How do I print via a virtual printer?

Go to the MacOS X’s Print Center and add a new printer. Select TCP/IP printer, give it a name like 'Print to Disk', type in localhost or 127.0.0.1 as the IP and assign the Acrobat Distiller PPD (or Adobe PDF PPD if you have Acrobat 6) to this printer. You now have a virtual PostScript printer. The Acrobat Distiller PPD can be downloaded from Adobe at: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?ftpID=141&fileID=141

I’m getting an ‘Error 1282’, and all Print Center queues have disappeared?

You’ll get this message, "An error occurred while trying to add the selected printers. Error 1282", when you try to add a printer into the Print Center printer list, in MacOS X 10.2. This may occur after you have updated the OS. To rectify this, you need to do the following, you also need to be an Admin user:
1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/).
2. At the prompt type: cd /var/spool/
3. Press Return.
4. Type: sudo mkdir cups
5. Press Return.
6. Type your Admin user password when prompted, then press Return.
7. Type: sudo chown daemon:admin cups
8. Press Return.
9. Type: sudo chmod 700 cups
10. Press Return.
11. Quit Terminal.
12. Restart the computer.
All of the previously created print queues will reappear after the computer restarts.

General print troubleshooting tips.

If you have a print of problem, and it’s usually to do with not getting it to print. Then go through this checklist:

1) Print a test page to see if the printer actually prints something. It might be turned off.
2) Check the cables and other connections are firmly in place.
4) Delete old print jobs that might have failed to print for one reason or another.
5) Print from another application, and see if that is more successful. It could be an issue with the program in question - is it’s page setup and PPD correct?
6) Check the print queue, and see if it is actually sending data to the printer. The print queue may have been stopped eariler, and you’ve forgotten about it.
7) Connect the printer directly to the computer, to see if there is a connection problem, if it was networked previously, it could be a problem with your network, or the printer is not making itself available on the network. You will need to reset some of the printer’s internal settings, or just switch it off and on again.
8) Delete the printer from the printer list, and re-add it again. Or, delete all printers plus their print jobs, then add them back into the print list again.
9) Update or reinstall printer software. This only applies to USB printers, however ethernet enabled printers still need a PS Printer Description file (PPD) specifying, in order to correctly print to it.
10) Repair the disk permissions using the Disk Utility program.
11) Use the latest version of Mac OS X. Update to MacOS X 10.1.5 or later.

Why can't I print anything in Classic mode?

For starters, Desktop Printers do not work for some Classic applications, when in Classic mode. In order to print in Classic environment, you must bootup Classic with only the PrintMonitor extension loaded, in the Classic System Folder. Then disable these extensions via the Extensions Manager Control Panel; Desktop Printer Spooler and Desktop PrintMonitor. Note that you can call up the Extensions Manager while Classic is loading, by holding down the space bar right at the very beginning of Classic’s boot up.