Member Avatar for Artwrk

A Dell salesman misrepresented the Dell 968 AIO printer. I just bought the printer for my wife who is a Dell user. Upon questioning the Dell salesperson about Mac compatibility he said there would be no problem getting the driver for my Macbook Pro. Now that I have the printer, the driver does not exist for the Mac. When I called Dell a CSR said Dell is discussing future with Mac, but no drivers now. Is there any thing I can do to use the printer.
Thanks Clarence

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A short, practical summary and next steps based on the posts below.

Dell’s own support pages list the 968 as supported only on Windows (Vista/XP/Win7) — there’s no official Mac driver for that model from Dell. This explains why the salesperson’s promise didn’t pan out and why several posters here (for example , , , ) ran into the same wall. Dell: Supported OS for Dell 968.

If printing from Mac OS X 10.5.x is required, try these ordered, low-effort tests before giving up:

  • Add the printer by IP and use a generic driver. In System Preferences → Print & Fax click + → IP, set Protocol to LPD (or IPP/Socket), enter the printer’s IP, and for Use choose “Generic PostScript Printer” (or “Generic PCL Printer” / Select Software…). Test with a plain text or PDF first. This is the usual Leopard-era workaround when a model-specific PPD isn’t available. Apple: Add a printer on Mac.

  • If that fails, suspect a “host‑based” (Windows‑only / GDI) device. Host‑based printers rely on a Windows driver to render the print job; generic PCL/PS drivers won’t work for them. Check the 968 user manual or print a status/config page from the printer menu to look for PDL support (PCL/PostScript) — if none is listed it’s likely host‑based. IBM: Host‑based printer explanation. User manual references for the Dell 968 are available online if needed.

Workarounds if the generic approach fails: share the 968 from a Windows PC (Mac can print to an SMB/shared queue), or put the device behind a small print server that translates jobs — both let the Windows driver act as the renderer. Docs for printing to Windows/Samba shares and CUPS-based setups cover these methods. Samba / CUPS printing notes.

If scanning is also needed, a third‑party scanner app can resurrect older AIO scanners on the Mac; some users report success with universal scanner software that supports Dell models. VueScan Dell page (scanner support).

Note: several replies here suggested trying non‑Dell drivers or community drivers; that can succeed for some people but requires careful testing (and is model‑dependent). If none of the above works, replacing the device with a model that explicitly lists Mac/Leopard support is the least time-consuming option.

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for fblack

Did you find anything?

Member Avatar for Artwrk

NO!

Member Avatar for tbondurant

Same here - i need the driver. No luck finding anything yet.

Member Avatar for caheel

I noticed this thread is two years old, but now I need a dell printer driver for my new iMac. Is there still nothing out there?

Member Avatar for nisemi

i've got a brand new macbook and an old 2003 dell printer that i'd love to connect it to - but cannot find a mac os driver anywhere. do i really have to bin a perfectly good working printer. scanner and copier because dell and mac aren't in bed together?

Member Avatar for aaron3315

you can download Lexmark 9500 Series LPD Driver from Lexmark.com and it should work with this printer

Member Avatar for macgurl70

I know it's been a month since the last post - but I had a similar problem with my Epson, and found a driver called Gutenprint. It worked and I could print to it (the printer has issues with InDesign and printing larger than letter pages) with the paper size I needed.

Just have not figured out how to color calibrate it yet - I really need to so I can use the printer with programs other than Illustrator and Acrobat.

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