Posted by MarkCP on 11/20/09 9:57am
Msg #311653

MAC Os X and auto detect printing

To all the MAC OS users out there. I have a fairly new Brother 8480DN printer with the second tray installed. When printing off a packets of docs how in the life do you get the printer to automatically detect whether the document is legal or letter and to then feed from the appropriate tray? I have preview set up for auto detect but it still doesn't be able to tell whether it's a legal or letter sized document.

Reply by Michele Swift on 11/20/09 10:19am
Msg #311656

I've already been down this road. Apparently, Adobe doesn't support Mac with the ability to do that with your printer. Even though your printer has two trays it doesn't mean that it will move from one tray to the other during a whole print package. Do you know if your printer can do that? If you're not sure, ask your printer support. BUT even if the printer will do it, Adobe doesn't support it for the Mac. Total Bummer. We just set-up a windows machine ONLY to print out docs our Canon MP500 has two trays and after working through that we just got feedback from Canon saying their printer won't move between paper trays in the process of printing a doc. You can only print one size, then manually move the tray and then print the other size.

I'm on here today to see what printers people use with PC that will move between the two size of paper. Good luck!

Reply by PAW on 11/20/09 10:19am
Msg #311658

Are the documents mixed sizes? Sometimes, when the documents are scanned, the "print" paper size is legal even if the source document is letter sized. Therefore, when you print them, the paper size selected will always be legal.

I have a quick PDF test file that can be used to test to see if the printer is working right. The first and third pages are legal size and the second page is letter size. Download the file at http://www.pawnotary.com/download/testfeed.pdf

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 11/20/09 11:30am
Msg #311660

Safari has an integrated pdf viewer that may allow you to print as desired. Open the doc using Safari and see what happens. Also there is a viewer available for Mac here:

http://www.object-craft.com.au/projects/macosxutils/pdfviewer.html


My Mac has Cheetah on it. It is mainly relegated to Photoshop duties as I got tired of the lack of support and supply of programs at the time and some of the work I was doing needed Windows so I had to go back. Windows and I have a kind of love / hate relationship. As a result, I don't spend much time on Mac any longer. In fact, right now, I don't have it set up to test anything for you. I do use Linux quite a bit. Adobe does not work properly on it either, but the Linux version of PDF viewer I have been able to print pdf files on the proper paper size using a Brother 5150 dn. Perhaps Safari or the pdf viewer above will work. Also make sure that you have the latest driver for Mac from the Brother website, don't rely on the version on the disk that came from the computer.

Sorry I can't be more help than that. Usually, when there is an issue that I answer on computers, I have a computer on and run through the issue before I post unless it is something I am familiar with. I can't do that in this case.

Reply by MonicaFL on 11/20/09 2:13pm
Msg #311671

I use a brother Hl-5170DNLT - I just make sure I have the box checked that says select paper by PDF size. Hope that helps.

Reply by MarkCP on 11/20/09 2:49pm
Msg #311675

Monica, Where is that "select paper by PDF size checkbox"? In the PDF viewer, printer software or someplace else? Thanks.

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 11/20/09 9:23pm
Msg #311739

There isn't a checkbox in Mac version. n/m

Reply by MarkCP on 11/20/09 3:14pm
Msg #311676

While it looks like I might just resort to installing Vista (ugh) on a virtual drive on my computer to print off docs in an auto detect mode, I will still continue on my quest to find a solution. So everyone please continue to throw me your suggestions to help and I am sure others overcome this situation. Thanks!

Reply by MarkCP on 11/23/09 4:29pm
Msg #311979

After downloading and trying numerous PDF viewers for MAC OS X I finally came to a solution. I installed Vista as a virtual drive and then Adobe Reader for Windows. Why I have no idea but Adobe only included the "Choose paper source by PDF size" in the Windows version. None of the other free PDF viewers, even Windows versions, had this option. To keep my Windows experience to a minimum I fire up Adobe for Windows and select the documents that I downloaded to my MAC desktop, print and let the printer do its work. Thanks for the hints, especially the one telling me about the print according pdf size checkbox!