Printing Documents from Windows Applications using PDFwriter

In some cases CrossOver is not able to translate a print job from a Windows application running in CrossOver to the native Mac OS printer system. This can happen more frequently with inkjet printers that aren't Postscript-compatible. A workaround we've discovered is to install a virtual PDF printer called PDFwriter on your Mac. Once installed you can print to PDFwriter from within your Windows application, and then open the resulting PDF file with a native Mac OS app like Preview and print successfully. Below are the steps to install and configure PDFwriter.

  1. Start by downloading PDFwriter (project homepage).
     
  2. Double-click or right-click (control-click) on the .pkg to launch the installer.


     
  3. Continue through the installation.
  4. During installation you will be prompted to choose where PDFs are created. Click the Create PDF Destination Folder button and select a directory. By default your Documents folder will be selected.
     
  5. After selecting the PDF output directory you can close the installer.

     
  6. When you now go to print in a Windows application running through CrossOver you'll see a new printer called PDFwriter. Printing to PDFwriter will generate a PDF in the output directory.
  7. Open the resulting PDF with a native application like Preview and you'll be able to print successfully to a native Mac OS printer.

Next Step: Windows application icons not created after installation completes

Last modified on 2024-01-31 19:28:12 UTC by Andrew Balfour

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