Category Archives: printing and scanning

fixed : HP LaserJet M254dw not printing and giving error message “low memory”

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Question :
I have a HP LaserJet M254dw that works great, but when I was trying to print a PDF yesterday, it took an enormous time to print and finally only printed the first page was printed, and the second wasn’t…
There was no error message on my Mac or on the small printer display, so I tried again, this time only printing the second page. Since it was a page filled with lots of graphics and colours, I wasn’t surprised that it took a long time to print, so I left the printer to do it’s job for a while… when I returned after an hour or so, there was nothing printed and there where no error messages…
So I tried again, this time I reduced the PDF to only the one page I wanted to print, made sure I would hear the printer startup (as it always does after receiving a new printing job) and I waited next to the printer to see wat happened…
This time it also took a long time and nothing was printed, but before the display on the printer went black, I noticed a “low memory” warning being displayed….

What can I do to resolve this ?

Answer :
HP has an explanation page on this “low memory” type of problem on it’s website, but if you don’t have any extra fonts installed, the first step I would recommend is installing new firmware if there is any.
Here’s how to do that :
– unplug the printer form power (to reset it – not strictly needed, but just to be sure)
– plug the power back into the printer
– download the latest firmware form the HP website by going to this webpage
– then, find & open the “Software & Drivers” chapter
– then, find & open the “Printer” chapter
– then, typ “m254dw” in the search field
– click on “HP Color LaserJet M254dw” when presented
– then, find & open the link to “Firmware”
– when the latest firmware version is displayed, click the “Download” button if you are sure you haven’t upgraded the firmware on your printer since the date it was released ( e.g. the current version number 20230822 means it is the firmware version created on 22nd of August 2023, but you can also check the official release date that is also listed )
– then, on your Mac, open the firmware installer you’ve just downloaded and follow the on screen instructions guiding you through the installation
– when the firmware upgrade is done, try to print the PDF page again
– if it is printed okay now : great ! …if not, try printing some other, page that has a simple layout, first
– if that doesn’t work, check your printer as something simple might be wrong like an open tray or a loose cable (aside from the very small chance that your printer is actually broken)
– if you are able to print something else, just try printing the problematic page again and make sure you check “Scale” (and not “Scale to Fit”) and set it to “100” in the “Preview” chapter of the Printing options before printing
– then wait…
– if that works (note that you might have to wait 10 minutes or so), you’re okay !
– if your page original was too large, and it has now been printed across multiple pages, try printing again, now with “Scale to Fit” checked
– if “Scale to Fit” turns out to cause problems, open the PDF in Preview.app and (re)save a new version as JPEG or PNG (choose “Export” from the “File”-menu to get these options) that you can print

That should be it !
enjoy 😉

fixed : CanoScan 5600F driver for macOS Sonoma

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Question :

I have a Canon CanoScan 5600F scanner that worked great with my previous Mac, but now I have upgraded to a new M1 Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma.

I’ve looked on the Canon website and searched the internet, but there is no macOS 14 Sonoma compatible driver available for this scanner.

Is there any way to use this CanoScan 5600F scanner in macOS 14 Sonoma ?

Answer :

Yes, there is …and it still works this way on Intel i5/i7-Mas running macOS 14 Sonoma, and almost certainly on M1 (and M2) Macs also (since it worked on M1/M2-Macs in macOS 13 Ventura) :

  • goto Canon’s US website : https://www.usa.canon.com
  • choose Support > Scanners > Film & Negative Scanner > CanoScan 5600F
  • or use this link : https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/scanners/film-negative-scanner/canoscan-5600f/canoscan-5600f?subtab=downloads-drivers
  • there, click on the “Drivers & Downloads” tile (huge button)
  • then, choose “macOS Mojave v10.14” (even though your on macOS Sonoma v14 – don’t worry) as your operating system and “English” as your language
  • now, you will see 2 drivers listed :
    • > 5600F Scanner Driver Ver.14.11.5h (Mac) : msd_-mac_cs5600f-14_11_5h-ea8_2.dmg
      • > ICA Driver Ver.4.1.4a (Mac) : misd-mac-ijscanner2-4_1_4-ea21_3.dmg
  • download both of them
    • note that despite the fact that both are versions from 2018, these will still work with macOS 14 Sonoma
  • goto your downloads folder
  • first, double-click on the file named msd_-mac_cs5600f-14_11_5h-ea8_2.dmg
  • this will mount the ScanGear_CanoScan 5600F_141105.pkg
  • again, click on that and version 14.11 of the ScanGear driver installer will open
  • now, follow the on-screen directions and the latest ScanGear driver will be installed
  • then, double-click on the file named misd-mac-ijscanner2-4_1_4-ea21_3.dmg
  • this will mount the Canon IJScanner2_040104.pkg
  • again, click on that and version 4.1.4 the IJScanner2 driver installer will open
  • now, follow the on-screen directions and the latest IJScanner2 driver will be installed
  • when done, click on the Apple-logo top-left in the top menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “System Settings”
  • in the window that opens, scroll down in the menu list on the left and click on “Printers & Scanners”
  • if the CanoScan 5600F is already listed in the Scanners chapter, click it
  • if not, click the “Add Printer, Scanner or Fax” button first to add the scanner
  • when done, click the CanoScan 5600F in the Scanners chapter
  • when the scanner details open on the right, click on the “Open Scanner”-button
  • now, the built-in macOS ImageCapture.app will open and it will immediately do a preview scan of whatever is in the scanner

