Please Note: POSGuys Technical Support Team does not support any Mac applications or hardware connected to Mac devices. This guide is being provided as a free resource to help you set up your printer. Zebra does not officially support Mac either, so be aware that getting support from them might be difficult.
Do you want to use a Zebra label printer on your Mac computer but are having trouble getting it up and running? Maybe you’re still shopping for your options and are wondering if a Zebra printer will work on a Mac. The good news is that it is possible to connect a USB or Ethernet Zebra label printer to Mac, but you’ll need to do some special configuration to make it work Zebra printers use something called CUPS drivers to work. CUPS stands for Common Unix Printing System and the drivers are usually pre-installed on most Mac OS X operating systems. This means that in most cases, you won’t even need to install special software to get this working. Please note, however, that these drivers aren’t developed or maintained by Zebra so if you’re having trouble getting things to work, there are not many places you can go to for help there. So without further ado, here’s how you do it! **Step 1)** Go over to your Printers & Scanners menu and hit the “+” Button. Select “Add Printer or Scanner”. From there, a pop-up will open. Your Zebra printer should show up on the dropdown. If it doesn’t, ensure that all your connections are secure, and then restart your computer. Keep in mind that this method does not work for Bluetooth printers. **Step 2)** Assuming the Zebra printer is visible, highlight it, go down to the Use section at the bottom of the window, and select “Select Software.” A new menu will appear. Using the search bar at the top right, search for “Zebra”. A few different options should show up but for 90% of installations, you’ll want to select “Zebra ZPL Label Printer”. Once you’ve highlighted that option, hit the Ok button at the bottom right and then click “Add” at the bottom of the first window. **Step 3)** Now that you’re printer is added, you’ll need to log in to the CUPS driver menu and configure the driver. To do this, use Safari to navigate to the following link: http://localhost:631/printers/. If you get an error message that says “Web Interface is Disabled, go to Step 3.1. If you don’t get that error and are logged into the CUPS page, go to Step 4. **Step 3.1)** To enable the Web Interface, copy “cupsctl WebInterface=yes” and paste that command into the Terminal application. You can find this application by clicking the magnifying glass in the top right-hand corner of the screen and searching for Terminal. It should look like this. Once you’ve opened the Terminal, paste in the command above and press enter. You should be able to go back to the CUPS driver page you navigated to in Step 3. **Step 4)** Once you’ve opened the CUPS setup page, you should see a tab called “Printers” located in the top right corner of the page. Click that tab. The printer you added earlier should be visible on that page. Choose “Set Default Options” from the drop-down menu right below the printer’s name. A new window will appear. **Step 5)** Once the Set Default options tab is open, select the “General” tab and ensure that you set the following options depending on your printer needs. If you purchased the printer you’re setting up from us, we can advise you on what settings would work best for your printer. Once your settings are correct, click “Set Default Options”. You might be presented with a pop-up asking you to enter a username and password. If so, enter your MAC account information. - Media size = set according to the label loaded in the printer - Resolution = MUST set according to the printer dpi (203dpi, 300dpi or 600dpi) - Media tracking Continuous: Using media or continuous form (no gaps, notches, or black marks for the top of the form detection). Mark Sensing: Using media that has a black mark for the top of the form detection. Web Sensing: Using media with gaps between labels, notch, or a hole to detect the top of the form. - Media Type Thermal Transfer: Printing with ribbon on thermal transfer paper. Direct Thermal: Printing on heat-sensitive paper (no ribbon used). *Note: From this location, you can also adjust some advanced printer settings by clicking the “Printer Settings” tab directly to the right of the “General Tab”. Follow up the same steps as above to adjust these settings. If you’re unsure what a setting does, do not modify it.* **Step 6)** You’re almost there! The last step is to ensure that everything works well by printing a test page. To do this, Navigate back to the “Printers” page we talked about in Step 4 and select “Print Test Page” from the dropdown. If you’ve set everything correctly, your Zebra printer should start printing labels. **Want a more visual walkthrough to help? This video created by Zebra shows you how to do the following steps for a USB Zebra printer. For a more in-depth setup guide, [refer to Zebra's guide here][1].**