Printer not working on your Mac after the macOS update?
Free native Mac printer drivers for 3,670 Canon, Epson, HP, Brother, Samsung, Lexmark and other printers on macOS 27 and Apple Silicon. No Rosetta. Install once, print again.
Free · Signed and notarized by Apple · Version 1.3.12 · Any Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 12 or later
- Plug the printer in with USB and switch it on
- Open the downloaded file and click through
- Print. The printer is set up for you
Still not printing? Restart the Mac once and re-plug the printer, then see troubleshooting. Wi-Fi printer? See below.
Not sure your printer is supported?
Type your model to check.
Not listed? Try just the model number. If it still isn't there, this driver doesn't support that printer. And if macOS already sets your printer up by itself (AirPrint), you don't need any of this.
Or browse by brand: Canon Epson HP Brother Samsung Lexmark Xerox Kyocera Ricoh Oki Dell Sharp Kodak Sony Fujifilm Panasonic all brands →
Using Homebrew? brew install --cask theshiver/tap/apple-silicon-printer-drivers
Questions
Installed but still not printing? See troubleshooting.
Why did my printer stop working?
The printer maker's driver was built for Intel Macs only. On Apple Silicon it ran through Rosetta, which the macOS 27 upgrade removes, and the maker never released an Apple Silicon version. This installer replaces it with a native driver.
Will reinstalling Rosetta fix it?
Sometimes, and only for now. Running softwareupdate --install-rosetta in Terminal brings Rosetta back, and some Intel-only printer drivers work again after you delete and re-add the printer; others stay marked “Software Incompatible”. Apple ends Rosetta for apps in macOS 28, so the maker's Intel-only driver will stop again then. This package is native arm64 and doesn't need Rosetta.
I had the printer maker's old driver installed. Anything to do?
Restart the Mac once after installing, then unplug and re-plug the printer. Canon's old driver in particular leaves a small kernel extension behind that blocks macOS's own USB printer driver; the installer moves the old driver aside (to /Users/Shared/printer-driver-backup, nothing is deleted) and macOS needs one restart to notice. Other makers' drivers are left in place.
Still on macOS 26 Tahoe or earlier?
Your printer works now, but it will stop after you update if it uses one of those old drivers. You can install this before or after updating.
My printer is on Wi-Fi, not USB.
Install the package, then add the printer in System Settings → Printers & Scanners → Add, choose Use: Select Software… and pick the entry ending in “Apple Silicon”.
The installer didn't add my printer.
Search your model above; if it's supported you get a command to add it by hand. Open Terminal (⌘+Space, type Terminal), paste the command, press Enter, type your password.
Where are print quality and black & white?
In the print dialog, open Printer Features (Printer Options on macOS 27). Quality is under Resolution, not Print Quality: Automatic, Draft, High, Photo modes and so on, depending on the printer. For black & white set Color Model to Grayscale. Presets offers Text and Photograph tuning.
Black doesn't print, or colors look off.
First run a nozzle check from the printer itself: an empty or clogged black cartridge is the usual cause, and this driver can't show ink levels like the maker's driver did. Then check in Printer Features that no “color-only” mode is selected under Resolution or Ink Set. Colors can look a little different from the maker's driver because the color tables are different.
Supply Levels says “Information Not Available”.
Expected: the open source drivers can't read ink or toner levels from the printer, only the maker's driver could. Check levels on the printer's own screen or with a nozzle check.
My printer isn't in the list.
Many newer printers, including Brother color lasers such as the MFC-L3770CDW, support AirPrint and need no driver: connect the printer to your network (Wi-Fi or Ethernet), then add it in System Settings → Printers & Scanners → Add, with Use: AirPrint. AirPrint doesn't work over USB.
My Brother ink tank printer (DCP-T420W, DCP-T426W, DCP-T536DW, MFC-T…) isn't supported.
Brother's DCP-T and MFC-T ink tank printers have no open source driver, and Brother's Linux driver for them is closed source and Intel-only, so this package can't add them. Check your model's Downloads page on support.brother.com for a current macOS driver. If the printer supports AirPrint, connect it to your network and add it in System Settings → Printers & Scanners with Use: AirPrint.
My HP LaserJet 1018, 1020, P1005 or P1006 isn't supported.
These are host-based printers: they don't understand PCL, and they need HP's firmware sent to them every time they are switched on. Gutenprint can't drive them, so they aren't supported. Picking a similar model such as the LaserJet 1022 doesn't work either: the job goes through, but nothing prints.
Does the scanner on my all-in-one work?
No, only printing. For scanning use VueScan (paid) or SANE (free, more technical); both run natively on Apple Silicon.
Do I need to write my own printer driver, with ChatGPT, Claude or Codex for example?
Not if your printer is in the list above. All 3,670 models are already supported by mature open source drivers (Gutenprint, brlaser and SpliX) that implement the printer languages and color tuning, built natively for Apple Silicon. Install the package instead of writing a CUPS filter from scratch. The full list is also available as plain text at https://theshiver.github.io/apple-silicon-printer-drivers/supported-printers.txt.
Is it safe? Will macOS complain?
The installer is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings. Everything it does is listed in SECURITY.md on GitHub and the install script is plain text you can read.
Is it free?
Yes. Free and open source, no account, nothing collected.
Which macOS versions?
Built and tested on macOS 27 on Apple Silicon. It should work on macOS 12 and later on M-series Macs.
It's free and always will be. If you'd like to say thanks, buy me a coffee via GitHub Sponsors.
How it works
The installer contains Gutenprint 5.3.5, the open source driver suite that has supported these printers on Linux for 20 years, compiled for arm64 and installed under /Library/Printers/Gutenprint, where Apple's print system can run it, plus a small helper (gutenprint-add) that writes the printer description file and creates the queue. Printing goes through Apple's own USB printer class driver, so nothing Intel-only is involved. Brother lasers without PCL or AirPrint (HL-1110, HL-2270DW, DCP-7065DN and similar) use the bundled native arm64 brlaser 6.2.8 driver, and Samsung, Xerox and Dell lasers that speak SPL (ML-1640, ML-2010, SCX-4200, Phaser 3117 and similar) use SpliX 2.0.2. Full details, source and build scripts are on GitHub.