NOTE : you might run into a small problem every once in a while ; when the automatic scanning preview starts, you might get an error saying “Scanner reported an error – Cannot communicate with scanner for these reasons: – Scanner is turned off. – USB cable is disconnected. Please check and try again.” If so, just flip the scanner’s ON/OFF-switch in OFF-position manually and then back into ON-position. Then click “OK” in the error message window, then click the “Overview” button in the ImageCapture window. That should help in making the scanner preview work again.

enjoy 😉

fixed : create a Desktop Scanner (one-click scanner access) in macOS 14 Sonoma

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Question :
Back in the good old days of MacOSX we used to have direct access to our scanners using a one-click link (or ‘alias’) on the Desktop or in the Dock that was easily recognisable through a custom name and custom icon… most of the time this was referred to as the Desktop Scanner feature…
But with the introduction of macOS 13 Ventura that changed, Apple decided to make everything worse and more complex… access to Scanners was now hidden behind layers of multi-clicks… [click] Apple menu [click] System Settings [scroll down] Printers & Scanners [click] preferred scanner [click] Open Scanner…
And then the Image Capture application will open…

Anyway… in macOS 13 Ventura it was still possible to create a customised link in the Dock to have some kind of Desktop Scanner… but in macOS 14 Sonoma even that does no longer work… with some hocus-pocus you might be able to create a working link with a customised name, but the icon won’t be customisable, so quickly finding the correct scanner isn’t easy…
Utter & unnecessary bogus… Why ???

Isn’t there any option to have a ‘good old’ Desktop Scanner ?


Answer :
Yes, it is still possible to get a Desktop Scanner with a customised name and icon… but it’s no longer possible to get it in the Dock, you can only get it on the Desktop… and it takes some work to set it up…

Note : since macOS 14 Sonoma uses the Signed System Volume (SSV) to protect original Apple Apps from being tampered with… it is no longer possible to even customize the icon of alias to an original Apple App and put that in the Dock…

To create a Desktop Scanner for an already installed scanner, do this :

  • in macOS, click on the Apple-icon (top-left) in the upper menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on System Settings
  • in the window that opens, scroll down the menu bar on the left and click on Printers & Scanners
  • then, on the right, in the Printers chapter, click on the scanner you want to create a Desktop Scanner for
  • in the window that opens, click on Open Scanner and the Image Capture app will open and the Image Capture app icon (an icon of a generic grey photo camera in front of a black background with tiny photos on it) will appear in the Dock ; if you did not have it installed in the Dock previously, it will be in the ‘recent apps’ chapter of the Dock (between the ‘docked apps’ on the left and the ‘docked files, links & folders’ on the right)
  • in the Dock, CMD-click on the Image Capture app icon and a finder window will open highlighting the Image Capture app (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder)
  • now, CTRL-click on Image Capture in the Dock
  • in the popup menu that appears, click on Make Alias
  • in the smal grey popup Finder window that appears asking for your password, typ your computer password (the password you use to unlock your Mac from sleep) and click OK
  • then, drag&drop the “Image Capture alias” that was just created and highlighted in the Finder window onto your Desktop
  • then, on your Desktop, CTRL-click on the alias named Image Capture and in the pulldown menu that appears, click on Get Info
  • in the Image Capture Info window that opens, at Name & Extension, change the name to the name of the printer you want to have the Desktop Scanner for
  • then, find the custom icon you want to give to your Desktop Scanner and drag&drop it onto the tiny icon top left, if it’s an .icns icon file, or copy-paste it from another Get Info window it it’s a JPG, PNG or folder icon
  • >> if you already have a custom icon for your scanner, use that one
  • >> if you do not have a custom icon for your scanner yet, search in Google Images for “icon [name of your scanner]” and download that as a .icns icon file or as a .jpg, .jpeg or .png picture
  • now, if you don’t already have one, create a new folder on your Mac (e.g. inside your Documents folder), name it “Custom Icons” and save your custom scanner icon there, as you will probably need this again for every mayor upgrade of macOS from now on…
  • now, back in the Image Capture Info window, make sure you put a checkmark at “Locked” (just above the “More Info” chapter) to make sure you do not accidentally delete the Desktop Scanner
  • then, close the Image Capture Info window using the tiny red button top left
  • and in the Applications (Finder) window that is still open, you will see the “Image Capture alias” is still there… so, CTRL-click on it, choose “Move to Bin” and type your computer password in the popup window to remove it… then close the Applications (Finder) window
  • now you have a one-click Desktop Scanner on your Desktop, just like the old days !
  • move the Desktop Scanner to the most convenient place on your Desktop and you’re done…

