HP Color LaserJet CP1215 and Mac OS X 10.7 (Update: 10.8 Mountain Lion)

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In 2009 I got a HP Color LaserJet CP1215. Unfortunately this printer is not compatible with OS X. Three years ago I managed to install the printer by using open source tools and drivers. However, since I got a new MacBook Pro I needed to reinstall the printer and, of course, some things changed.

In order to remember the stuff I just did I will now shortly describe the process. However, I will not provide support if you struggle installing the printer.

If you upgraded to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and your printer stopped working please see the update at the end of this article.

  1. You need GCC to compile C code. In my opinion the best way to get GCC is to install Xcode from the Mac App Store. In Xcode you have to install the Command Line Tools (Preferences > Downloads > Components).
  2. You also need Homebrew to install some libraries.
  3. Open a Terminal window and install wget and gnu-sed. 
    $ brew install wget
$ brew install gnu-sed
  4. Download and install Ghostscript, Foomatic RIP and HIPJS for Mac OS X.
  5. Terminal: 
    $ wget -O foo2zjs.tar.gz http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/foo2zjs.tar.gz
$ tar zxf foo2zjs.tar.gz
$ cd foo2zjs
$ make
$ ./getweb 1215
$ sudo make install
$ sudo make cups
$ cupsctl WebInterface=yes
  6. Open the CUPS web interface: http://localhost:631
  7. Add a printer by clicking on Adding Printers and Classes and then Add Printer. Enter your Mac OS X user name (must be an administrator) and your password.
  8. Select the printer (I connected the printer to my AirPort Express and it showed up in the list automatically) and click the submit button.
  9. Enter a name and description and submit the form again.
  10. Select HP
  11. Select HP Color LaserJet CP1215 Foomatic/foo2hp (en)
  12. Click on Add Printer
  13. Set Color Mode to Color and Bits Per Plane to 2 Bits Per Plane. Submit.
  14. Done.

Update August 26th, 2012: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

When I upgraded to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the printer stopped working. However, I could easily resolve this by repeating steps 4 and 5. I did not uninstall anything, I simply downloaded the latest version of Ghostscript, Foomatic RIP, HIPJS and foo2zjs.

27 thoughts on “HP Color LaserJet CP1215 and Mac OS X 10.7 (Update: 10.8 Mountain Lion)”

  1. Cool, seems to work (well, my Mac sees it anyway). Any way of making it ignore printer errors? Ie, my colour toners are empty, but there’s still plenty of black left, but it’s not letting me print in monochrome…probably because the colour toner lights are flashing. I’m pretty sure that on the official HP Windows driver you can force it to ignore empty toner.

    I do plan on getting some toner at some point but the thing is I received this printer for free and don’t really want to spend √Ǭ£100+ on some toner only to find out it doesn’t actually work.

  2. Sorry, I’ve never tried this. However it often helps if you restart the printer (sometimes several times). The printer works on OS X, but not very good. However, restarting helps most of the times.

  3. Sorted. Simply connect the printer to a Windows machine, install the official drivers, load up the HP Toolbox and select the following;
    HP Color LaserJet CP1215 -> Device and Settings -> System Setup

    Then make sure the ‘Cartridge out override’ is set to ‘On’.

    Printing from OSX will now work even if the printer is telling you it’s out of toner.

  4. hi,

    i will use my hp color laserjet cp1215 printer with os x 10.8 (mountain lion)…

    if i try 2 install like above comes the message: can’t open output file for writing: foo2zjs, errno=21 for architecture x86_64 .

    is there foo2zjs for mountain lion, or something else 2 do!??

    need help.. ;-)

    thx
    jens

  5. Currently printing doesn’t work for me either. However, I haven’t had the need to print since Mountain Lion came out so I haven’t looked into this issue.

    I will update the post if I figure it out.

  8. the install balks at the Terminal 5. step. says Missing URL. if i try the next line, it says No such file or directory.
    why wont these steps run?
    i installed the files as above to the ML Downloads directory then ran them there.
    Mike

  10. Sir you are a genius… Thank you so much. For the last time I’ve heard my children ask, “can we print from the Mac now?”…

    Only one question, how can I thank you? Buy you a beer? Book?

    Thank you again, and again and again!

  12. Florian, thanks for the post. I had the same problem but I solved it with your tutorial. You are my hero dude!!!

    Regards from Spain!

  13. I’m “stuck” at step #5. I received the following message when I put “make” in the terminal:

    -bash: make: command not found

    What am I missing here?

    Mike

  15. Ok, it works… :)

    Now, is the right margin supposed to be off or is there a way to adjust this? Sorry, I’m not computer savvy and just transition myself to Mac. =)

  17. Thanks for this great information. I made it through all of the steps up to step 11. When I scrolled through the list, there was no “HP Color Laserjet cp 1215.” It goes from “HP Color Laserjet cm6049″ to “HP Color Laserjet cp1514n.” I feel like I’m so close I can taste it, but I seem to be missing that particular definition. Any thoughts, anyone? Any help will be thoroughly appreciated!

  18. make: *** [obj/gdevcups.o] Error 1
    Sutijos-MacBook-Air:ghostscript-8.63 sutijo_lo$

    hi florian i got error when i type make in terminal can you help me ?
    Thanks

  19. configure: error: cannot find a2ps, enscript, mpage, or CUPS’ texttops. You need to have at least one installed
    Sutijos-MacBook-Air:foomatic-filters-4.0.6 sutijo_lo$

    this error too florian ? can you help me ?
    Thanks

  20. @Mark: Did you execute “./getweb 1215″?

    @Sutijo Lo: Did you have Xcode (including Developer Tools) installed? Did you install all dependencies? Which OS X version are you using?

  21. i have xcode 4.5.1. OSX 10.8 core library and ios5.1 library installed.
    xcode 4.5 developer library and ios6 still install.
    i use OS x 10.8.2 version

    Thanks

  23. Hi Florian I have Xcode 4.5.1 including developer tools installed
    and then after that i open terminal and type ./configure in ghostscript-8.63 and then type make…. and there is error

    gcc -DHAVE_MKSTEMP -DHAVE_HYPOT -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wundef -Wmissing-declarations -Wmissing-prototypes -Wwrite-strings -Wno-strict-aliasing -fno-builtin -fno-common -DHAVE_STDINT_H -DGX_COLOR_INDEX_TYPE=”unsigned long int” -I./obj -I./src -o ./obj/gdevcups.o -c cups/gdevcups.c
    In file included from /usr/include/dispatch/dispatch.h:50,
    from /usr/include/cups/cups.h:34,
    from /usr/include/cups/raster.h:27,
    from cups/gdevcups.c:74:
    /usr/include/dispatch/object.h:122: error: √¢‚ǨÀúFunction’ undeclared here (not in a function)
    /usr/include/dispatch/object.h:124: error: unrecognized format specifier
    /usr/include/dispatch/object.h:130: error: unrecognized format specifier
    cups/gdevcups.c: In function √¢‚ǨÀúcups_get_params’:
    cups/gdevcups.c:734: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:742: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:754: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:762: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:766: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:770: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:774: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:778: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:782: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_write_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c: In function √¢‚ǨÀúcups_put_params’:
    cups/gdevcups.c:2773: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2775: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2777: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2781: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2785: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2786: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2788: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2789: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2790: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    cups/gdevcups.c:2791: warning: passing argument 3 of √¢‚ǨÀúparam_read_bool’ from incompatible pointer type
    make: *** [obj/gdevcups.o] Error 1

    Can you help me where is wrong ?

    Thanks Florian