FINDING PPD FILE OF A HP LASERJET 5100
       
       When I was more active with offset printing I had a Windows computer
       running the latest Adobe CS software. The subscription cost a lot of
       money, about $100 CAD. I left the printing business around 2021 and
       continued the subscription for about a year. Eventually I couldn't
       warrant the cost anymore, for I wasn't printing as frequently. I cut
       out the expense and decided to use my
       bought-and-paid-for-lifetime-license of CS5 for future printing
       project. These vintage versions of Illustrator, InDesign, et. al, run
       on my MacBook Pro from 2010.
       
       Fastforward to Christmas 2023, and it's time to finally try a project
       using this ancient workflow. I was working with an illustrator to make
       "after holiday cards". (Holiday cards to distribute after the
       holidays, a silly idea of mine own). The work was slow going. My
       MacBook Pro was loaded with software I no longer used like Google
       Drive (~500mb ram). Killing these processes moved things along faster
       and I got the plates properly set in their spot colors. But a hurdle
       presented itself: how to generate a PDF with plate separations. On my
       Windows machine, I had accomplished this by printing to an Adobe PDF,
       which allowed me to do host-based separations of my spot colors. On
       the Mac, that option wasn't present. Research told me it didn't exist
       or lost support a long time ago. I learned that I could export a
       PostScript file using the PPD for my printer. Great! But where's the
       PPD file for a HP LaserJet 5100?
       
       HP provides Windows, Mac, and Linux drivers for their printers. I
       found the drivers for the 5100 for Mac, but was unable to get them
       successfully installed. The error message simply stated: "The
       Installer could not install the software because there was no software
       found to install". Maybe this means it has already been installed, but
       no new PPD files were present. Damn.
       
 (IMG) Unhelpful installation failure
       
       Recalling some of my Mac skills, I sleuthed around the DMG. I
       inspected the package contents of the `.mpkg' file inside the
       DMG. Inside a folder titled "Packages" I found a file
       `PPDs.pkg'. Inspecting inside that packages content's, an called
       `PPDs.pax.gz' again caught my attention. I unzipped and soon found the
       object of my search. Deep down into bowels of this archive, past
       `PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/' I found `HP LaserJet 5100
       Series.gz'. I dragged the file to my desktop and proceeded with my
       separations workflow. From Illustrator, `File > Print', "Printer" set
       to "Adobe PostScript File" and the aforementioned PPD selected through
       the "Other..." option. With bated breath I navigated to the "Output"
       screen hoping to see an active "Separations" mode... yes! It was
       there. Success :D
       
       
 (IMG) Happy looking print dialog