    That’s it !
    enjoy 😉

fixed : create a Desktop Printer (one-click printer access) in macOS 14 Sonoma

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Question :
Back in the good old days of MacOSX we used to have direct access to our printers using a one-click link (or ‘alias’) on the Desktop or in the Dock that was easily recognisable through a custom name and custom icon… most of the time this was referred to as the Desktop Printer feature…
But with the introduction of macOS 13 Ventura that changed, Apple decided to make everything worse and more complex… access to Printers was now hidden behind layers of multi-clicks… [click] Apple menu [click] System Settings [scroll down] Printers & Scanners [click] preferred printer [click] either Printer Queue or Options & Supplies…
And then the Print Center application will open… (where Options & Supplies can be accessed by clicking on the ‘sprocket’/’gear-wheel’ icon…)

Anyway… in macOS 13 Ventura it was still possible to create a customised link in the Dock to have some kind of Desktop Printer… but in macOS 14 Sonoma even that does no longer work… with some hocus-pocus you might be able to create a working link with a customised name, but the icon won’t be customisable, so quickly finding the correct printer isn’t easy…
Utter & unnecessary bogus… Why ???

Isn’t there any option to have a ‘good old’ Desktop Printer ?


Answer :
Yes, it is still possible to get a Desktop Printer with a customised name and icon… but it’s no longer possible to get it in the Dock, you can only get it on the Desktop… and it takes some work to set it up…

Note : since macOS 14 Sonoma uses the Signed System Volume (SSV) to protect original Apple Apps from being tampered with… it is no longer possible to even customize the icon of alias to an original Apple App and put that in the Dock…

To create a Desktop Printer for an already installed printer, do this :

  • in macOS, click on the Apple-icon (top-left) in the upper menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on System Settings
  • in the window that opens, scroll down the menu bar on the left and click on Printers & Scanners
  • then, on the right, in the Printers chapter, click on the printer you want to create a Desktop Printer for
  • in the window that opens, click on Printer Queue and the Print Centre app will open and the Print Centre app icon (a dark grey generic printer icon) will appear in the Dock ; if you did not have it installed in the Dock previously, it will be in the ‘recent apps’ chapter of the Dock (between the ‘docked apps’ on the left and the ‘docked files, links & folders’ on the right)
  • in the Dock, CMD-click on the Print Centre app icon and a finder window will open highlighting the Print Centre app (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder)
  • now, CTRL-click on Print Centre in the Dock
  • in the popup menu that appears, click on Make Alias
  • in the smal grey popup Finder window that appears asking for your password, typ your computer password (the password you use to unlock your Mac from sleep) and click OK
  • then, drag&drop the “Print Centre alias” that was just created and highlighted in the Finder window onto your Desktop
  • then, on your Desktop, CTRL-click on the alias named Print Centre and in the pulldown menu that appears, click on Get Info
  • in the Print Centre Info window that opens, at Name & Extension, change the name to the name of the printer you want to have the Desktop Printer for
  • then, find the custom icon you want to give to your Desktop Printer and drag&drop it onto the tiny icon top left, if it’s an .icns icon file, or copy-paste it from another Get Info window it it’s a JPG, PNG or folder icon
  • >> if you already had a custom printer icon available on this Mac before you upgraded to macOS 14 Sonoma, you might be able to find it in Finder > Go > Computer > [My Computer] > Library > Printers > Icons (or maybe in any other folder inside that same Printers folder) ; if so, it will be an .icns icon file
  • >> if you already have a custom icon for your printer, use that one
  • >> if you do not have a custom icon for your printer yet, search in Google Images for “icon [name of your printer]” and download that as a .icns icon file or as a .jpg, .jpeg or .png picture
  • now, if you don’t already have one, create a new folder on your Mac (e.g. inside your Documents folder), name it “Custom Icons” and save your custom printer icon there, as you will probably need this again for every mayor upgrade of macOS from now on…
  • now, back in the Print Centre Info window, make sure you put a checkmark at “Locked” (just above the “More Info” chapter) to make sure you do not accidentally delete the Desktop Printer
  • then, close the Print Centre Info window using the tiny red button top left
  • and in the Utilities (Finder) window that is still open, you will see the “Print Centre alias” is still there… so, CTRL-click on it, choose “Move to Bin” and type your computer password in the popup window to remove it… then close the Utilities (Finder) window
  • now you have a one-click Desktop Printer on your Desktop, just like the old days !
  • move the Desktop Printer to the most convenient place on your Desktop and you’re done…

