Getting an old Canon printer to work with Catalina

[sultanoflondon]

Hi all,

I've acquired a Canon MP970 printer that doesn't have a driver for macOS Catalina on Canon's website.

Is there a smart workaround? I was wondering whether there is a 'generic' Canon driver that I can install to be able to use the printer?

thank you all!

 

[bogdanw]

Have you tried to connect it? Maybe it will be automatically detected and the appropriate driver installed.

 

[tranceking26]

I have an old Canon printer and all I had to do was connect via USB and it worked. That was on Mojave but I imagine it would be the same.

 

[LuisN]

Hi all,

I've acquired a Canon MP970 printer that doesn't have a driver for macOS Catalina on Canon's website.

Is there a smart workaround? I was wondering whether there is a 'generic' Canon driver that I can install to be able to use the printer?

thank you all!

Couldn't find any generic driver. The last version of macOS that supported your printer was Lion!? That's an old printer isn't it?

 

[sultanoflondon]

Have you tried to connect it? Maybe it will be automatically detected and the appropriate driver installed.

I tried this and my Mac asked me to choose a driver. I didn't know which one to use since the model-specific one wasn't installed, of course.

I have an old Canon printer and all I had to do was connect via USB and it worked. That was on Mojave but I imagine it would be the same.

didn't seem to work for me. When I clicked the "+" sign to add a printer, I was prompted to choose a driver.

Couldn't find any generic driver. The last version of macOS that supported your printer was Lion!? That's an old printer isn't it?

Yes haha, it's really old. In fact, it's a printer that I found, left by the previous residents of my home. Turns out it's working well, but I can't seem to get it to work with my Mac!

 

[Taz Mangus]

I tried this and my Mac asked me to choose a driver. I didn't know which one to use since the model-specific one wasn't installed, of course.

Sometimes another model printer driver will work from the same manufacturer. this would be a trial and error processor.

 

[Taz Mangus]

If you look at this Apple document related to Printer and scanner drivers for Mac in Catalina, it lists the Canon MP990 series printer. Maybe try using that driver for your Cannon MP970 printer.

 

[Bazza1]

Using my Air in a variety of offices, I've found that Canon and Samsung printers can sometimes be a...challenge.

 

[BrianBaughn]

The "Quick Start" guide for that model is dated 2007…so…incompatibility is understandable.

But you could save photos (and documents?…not sure) to an SD card or other compatible format and print them that way.