Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 10, 2006 17:16 UTC (Fri) by jwb (subscriber, #15467)
Parent article: Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Am I the only person who thinks that printing on Linux is far superior to printing on any other operating system? I can plug practically any USB printer into my Linux computer and have it Just Work immediately. With both Windows and MacOS I need the manufacturer's bloated driver disks. On Windows I'll be screwed if I forget to install the driver before plugging in the USB cable. By comparison Linux printing is miles ahead.

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Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 10, 2006 17:48 UTC (Fri) by eklitzke (subscriber, #36426) [Link]

When I last had a printer (about a year ago) printing worked fine in Linux. Except the quality was nowhere near as high as it was under Windows. Apparently the Linux drivers only had basic printing support, and to be able to print at different qualities required more advanced functionality from the drivers that was only available in the Windows drivers.

As a result, printing things always resulted in washed out text. I have had a similar experience helping a friend get her printer working under OS X -- she had the Gimp print drivers for the printer installed, and while they worked fine insofar as she could print her documents, the print quality was very poor. It may be true that more printers work out of the box in Linux, but unless you have a high end printer that can directly understand Postscript, the drivers you are using will probably not be that great.

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 10, 2006 20:53 UTC (Fri) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]

I would have to disagree with this. A little research before buying a printer goes a long way--check linuxprinting.org for which manufacturers truly support CUPS (since that is what a lot of distros use these days) and you should be fine. You don't need hardware-supported Postscript; Ghostscript does just fine (especially the 8.5 series, which is now GPL.)

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 10, 2006 21:09 UTC (Fri) by tetromino (subscriber, #33846) [Link]

That depends on the printer. On a Lexmark E210 bw laser, I get much better print quality in Linux than in Windows (I think there is a bug in the Windows driver that breaks the high-resolution mode, but since the printer is out of production, Lexmark has no incentive to fix their broken code. Which, btw, is one obvious example of the advantage of open source drivers.)

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 10, 2006 23:34 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

I like to point out on every story that I see Linux printing being mentioned at that you realy realy want to avoid any inkjet printers other then Epson or HP.

Hp is preferable due to the nature of HP's open source projects. Setting up one and getting Printing, Scanning, and Fax is relatively painless. Most of the time nowadays you only have to plug it in.

Epson is what you'd get if you need to have special features to get the best image quality possible.

Generally you want to avoid things like Canon or Lexmark.

See the 'suggested printers' page at Linux-printing.org for more details.

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 12, 2006 2:19 UTC (Sun) by NapalmLlama (guest, #26327) [Link]

I paid about £70 for my Canon about a year before I upgraded to Linux. It's now next to useless.

What really adds insult to injury is Canon's strapline - "You can". No, I can't, because you won't let me have drivers!

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 13, 2006 15:47 UTC (Mon) by wjhenney (guest, #11768) [Link]

I paid about £70 for my Canon about a year before I upgraded to Linux. It's now next to useless.

But just think of all the money you are now saving on ink cartridges :)

Seriously, the yearly consumible costs for a low-end inkjet are often higher than the initial cost of the printer itself. So you wouldn't be seriously out of pocket if you bought a new one.

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 12, 2006 20:01 UTC (Sun) by nkoozer (guest, #5553) [Link]

Even for HP there is no way to tell which models will work correctly until you try them. If you already own 25 different types of printers, the chances are that some will be ok. If you have to shop for a printer, there's no way to know. Foomatic is useless in this matter; my HP ink jet is listed in Foomatic as "works perfectly", but it makes a garbage mess out of the printing. At my house the summary is still "Linux does not have printing".

Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

Posted Nov 10, 2006 21:45 UTC (Fri) by TxtEdMacs (subscriber, #5983) [Link]

jwb - I had similar experiences, perhaps even more extreme than you describe.

When my daughter's Epson C-86 Color Stylus printer was pushed aside for part of the summer upon re-installation the printer began to develop problems. I allowed her temporarily to use my Epson 880 that had been functioning fine on Linux machine. Later when I restocked color cartridges, I added all new ones to the C-86. Immediately, it became unusable. Again I passed over my Epson 880. This time the 880 failed suddenly and completely. I could not believe the 880 could die so suddenly without any sign of its degrading. Nonetheless, I received reassurances that was the way stylus printers went.

[Installation/configuration 880 was a problem, but nothing compared to what is described below.]

Again temporarily I passed on my Samsung ML-1710 b&w laser printer to my daughter. This time installation was a nightmare, mostly due to my not being able to locate the driver disc. The installation procedure seemed too to follow a differing sequence each time I ran it. I finally got the laser printer functioning on XP as an older model: 1210. On earlier Linux distributions I had to use that driver, so I knew it would work. My problem, when it came time to selecting a driver the selection window on XP did not always have the 1210 listed. Well it worked and it sufficed in the interim.

I took the 880 and reattached it to the Linux box - it worked fine. Feeling vindicated, I tried to get the C-86 working. It appears to work, but no ink is visible on the pages. The repair manuals are no longer available on the web, having been withdrawn by Epson. I suspect a few replacement consumables might have put the unit back into service. But that is not an option, hence, neither are ink jets, bubble jets, stylus, etc.

I ended over buying a mid-range (networkable) Samsung color laser printer. Since I subsequently found the 880 worked I really did not need to use the new printer. If you consider buying a color laser, look very carefully at toner cartridge capacities, and energy consumption. Some manufactures are beginning to play the game of making back their money on selling over priced, low capacity consumables. Moreover, some models pull extreme levels of power on startup and even in the wait state are more like a working cpu than a printer at rest. It may be cruder electronics are cheaper and easier to build saving the manufacturing expense, however, your electric bills will reflect your poor choice.

Later I will probably put the color laser on the LAN. I hope by then the Linux driver will have improved to at least match the current Windows version.