    That’s it !
    enjoy 😉

fixed : CanoScan 5600F driver for macOS Ventura

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Question :

I have a Canon CanoScan 5600F scanner that worked great with my previous Mac, but now I have upgraded to a new M1 Mac running macOS 13 Ventura.

I’ve looked on the Canon website and searched the internet, but there is no macOS 13 Ventura compatible driver available for this scanner.

Is there any way to use this CanoScan 5600F scanner in macOS 13 Ventura ?

Answer :

Yes, there is …and it is reported to work on M1 (and M2) Macs also [ thanks ! @Stefan ] :

  • goto Canon’s US website : https://www.usa.canon.com
  • choose Support > Scanners > Film & Negative Scanner > CanoScan 5600F
  • or use this link : https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/scanners/film-negative-scanner/canoscan-5600f/canoscan-5600f?subtab=downloads-drivers
  • there, choose the “Drivers & Downloads” tab
  • then, choose “macOS Mojave v10.14” (even though your on macOS Ventura v13 – don’t worry) as your operating system and “English” as your language
  • then, choose the “Drivers” tab
  • now, you will see 2 drivers listed :
    • > 5600F Scanner Driver Ver.14.11.5h (Mac) : msd_-mac_cs5600f-14_11_5h-ea8_2.dmg
      • > ICA Driver Ver.4.1.4a (Mac) : misd-mac-ijscanner2-4_1_4-ea21_3.dmg
  • download both of them
    • note that despite the fact that both are versions from 2018, these will still work with macOS 11.0 Big_Sur
  • goto your downloads folder
  • first, double-click on the file named msd_-mac_cs5600f-14_11_5h-ea8_2.dmg
  • this will mount the ScanGear_CanoScan 5600F_141105.pkg
  • again, click on that and version 14.11 of the ScanGear driver installer will open
  • now, follow the on-screen directions and the latest ScanGear driver will be installed
  • then, double-click on the file named misd-mac-ijscanner2-4_1_4-ea21_3.dmg
  • this will mount the Canon IJScanner2_040104.pkg
  • again, click on that and version 4.1.4 the IJScanner2 driver installer will open
  • now, follow the on-screen directions and the latest IJScanner2 driver will be installed
  • when done, goto System Preferences > Printers & Scanners
  • if the CanoScan 5600F is already listed on the left, click it
  • if not, click the +sign (plus-sign) to add the scanner first
  • when done, click the CanoScan 5600F in the list on the left
  • when the scanner details open on the right, click on the “Open Scanner”-button
  • now, the built-in macOS scanner-app will open and it will immediately do a preview scan of whatever is in the scanner

NOTE : you might run into a small problem every once in a while ; when the automatic scanning preview starts, you might get an error saying “Scanner reported an error – Cannot communicate with scanner for these reasons: – Scanner is turned off. – USB cable is disconnected. Please check and try again.” If so, just flip the scanner’s ON/OFF-switch in OFF-position manually and then back into ON-posistie. That should help in making the scanner preview work again.

enjoy 😉

fixed : Two-sided printing in MS Word for Mac

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Question :

I usually work in Apple’s Pages.app to do my text editing, but now someone sent me a school document that was made in MS Word. It opens just fine in Word for Mac, but when I want to print, I can’t find the “Two-sided printing” option…

How can I do Two-sided printing in Word for Mac ?

