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 17:48 UTC (Fri) by eklitzke (subscriber, #36426)
In reply to: Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com) by jwb
Parent article: Linux printing: much done and more to do (Linux.com)

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.

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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".