No Leopard drivers for Lexmark X5270 printer!?!

So I'm really close to getting a Mac with Leopard, but my Lexmark X5270 printer supposedly isn't compatible with Leopard. I checked on the Lexmark website and it does support Tiger and recently released a driver for Vista, but when I checked the compatibility for Leopard it wasn't on it.

I went as far as to sending an email to Lexmark and this was the reply I got.

Well, this reply does not help me one bit. I wouldn't think Lexmark would ever release drivers for this printer, as it is 3 years old. So, is there a way to get this printer to work with Leopard? I'm desperate. I don't want this to be a deciding factor for getting Vista...

 

It may work straight away with Leopard. Many applications didn't need any modification to work in Leopard, and the driver for your printer may be one of those.

Honestly, unless your printer is something extremely special, or has some unique functionality it will probably work without a driver(mine old HP printer works straight away, as does my cannon).

 

I'm not really sure that would work, because on the Lexmark Mac OS Compatibility List they do make a note about which printers will work with the drivers that are bundled with Leopard and unfortunately this one does not.

 

Unless your 3 year old lexmark cost you a king's ransom it's stupid to make the printer the deciding factor on which OS to use it on?
I had a friend that made that same illogical decision, he had $79.00 non-iPod mp3 player that only worked on Windows. He wanted to switch to OS X because he was tired of Windows so when he found out that that cheap mp3 player wouldn't work with iTunes or the Mac he went out and bought an XP notebook. What sense did that make?

Dude, it's a printer, they cost a dime a dozen even for the better quality ones. That's unfortunate that you would even consider Vista because there are no Leopard drivers for it.

 

It didn't cost me a fortune to buy this printer, but I just got it repaired and I'm practically broke when I buy the Macbook. I guess I was just exaggerating about this being the deciding factor for Leopard.

I've heard that some HP printers have these 3rd party drivers that would make it work with Mac and I was wondering if something like that is available for my printer.

 

Does your printer have Linux drivers? You'd probably be able to get it to work through fink if so.

 

My Printer (A canon ip4300) cost me $50. That's about how much my 4gb MS Pro Duo cost. And that thing just stays in PSP unused...

If I had to junk it, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Though it is a really nice printer, and the ink lasts forever. Definitely picking up Bluetooth wireless one when I move though.

 

Doesn't the OS X installer disc come with several gigabytes of printer drivers?

 

Right now I was looking at the Lexmark website and they do have drivers for Mac OS X 10.1.5~10.4. It was released in 2004, so I was wondering if it would work with Leopard if I tried installing it.

Also looking at this list I found that Leopard does have drivers for Lexmark X5250 which seems to be close to the printer I have. Do you guys think this will work?

I guess it all comes down to trial and error maybe...

 

It may work, it may not. You could just try all of the Lexmark drivers included with OS X, and you could find one that will get the printer working somewhat. However, it is very unlikely you will find one that will allow full compatibility. Also, it is unlikely they will ever release a driver for it. It is 4 years old and was a near-base model to begin with. Most people that bought it probably have replaced it by now.

The best solution if you want OS X, is to try it and hope you get lucky and find a driver that gives full functionality. If not, there is a decent chance you will at least get it to print, and perhaps that can tide you over until you can afford a new printer.

 

there is prollly a good chance you could get it to print, but it may just be a basic print driver that just prints, no advanced options.

not sure if the tiger driver would work, it might.