It's been a while since I had to look at printing via Linux. But seeing as my old printer has given out, and I wanted to get a new color printer capable of printing photos, I figured it was time to go and buy one.
My last printer was a Lexmark z32, which worked fine under Linux. So, assuming that Lexmark was still supporting Linux, I went out and picked up a new Lexmark z1480... first mistake. I should have done some research.
So, after picking up the printer and spending an entire day trying to beat it into submission, I finally gave up, and returned it. But not before I wrote a letter to Lexmark (probably won't make a difference).
Anyway, I used to have a HP DesignJet years ago, and I remember that it was also supported under Linux. After doing some reading, I found that HP actually does support Opensource and Linux and they have a true full featured HP driver for Linux.
Armed with this information and new hope, I went to Open Printing to see which printers are supported by HP's driver under Linux. To my surprise, there were quite a few. A quick scan through the list and I find the one I want - a HP 6980. It's reasonably priced and includes Wireless.
I'm happy to say it was painless to setup. Basically, I followed the steps in the setup guide up to the point where I had to use the windows software. At that point, I instead ran the hp-setup utility under Linux (part of the HPLIP driver project).
Wow. Effortless.
I have to say I am impressed with the support HP has provided the community. Great job and hats of to them.
You know, I just never got into the InkJet revolution...
ReplyDeleteI had always uses laser/LED printers (well, not true: I used dot matrix but I'm dating myself here) and never really had a big use for color. But a couple of years ago I decided to bite the bullet and give one of those fancy inkjet thingies a try.
In short it was horrible. This was a top-rated inkjet printer. Admittedly I don't print color often. I did print one or two color sheets when I first got the printer. A few months passed, then the next time I went to print with color... nothing. At first I thought I was out of ink. But it turned out the jets had dried up. And try as I might to clean out the ink jets myself, following the instructions I found on the internet, I was never able to get the printer to print the way it once did and eventually ended up tossing the printer.
Today I own a Ricoh color laser. I paid a little more up front, but the color output is still as great as the day I bought it. Plus it's very linux friendly, IPP, prints PostScript3 & PDF natively, has http and telnet interfaces and runs embedded BSD. Never shall I look at another Inkjet again.
After using my HP 6980 for a week, I have to say I am IMPRESSED!.
ReplyDeleteThe quality of the prints and the speed is phenomenal, especially for an entry priced unit.
I could not have asked for better.
I bought an HP LaserJet 1020 awhile back, and its awesome.
ReplyDeleteIt's only black and white, but who really cares about color? :P