Printing issues on a Mac

I have installed MATLAB R2010b on a Mac OS 10.6.6. Although my printers are working fine with all other applications, I am unable to print directly from MATLAB. Do you have any idea why there could be this communication failure?

Below is the return in my Command Window:

Error in ==> printdlg>LocalJavaPrintDlg at 759
        print(Data.Fig, pOpts{:});

Error in ==> printdlg>LocalInitFig at 479
  if LocalJavaPrintDlg( Data, Dlgname )

Error in ==> printdlg at 104
   Dlg=LocalInitFig(Data);

??? Error while evaluating uimenu Callback

[Jan]

What happens if you open the printer dialog in the command window? Can you open the dialog? Can you select a printer? Is its status valid?

[Natalie Ceperley]

Yeah, there is no problem with that. Then I get the return that I just added above.

[Jan]

You can enable the debugger: "dbstop if all error" and start the printing again. Then Matlab stops in the failing line and you can inspect the contents of "pOpts" in the command line. Hopefully this will reveal any importante details.

[Natalie Ceperley]

Thank you for that tip about the dubugger, but I am still not sure what it means:

Caught-error breakpoint was hit in graphics/private/send at line 129. The error was:

Error using ==> send at 129

Problem sending file to output device, system returned error :

lpr: The printer or class was not found.

129 error('MATLAB:print:ProblemSendingFile', 'Problem sending file to output device, system returned error :\n%s', r )

129 error('MATLAB:print:ProblemSendingFile', 'Problem sending file to output device, system returned error :\n%s', r )

[fame Li]

The issue is due to the name of the printer is different from the device name given by the system. Thus, matlab cannot find the device using the name that you specified in the print window. To solve the issue, you need to match the name of the printer with its device name.

You can find out the device name: system preference -> print & scan -> double click the printer, it will pop out a window to show the condition of the printer now, click the 'settings'. You will find the device name there and change the name of the printer to match with the device name. Then you are good to go.

Answer 1

[ramesh jallu]

To print a plot or a m-file from a Macintosh, just click on the plot or m-file, select Print under the File menu, and hit return.

[Natalie Ceperley]

Yes, that is not working. For some reason, the printer does not print files sent from Matlab although it is printing from all other applications without any problems.

Answer 2

[Sean de Wolski]

I've never had it work on my Mac (R2009b, 64bit).

Answer 3

[the cyclist]

I have the identical setup as you do (same versions of MATLAB and Mac OS X), and printing works for me, from both command line and figure window. At one point I did have your problem, though.

You might want to try this solution:

http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-5DRO9Z/?solution=1-5DRO9Z

Note in particular the final paragraph, about the (slightly bizarre) prohibition of square brackets in the name of the printer. That was the problem for me.

If you can't get it to work, remember you can always print to file, and then print the resulting file. (I generally got good results using the PNG format.)