Old out, new in
QI have bought a new printer, which I want to connect to my Mac running Sierra, to replace the old one. What’s the best way to do this?
ADisconnect your old printer, connect your new one, and power it up. Open the Printers & Scanners pane. Click on the ‘+’ tool at the lower left to add your new printer, which your Mac should now be able to find. An hour or so later, open the App Store app and check that there are no updates, as adding a new printer can trigger an update to its printer driver.
If you’re keeping your old printer in reserve, you need not remove the old one, but you’ll want to make the new printer the default. If you’re passing the old printer on or recycling it, select it in the list of printers and click on the ‘–’ tool at the lower left of that pane to remove it.
The great majority of printers which can be used in Sierra are supported by drivers which are supplied by Apple as part of macOS. A few models may benefit from the installation of additional software, or even a different driver, supplied from the vendor’s support site. If the driver built into macOS works well, you should stick with that.
Sometimes the vendor’s own software enables additional features, but normally the driver supplied through Apple is the most compatible. Apple lists current supported printers at apple.co/2pXsI8P.