[Public] Troubleshooting IronPrint on macOS with .NET 8 (Apple Silicon)

Problem

Running IronPrint in a .NET 8 console application on macOS (Apple Silicon) may result in:

1. Build-time errors due to missing native libraries.

2. Printer.GetPrinterNamesAsync() fails on macOS result in error
   
   System.PlatformNotSupportedException: System.Drawing.Common is not supported on this platform.
   

    

Fix Steps

1. Install Required Native Libraries

Issue: macOS lacks libgdiplus, which is needed by IronPrint and System.Drawing.

Fix:

Install it via Homebrew:

 

This mimics the GDI+ support available by default on Windows.

2. Update the Project Target Framework

Issue: net8.0 alone does not enable macOS-specific platform support.

Fix: In your .csproj, set the target framework to:

This ensures that .NET uses macOS-specific APIs.

❗ net8.0-macos is not included in the default console app templates. You may need to install the macOS workload or use a macOS app template for preconfigured support.

 

Sample .csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>net8.0-macos</TargetFramework>
<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
<UseSystemDrawing>true</UseSystemDrawing>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

 

Summary