Answer :

As always, the solution is simple, you just have to know where to look and what to look for…

…anyway, here’s how-to do this in Word 16 (2021) :

Note : in older versions it is similar, but sometimes slightly different (just one of those things to know is that “Two-sided printing” is called “Duplex printing” on Windows and therefore also in older versions of MS Office for Mac…)

  • open the document in Word for Mac
  • press the [CMD] + [P] key combo on your keyboard to open the Print window ( or goto Word > File > Print )
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Layout” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Layout settings view, see that “Two-Sided” is listed, with the option to choose “Long Edge Binding” (for portrait mode documents) and “Short Edge Binding” (for landscape mode documents)
  • > note that if “Two-Sided” is not listed here, your printer doesn’t have the option to print two-sided automatically, and you will have to do the two-sided printing manually [see below]

That’s it !

If your printer can’t do two-sided printing automatically, you can do this to get two-sided printing manually :

  • open the document in Word for Mac
  • press the [CMD] + [P] key combo on your keyboard to open the Print window ( or goto Word > File > Print )
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Even pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” set both “From:” and “To:” to 1 and click the Print button
  • when your print is ready, draw a huge arrow on the back of the printed page pointing upward like the text on the front side
  • then put the page in the printer’s feeder drawer and make sure the arrow you have drawn on it is on the upside and pointing into the printer drawer and close the printer drawer
  • then click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Even pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” set both “From:” and “To:” to 1 and click the Print button
  • now look at the printed page that comes out and figure out how to put the pages in after having them printed on one side (make sure you have this correct before proceeding ; if you can’t get your head around this, just redo the above steps and print a new testpage)
  • now, get ready to print the entire document :
  • press the [CMD] + [P] key combo on your keyboard to open the Print window ( or goto Word > File > Print )
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Even pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” select “All”
  • then wait for all even pages to print
  • when done, flip over the bulk of printed paper the way you figured out to be right (using your test page as a reference) and put it back in the printing drawer
  • make sure that not only the orientation is correct, but that the first page is on top and the last page is at the bottom also
  • click on “Copies & Pages” and choose “Microsoft Word” from the pulldown menu
  • in the Microsoft Word settings view, set “Print:” to “Odd pages only”
  • then go back to “Copies & Pages” and at “Pages:” select “All”
  • then wait for all odd pages to print
  • …now check if your document is printed correctly on both sides !
  • if not… you have gotten your page flipping incorrect… too bad… you’ll have to redo from start…

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : put printing & scanning shortcuts in the Dock

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Question :

Whenever I need to scan (or sometimes even to print) anything, I need to go into System Preferences, then Printers & Scanners, then click Open Scanner…

Isn’t there a one-click solution to do this ?

Answer :

Yes there is.

Back in the days of MacOSX there used to be an option for this called “Desktop Printer” : that would put a shortcut-link of your printer on the Desktop. And you could do the same for your scanner.

——————– UPDATE ———————–

With the introduction of macOS 14 Sonoma the solution outlined in this post is no longer possible – if you are running macOS 14 Sonoma, go here for the current solutions :

fixed : create a Desktop Printer (one-click printer access) in macOS 14 Sonoma

fixed : create a Desktop Scanner (one-click scanner access) in macOS 14 Sonoma

——– if you are using macOS 13 Ventura or previous you can also use the solution below —–

Nowadays, for some reason, this option is gone, and no easy alternative is given by macOS… so you will have to create some thing yourself… the easiest way is to put both your Printer’s and your Scanner’s icon in the Dock. To do so, do this :

  • go to Apple menu (Apple-icon top-left in the top menu bar)
  • when the pulldown menu appears, select “System Preferences”
  • in the window that opens, click “Printers & Scanners”
    • if there is no such option, click on the raster-icon (top-center) first and it will appear
  • in the window that opens, click on your scanner (in the list on the left)
    • if your scanner is not yet in the list, add it first by clicking the Plus-icon at the bottom and following the on-screen instructions
  • now your scanner opens in the main part of the screen (on the right)
  • click the “Open scanner” button
  • now, the Scanner-window will open, and the scanner’s icon will appear in the Dock
  • CTRL-click (right mouse button) on the Scanner’s icon in the Dock
  • from the popup-menu, select “Options”, then “Keep in Dock”
  • now, the scanner’s icon will be moved to the left and it will stay in the Dock even after you close the scanner software
  • so, next time you want to scan anything, just click on the scanner’s icon in the Dock to open the scanner software

    That’s it !

Note : creating a direct link icon in the Dock for your printer can be done in the same way

enjoy 😉