The ImageClass series from Canon are great all-in-one printers that are great office workhorses. The small footprint, energy star rating, and economic toner cartridges make this an ideal printer. The D300 series printers have external connectivity in the form of a USB port for printing from a computer.  We have found that there is a decently sized Macintosh audience out there that needs to print to this printer, but no drivers exist on Canon’s website. So we set out to try and find out what could work as a solution. Here are some possible solutions:

Connect the printer to a Mac and use generic postscript drivers. Result - Fail.

Try using GimpPrint generic postscript drivers. Result - Fail.

Try forcing the use of HP drivers using a similar printing engine. Result – Fail.

The only way we found that a Mac could print to an ImageClass D300, D320, D340 was to install Windows XP via BootCamp, parallels, VM Fusion, or if you’re on a PowerPC platform, virtual PC (although it was very slow).

Bottom line: If you need to print to a Canon ImageClass D300 series printer, you will have to use a Windows-based PC or install Windows software on your Mac.

Link to Canon Support Site

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Does a laser printer use a actual laser? Do LaserJet printers use laser technology?

What’s the difference between a Laser printer and a LaserJet printer? To put it simply, there really is no difference. A LaserJet printer is a laser printer. It’s just a brand name much like a Kleenex is a tissue or a Q-Tip is a cotton swab. Since HP has been producing printers for such a long time, the name “LaserJet” has become a premium brand name that many people use instead of a Laser printer. Brother, Toshiba, Xerox, and other manufactures have names for their printers, but it’s not as pronounced as HP’s LaserJet line.

So what kind of “laser” is in a laser printer like HP’s LaserJet line? Does a laser burn the paper black? Well the short answer is that there really isn’t a red or blue laser in the printer and it doesn’t burn anything to paper, directly. The way a laser printer work is that a small device called a scanner uses an invisible laser to “etch” an image onto a rolling pin called a drum. It charges the drum with the image so it picks up toner in the cartridge and lays it on the paper. Then the toner (or plastic particles) are sealed or fused on to the paper. That’s it, no burning, no fancy red lasers.

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Is your HP LaserJet 1100 printer eating too much paper lately? This series of printers carries a great footprint, inexpensive cartridges, but has an issues with gravity and special ports.

The HP LaserJet 1100 and 1100xi are still loved and adored by many people because of its small footprint and the use of “gravity fed” paper. It does have a few issues that HP has addressed a while ago including the use of a strange mini-centronics cable and the issue of multiple pages getting fed through the printer at once causing a paper jam. This forces the user to feed the paper through one at a time.
If you can get over these small annoyances, the 1100 series printer is a great fit for many consumers and small businesses because of the relatively inexpensive cartridges and pre-loaded drivers in XP and Vista computers making connecting to a computer a snap.

What do I do if I get a computer that doesn’t have a parallel port and what is that strange port on the back of the 1100?

The 1100 printer uses only one type of interface, parallel. It uses a slightly different parallel connection that most people may be used to called mini-centronics. For some reason unknown by many technicians in the field, HP decided to put this on many different printers ranging from the color LaserJet 4600 to the HP LaserJet 1100.  This handy guide explains the items needed and how to install an HP 1100 using a standard USB to mini-centronics connector.

What if my HP 1100 feeds in more than one piece of paper at a time?

This one unfortunately is not as easily solved as the prior question. HP released a “fix” which included a pad that you could stick down where the separation occurs. Although this helps solve the issue temporarily, it puts additional pressure on the feed roller with the increased height of the separation pad and wears that out prematurely.

The only true fix is to replace the separation pad, the side resistance pads, and the main feed roller. This process involves removing the printer side clips, main cover, and other parts to change the pads. It takes a trained technician about 15-20 minutes, but it can take a first-timer many hours figuring out how to remove the right parts and not cause damage to the printer.  Our advice is to find a good technician and have them replace the needed parts. We provide this service free with use of our cartridges and the parts are relatively inexpensive. If you’re in the Seattle area, contact us or give us a call and we’ll take care of the separation pad issue so that you can get as much life out of your 1100 as possible.

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