back to Monochrome, it prints fines though not in color of course.
Can someone advise what I might be doing incorrectly or not doing at all?
BTW…I ran into the password issue on CUPS as well. Got that working by re-starting my system, changing the root password and returning to CUPS. The new password worked and I’ve been able to attempt the change to the printer’s Default Settings…albeit unsuccessfully.
Thanx all. This has been a real challenge for me but the posts about this have been quite helpful …bob
@Andy
Thanx so much for the suggestion about changing the Bits per Plan value to 2. Worked like a charm. …bob