PRINTER: What do you recommend for Gentoo?

fuzion · n00b Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 56

One of the largest problems I've always had with Linux is trying to get printers to work with Linux. I eventually just gave up and always used windoze for printing.

Anyways, can you post some recommended printers that I could use with Linux? I'm looking for something that's really easy to set up, and works as well as Gentoo does. I'm looking to get a network/laser printer if possible, but post anything and everything that you would personally, highly recommend based on your experience with the printer alone.

Thanks for your help!

La`res · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 4:47 pm Post subject:

This may seem odvious but give http://www.linuxprinting.org/ a try.

I have a Brother HL-5040 Laser Printer and It works quite well with Cups, as long as you enable "ppd" in your USE flags.
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steel300 · Veteran Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 1155

I use an Epson Stylus C84 that works beautifully using the gimp-print-ijs drivers for the C82. I have only the highest praise for this printer.
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AeroScarr · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 13 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Well, I use a HP 5550 deskjet in Gentoo over my laptop's parallel port. It works beautifully and was really easy to setup with the docs here: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/printing-howto.xml

Unfortunately, it's not a network printer or a laser printer. So now that I think about it, this post is pretty meaningless to you. I can say from experience though that HP printers are quite well supported in Linux. All the ones I've set up (deskjets) have been relatively painless.
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skarecrow · n00b Joined: 03 Nov 2003 Posts: 25 Location: $HOME

I use an HP PSC 750. The generic deskjet drivers work beautifully with it. I have gotten it to work both over the local network (shared on a win box) and also via direct parallel connection. No problems what-so-ever. Now if only i could get the scan feature to work...

Angrybob · Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 575

lemming · n00b Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 57 Location: Kanab, UT

AeroScarr · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 13 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

davecs · Guru Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 436 Location: Dagenham, GB

Mine's a HP3822 which is exactly the same as a HP3820 but sold by Dixons Group. I suspect the different serial number is just to avoid a price match!

Anyway it works fine in Linux, I have three "printers" set up, which I call Basic_300x300, Best_600x600 and Photo_1200x1200. Of course they are all the same printer at different qualitites, something that Windoze would not let me do!
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Epyon · l33t Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 754 Location: NJ, USA

La`res · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:15 pm Post subject:

Roguelazer · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:00 pm Post subject:

I have a lexmark z53. It works like a charm, prints beautifully. Lexmark even offers propriatary drivers off their website for those of you that dislike gimp-print.
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propheci · n00b Joined: 08 Sep 2002 Posts: 72 Location: IL, USA

i have a HP 940C hooked up via USB. works perfectly.

on the subject of printers, does anyone know of a cheap auto-duplex (ie, double-sided) printer? i really want one but the cheapest ones i've seen are a couple grand and huge.

davecs · Guru Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 436 Location: Dagenham, GB

lefou · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 5:39 pm Post subject: LaserJet 1200

I have a HP LaserJet 1200, a cool fast and high quality b/w laser printer. There is very good support and it has a build-in PostScript interpreter (not so fast), so this Printer will work on every plattform you will go in the future.

Moloch · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 6:54 pm Post subject:

I've got an old Canon BJC-4000 working great. It came from my mom's Packard Bell that she gave to me :oops:

DecoR · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 7:55 pm Post subject: :)

I've heard good things about Brother HL-5040 (working nice in Linux and generaly a good printer)

Think I'll buy it next week

Henrik.
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franoculator · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 9:10 pm Post subject:

EzInKy · Veteran Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 1742 Location: Kentucky

My HP2110 prints and scans flawlessly.

Smoothhound · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 149

I have another one of HP deskjet range - the 5150 (over USB). And I must say I'm extremely impressed. It's drivers are superb and even hi-res photos come out beautifully.

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

I've only had trouble from inkjet printers. My last one died after about a year, with a paper jam that would never go away. I even took it apart and found the sensor, which wasn't stuck :-?

Anyways, I replaced it with a Kyocera-Mita FS-1010. It's a bit expensive, but has a lower operating cost over time than many other laser printers, due to the permanent drum. It speaks postscript natively, so linux support is no problem at all, and it's worked beautifully since I got it. It'll probably be ages until I have to replace the "sample" toner cartridge that came with it, considering how often I print.

georwell · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:49 am Post subject:

AppleLaserWriter IIg. The thing is a tank and pretty much indestructible. Have to use appletalk to send jobs to it though. Works great with cups and samba.

mrblade · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:05 am Post subject:

I have a Brother HL-1450 Printer and it works really well, but the most important thing is my HP JetDirect EX Plus (Remote Printerport).
It is sort of a printerserver, but without the spooling and memory.
It basicly just works like a remove LPT printerport, that you access via TCP/IP.

sklettke · Guru Joined: 05 Nov 2002 Posts: 352 Location: Madison, WI

Just echoing everyone is saying that the HP 5550 works great. It's connecting through USB. Black text is crisp and color looks great! You can even by a special photo ink for it (taking the place of the black ink). With or without the photo ink, the 5550 can print borderless 4x6 and 8x10 prints that are nearly indistinguishable from 35mm prints.

Scott
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