HOWTO: b/w and double-sided printing on a Canon PIXMA iP4000 under MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

MacOS 10.6 isn't too friendly to Canon peripherals, and I happen to own two of them (see instructions to get a Canon scanner working here).

Getting the printer to work was easy and out-of-the-box, only to discover that greyscale and double-sided printing had vanished from the options in the print dialogue. In order to access them, you'll install a better printer driver with a wittier name - actually, you can't get any better than "Gutenprint".

Follow these instructions to install Gutenprint and get back b/w & double-sided printing capabilities; they work for both for USB and networked printers, as the printer is chosen in step 4) below:

1. download & install latest version of Gutenprint from http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php
2. in "System Preferences"->"Print & Fax" add a printer (using the "+" sign)
3. in the "Add printer" dialog choose "Default"
4. choose your printer (should be something like "Canon iP4000... ")
5. give it a name in the bottom part (eg. "Canon iP4000 Gutenprint")
6. choose "Print using..."->"Select Printer Software..."->"Canon Pixma ip4000"
7. Click "Add"
8. Print using the new printer

I hope it works for you as well as it did for me.