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Modern Inkjets And Linux Support?

Posted by Cliff on from the getting-things-working dept.

Clinton Work asks: "There are tons of cheap/high quality inkjet printers on the market, but all of them use proprietary Windows printer drivers. The older HP inkjets have Linux drivers but are no longer on the market. Your only option is too choose a more expensive inkjet or a cheap laser printer with postscript support. I have looked at the modern printing software like LPRng and CUPS without any luck. Does anybody have a solution?"

13 comments

  1. One more note... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    Check the mailing list archives for the latest status; the actual project pages mention numerous wishlist items (like support for non-Epson printers) that are actually implemented and working.

    BTW, does anyone know a better archive than the one at geocrawler? The index only shows about 25 messages at a time, and the messages themselves don't have prev and next links, and in general there's way too much window dressing "noise" per unit of signal. (I wonder if there are also banner ads. At least I don't waste time downloading them.)

    1. Re:One more note... by Spoing · · Score: 1
      Not for Gimp printing.

      Most mailing lists I'm interested in are listed at the Mailing list ARChives or at The Mail Archive (no relation!).

      I'd be interested in learning of some other (non-Geocrawler) sites as well. Geocrawler is too slow and cluttered.

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  2. That was handy. by bkosse · · Score: 1

    Thanks. Useful link added to bookmarks.

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  3. Re:www.linuxprinting.org - The database... by Tower · · Score: 1

    Note that the HP660C (and a couple others, including the 600C run with the same driver as the 550C, and work Just Fine(TM). You lose a little bit of the extra capabilities, but I've never had a problem with mine, FWIW.

    --
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  4. There are alternatives by seeS · · Score: 1
    There's two bits to printing; getting the stuff to the printer and then making sure the stuff is understood by the printer. I'll assume the first problem is solved, eg you have a normal parallel printer attachment. If it is a winprinter then you're probably stuck (see another comment about drivers for it) and you're printer response will probably suck anyway.

    So the next problem is how to change the stuff so the printer understands it. You may want to look at IFHP which was written by the same guy who wrote LPRng. It's quite good at talking different printer languages.

    There is also magicfilter which can talk to plenty of printers as well though you often need to collect all the auxiallary programs for it to fully work.

    I have a HP printer, and so know of two other programs. They're packaged together as djtools in Debian distribution but I think they're called hpset and djutils or something similar. They help with using the HP PCL.

  5. Re:Deskjet Printers & Linux by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 1

    Um....No, it doesn't. It includes NO ALPS printers whatsoever. YES I have tried to mess with the code for Ghostscript and add the code listed on the Printer howto. That code is documented in Japanese, I am enlgish. I have tried to get it translated to no avail. Joel McLaughlin

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  6. Watch out for the HPs!! by hubie · · Score: 1
    If you are going to buy one, steer clear of the HP DeskJet 7x0, 820, and 1000 printers as they are WinPrinters.

    If you are unfortunate enough to own one of these, a nice driver (pnm2ppa) has been figured out and you can find it on SourceForge. Actually it isn't really a driver, but rather a print filter that works with GhostScript to print PostScript files.

  7. Re: Modern Inkjets And Linux Support? by stilwebm · · Score: 1

    $450 will get you a laser printer that, although only BW, will blow any ink jet out of the water, and have full Linux support. That buys an 8ppm HP LJ1100, an 8MB upgrade, and reams of paper.

  8. Mac InkJets? by logistix · · Score: 1

    Has anyone tried hooking these up to a PC running Linux? I'm probably wrong, but I thought Mac printers had PostScript Engines built in.

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  9. You want gimp-print by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2
    Despite the name, gimp-print also works with ghostview and support a wide range of Epson, HP, and Canon colour printers.

    That's where the action is. Its success is why the other ghostview drivers have been languishing.

  10. Re: Modern Inkjets And Linux Support? by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 2

    Um, $449 is not "Cheap" - He's talking about the sub-$200 range. (Hell, sub-$150...)

    If the Epson 640 and 740 are still available, they're cheap and work great.

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  11. bagh by angry+old+man · · Score: 2
    Back in my day, we didn't have all these fancy schmancy ink jet printers.

    As we typed character by character, the letter printed onto a sheet of paper. There were no useless CRT monitors, or LCD panels. No eyestrain either.

    Instead of worrying about old Inkjet printers, you need to get yourself a good teletype printer and sell your monitor to one of those lazy silicon valley kids.

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  12. www.linuxprinting.org - The database... by Spoing · · Score: 3
    Look at the Linux Printing Support Database. Some details on drivers for different printers are listed in the printer vendor report card page. Also, you can check the status of printers that aren't "perfect" with a quick check in the database.

    The database has links to the drivers needed for each printer, or the filters (LPD, CUPS) that are needed.

    Here are the color inkjets that are listed to work "perfectly";

    1. Canon - BJC-70, BJC-210, BJC-250, BJC-600, BJC-610, BJC-620, BJC-800, BJC-4000, BJC-4100, BJC-4200, BJC-4300, BJC-4400

      Citizen - ProJet IIc

      Digital - DECwriter 520ic*

      Hewlett Packard - 2000C, 2500C, DesignJet 3500CP, DeskJet 400, DeskJet 420C, DeskJet 500C, DeskJet 540, DeskJet 550C, DeskJet 560C, DeskJet 600, DeskJet 1200C, DeskJet 1600C, DeskJet 1600CM, PaintJet*, PaintJet XL*, PaintJet XL300*

      Lexmark - Optra Color 40, Optra Color 45

      Olivetti - JP350S*, JP450*, JP470*

      Samsung - SI-630A*

      Tektronix - 4696*, 4697*

      Xerox - DocuPrint C20

    Here's another example; a list of Lexmark printers (inkjet or not, perfect or not);

    1. Lexmark / IBM

      1. Perfectly - 4039 10plus, Optra Color 40, Optra Color 45, Optra Color 1200, Optra Color 1275, Optra E*, Optra E+*, Optra E310*, Optra Ep*, Optra K 1220*, Optra R+*, Optra S 1250*, Optra S 1855*, Optra Se 3455*, Optra W810*, Valuewriter 300*

      2. Mostly - 1020 Business, 3000

        Partially - 1000, 1100, 2030, 2070, 3200, 5000, 5700, 7000, 7200, Winwriter 400*, Z11, Z51

        Paperweight - 1020, 2050, Winwriter 100*, Winwriter 150c*, Winwriter 200*

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