I always thought this was impossible, but with a little research on the net, I found a way to change default printers without using a scripting addition. This will prove to be a very valuable, yet beautifully simple piece of code for me and I hope others. I am building this into a FaceSpan application that converts QuarkXPress files to EPS, PDF or TIFF files and creates contact sheets of images then converts the contact sheets. I realize there are existing products of this nature but this is a one app does it all. There will be other great features that I don’t want to disclose just yet. Please forgive me if I am breaking etiquette by mentioning my products here. If anyone knows of further ways to use Desktop Printer Manager that are not well documented let me know or email me with any feedback. Contact me also if you are interested in the project described above. I will submit the project as shareware when it is completed.
OS version: Classic
tell application "Desktop Printer Manager"
set myPrinter to "Some Printer Name"
set printerList to (get every desktop printer) as list
repeat with i from 1 to (count items of printerList)
set thePrinter to item i of the printerList
set theName to name of thePrinter
if theName = myPrinter then
set default printer to thePrinter
end if
end repeat
end tell