Dev uses Claude AI to create native macOS driver for 'obscure' Windows-only printer — Linux container hack enables system-wide Cmd-P printing, driver now available on Github
'HP never shipped a working macOS driver' for this model, says the dev.
A developer has revealed that they used Claude Code to create a macOS laser printer driver for the HP Laser 1008a, a machine designed for Windows users. Kuberwastaken (AKA Kuber) says that “HP never shipped a working macOS driver for these,” but the Claude Code-assisted driver package now works so well they can “print from Apple Silicon macOS like a normal printer. CMD-P from any app. No terminal, no per-job scripts.”
just Claude writing a MacOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows support pic.twitter.com/ORjLugJiRFAugust 17, 2026
Kuber provides some background to the driver development on the above-linked GitHub page. The HP family of printers, which includes the Laser 1008a, were just rebadged versions of Samsung’s SPL3 lasers, they say. This is fine for Windows users, but they don’t talk to computers via more widely compatible standards such as PostScript or PCL. Nor do they work with open source SPL/QPDL drivers, or Apple AirPrint.
So, how was this driver wrangling achieved, other than handing the job off to an AI coding agent? Kuber notes that the hp-laser-1008a-macos project leverages HP's own rastertospl. This is also used by the HP Unified Linux Driver, which works with this ‘Windows printer.’ Thus the new macOS driver works by inserting this codec inside a tiny Linux container, which delivers the result over USB.
Setting up this driver is a simple one-shot, one-time process - as it should be but might not have been expected. Kuber explains that a user needs only to make sure that Homebrew (Apple's package manager), is already installed on their system. Many may already have this installed, and if so, can just open up Terminal and paste in:
git clone https://github.com/Kuberwastaken/hp-laser-1008a-macos.git && cd hp-laser-1008a-macos && ./install.sh “That is it. It will ask for your Mac password once, set everything up, and your printer will appear as "HP Laser 1008a". Print to it from any app with Cmd-P,” boasts Kuber.
If you are a macOS user and get access to or are offered a cheap HP Laser 1008a, there’s now no need to turn your nose up at this SPL3 laser. Models including the HP Laser 1003/1006/1008 are all good with this driver, it is claimed. However, there are a few things to be aware of. Kuber notes that hp-laser-1008a-macos can be a bit slow from idle to first print, that Colima must be running, and some may have to update their USB product ID if the driver complains of “printer not found” on your model.
As per the intro, Kuber has shared this slickly working macOS printer driver on GitHub, so other developers don’t have to replicate this work.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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romatthe The article's title is misleading. While this is certainly a clever hack that probably took a very creative dev to implement, just reading the article itself is enough to confirm that, no, the end result of this work is *not* a native macOS print driver, and the dev doesn't actually make the claim that he built one.Reply -
Just Dave Reply
What?!? A misleading headline intended only to drive traffic for lazy web journalists? Surely notromatthe said:The article's title is misleading. While this is certainly a clever hack that probably took a very creative dev to implement, just reading the article itself is enough to confirm that, no, the end result of this work is *not* a native macOS print driver, and the dev doesn't actually make the claim that he built one. -
hwertz Not bad.Reply
I actually did this with an ARM Chromebook (not with AI assistance) several years back.
I put Chrubuntu (Ubuntu for ARM Chromebook) onto. I have a Samsung color laser printer, amusingly enough using rastertospl (or perhaps rastertosplc?). I ran it under qemu, not the one that runs a full VM but the one that lets you run a Linux binary for a different platform. The startup time was a little slow in my case too, because it is fed a page-size bitmap (so like 1200 DPI page sized. over 100 million pixels) to compress and send to the printer. After first page it could just keep ahead of the print speed of the printer.
Linux and macOS both use cups so this filter SHOULD drop straight into macOS's print system once they got it to actually run on there. -
USAFRet Reply
For the vast majority of people, creating a working driver is like rocket surgery.acadia11 said:This article is saying this as though it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s not at all.
Maybe not for you, maybe not for a lot of people in here.
But to everyone else...it is magic. -
acadia11 Reply
Not if you are using Claude Code or Cursor or literally any competent coding AI Agent. What do you think all the hype surrounding AI is about? Try it this weekend … trust me with AI it’s not.USAFRet said:For the vast majority of people, creating a working driver is like rocket surgery.
Maybe not for you, maybe not for a lot of people in here.
But to everyone else...it is magic. -
USAFRet Reply
Spoken like someone with a clue about coding and hardware.acadia11 said:Not if you are using Claude Code or Cursor or literally any competent coding AI Agent. What do you think all the hype surrounding AI is about? Try it this weekend … trust me with AI it’s not.
Using one of the AI bots to augment your existing code skills is one thing.
Believe it or not, to a LOT of people, what happens between the keyboard and the monitor is pure magic. No idea what a driver is, what it does, or why it is needed.
And a lot of those people are experts in realms you and I know little or nothing about.