Printer Drivers
Mac
OS X supports PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files for
PostScript printers and its own driver format for non-PostScript
printers. All these files go into the /Printer
folders of the system-wide Library hierarchy, as
described in Chapter 9.
Tip
Apple chooses to make the Local/System domain difference a little
fuzzy with the printer drivers it includes with Mac OS X. Drivers for
Apple-branded printers go into
/System/Library/Printers, and other
vendors’ drivers go into the less-protected
/Library/Printers directory—despite the
fact that Apple’s installer software puts both kinds
of drivers into place, and that Apple itself hasn’t
sold printers in years.
Generally speaking, you probably don’t have to worry too much about having the right printer drivers, since Apple includes dozens of drivers for several vendors’ printer models with Mac OS X, and regularly adds to the list (and updates existing drivers) via the System Update application.
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