OS 10.3 with HP Photosmart 4700 series printer - can't get drivers

Question

Greetings!
I'm trying to get an HP 4750C wireless printer to work with my older Pismo G3 mac, it's running 10.3.9 and won't be running anything higher. (I've set it up for my wife for internet and mail...) I just purchased this HP printer as our older OfficeJet decided to retire. I don't care if it runs wireless or not on her computer.
The installer with HP's printer software is not compatible with OS' earlier than 10.4. I've gotten the packages transferred to another disk, and have installed all components that should matter (I'm not trying to set up scaning, etc.), but still get a "driver not found" error. I did have trouble getting the HPIO Trap Monitor component to install, but think I've gotten past that.
Any ideas? I don't want her to have to e-mail me EVERYTHING that she wants to print... if you know what I mean...

Answer 1

That's a difficult position to be in, since driver support in newer
hardware not available through the manufacturer is troublesome.
{You may end up shopping for a new old-stock printer with the CD
drivers in the box, of a vintage comparable with the Panther 10.3
era; and run with that... and find newer drivers should you wish to
run the newer computer's printing through that vintage printer.}
Have you tried other printer drivers, such as those from GimpPrint
to see if a similar printer's driver from a different vintage model
would work in this situation? Sometimes an unintended one will.
For printers that are not listed as supported you may still be able
to print by trying the driver for a printer that is similar to yours,
but the results may disappoint you.
• GimpPrint (Gutenprint) for Mac OS X:
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php
There may be a way to use a computer as a printer-server kind of
connection, so the second computer has to see the one that can
use the printer, and (for the most part) may involve some sharing
setup to be employed where the settings would have to be changed
to support the two computers working together, at least to share a
printer. Not sure if that'd work.
The basic File Sharing could save having to email items between
computers, if they are on or could share a local network. Be sure
to only open it as little as necessary to have the sharing work but
not so far as to invite outside access to either computers or files.
Ownership of files may be a minor inconvenience to figure out.
Sorry I don't have a more definitive answer at this point; but I am
almost certain someone reading your post may have more evolved
ideas on making whatever you have work, in some way or another.
Good luck & happy computing!