Though for some model printers the basic driver might be included as part of OS X. Printing to that printer from IOS devices required third-party software such as Printopia. See this Macworld article.
But
Sly, all that was needed before proper wireless and Airprint was available which many or most printers seem to include these days. And BTY, we used
handyPrint which was free and worked better than the often recommended Printopia.
When we got our first true Mac/iDevice wireless AIO printer (Canon Pixma MG5620), I did NOT follow Apple's suggested setup recommendations that many seemed to have trouble with, but used Canon's browser setup method. No wires (USB etc) were ever connected and I don't recall going near the iMac's System prefs Printers& Scanners pref pane but was able to print from an iPad 2, iPhone 4 and all our Macs.
Two or three days later, Apple said there was a Canon printer Update for the iMacs which I installed. Bad move. It really messed up most printing and the utilities.
I ended up having to remove most of it and replace it all from a backup. A real time wasting PITA.
A later recent (2017 Canon Printer Update) behaved much better.
All printing from all our iDevices kept on working without any printer updates that I noticed.
Anyway, I just did a similar setup with a replacement Canon Pixma MX922 AIO we just recently got for a really good sale price, plus it uses the same ink cartridges of which I had multiple new sets on hand.
Anyway, it does seem that different manufacturers support different wireless methods and setups and maybe what used to be called "printer drivers" should now be called "printer communication packages".
Sort of like many still call their cable router a MODEM!! Different technology and software to do basically the same thing — Communicate.
BTW: I noticed that if I use the
Printer & Scanner System Prefs to setup the Canon wireless AIO, if I use the suggested Apple "
Bonjour Multifunction" method, we only get the option to print in the Print window.
If I use the "
Canon IJ Network" setup option, we end up with a print/scan and utility options in the Print Window on our Macs. Waaaay better and more useful.
- Patrick
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