As you can see from my screenshot above, you can then choose which printers to share and with whom to share them. I recommend just leaving that third pane set to “Everyone,” as only folks who have access to your home network will be able to print to your device, anyhow, so it’s not much of a security risk. Afterward, all you’ve gotta do on your other Macs is visit System Preferences> Printers & Scanners and click the plus button to add a new device:
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Then you’ll choose your shared printer from the list. Note that since it’s being shared from my computer, this HP has “@ Melissa’s MBA” after its name, and its kind is “Bonjour Shared.”
So select the printer in question, click “Add,” and then that computer can use your other Mac as a conduit for that device! Neato. The only caveat is that you may need to tell your sharing Mac to allow other machines to use its resources even while it’s sleeping; to do so, go to System Preferences> Energy Saver and turn on the “Wake for network access” option.
For more info on this waking feature, how it works, and troubleshooting problems with it, check out Apple’s support article on the topic. And hey, Apple, can we also figure out some way that our Macs can automatically dispense free ink into printers? I’m just saying.
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