CentOS - Jul 2008 - Printer recommendations

Since my old Epson C86 has finally managed to clog up the print heads,
I'm in the market for a replacement.  I'd like to know what the people
on this list are using for printers that are currently available, since
we are using versions of CUPS and foomatic that are frozen, and any
other issues or "gotchas" that you are aware of.

For the replacement printer, I'm considering a color laser printer
instead of the inkjets that I've been using, and I'm dithering back and
forth over the question of direct-connect or networked printer.
Suggestions, warnings, and horror stories are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Ron Loftin                      reloftin at twcny.rr.com

"God, root, what is difference ?"       Piter from UserFriendly

Ron Loftin wrote:
> Since my old Epson C86 has finally managed to clog up the print heads,
> I'm in the market for a replacement.  I'd like to know what the
people
> on this list are using for printers that are currently available, since
> we are using versions of CUPS and foomatic that are frozen, and any
> other issues or "gotchas" that you are aware of.
>
> For the replacement printer, I'm considering a color laser printer
> instead of the inkjets that I've been using, and I'm dithering back
and
> forth over the question of direct-connect or networked printer.
> Suggestions, warnings, and horror stories are welcome.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>   
I tossed my C86 a couple years ago in favor of an HP 6122 based on the 
recommendation at linuxprinting.org (moved to 
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting) and have not been 
disappointed.  I consulted the same source when I bought a B&W laser and 
suggest that site to anyone with printer questions.

As far as direct-connect or networked, networked is great for me.  
Duplexing is also a great feature if you plant to print multipage docs. 
(The BASH manual and release notes for CentOS come to mind.)  Keep in 
mind that you can pick up a print server at your favorite computer 
outlet but a hardware duplexer is another matter.
I just now looked and my laser printer has printed 3402 pages, had 14 
jams and 1 toner cart after the original. 78% of drum life is 
remaining.  The toner cart costs about 1-1/2 times as a set of ink carts 
for your C86 and lasts much, much longer.



-- 
POLITICS n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles
    --Ambrose Bierce
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On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:52 AM, Ron Loftin <reloftin at twcny.rr.com>
wrote:
>
> Since my old Epson C86 has finally managed to clog up the print heads,
> I'm in the market for a replacement.  I'd like to know what the
people
> on this list are using for printers that are currently available, since
> we are using versions of CUPS and foomatic that are frozen, and any
> other issues or "gotchas" that you are aware of.
>
> For the replacement printer, I'm considering a color laser printer
> instead of the inkjets that I've been using, and I'm dithering back
and
> forth over the question of direct-connect or networked printer.
> Suggestions, warnings, and horror stories are welcome.
I've just had adventures with various HP printers.  In the "work great
with Ubuntu linux and sorta well with RedHat/Centos" I have the higher
end HP printers like the desktop model HP2015d.  I use usb connector
on that one.  That's black and white with duplexing. Very convenient.
Also I have a new HP4014n in a computer lab--that is black and white
with a jet direct card.  On Ubuntu systems, the printer configurator
is somehow smarter than on the RedHat/Fedora/CentOS systems.  Ubuntu
systems are able to see the printer, know automatically its type and
get the desired drivers.  No problem.  On the RedHat variants, more
manual configuration is necessary, but they do work once you get the
settings correct.  I end up using the CUPS configurator in the web
browser on RedHat systems, the system-config-printer thing almost
never gets it correct.

My experience has been that any HP system that promises to support
postscript will work fine, whether with USB cable or Jet Direct card.

I have had an absolutely horrible experience with HP1018. It is a
non-postscript printer that HP sells now.  It has a print driver
system that reminds me quite a bit of the old "win modems" that
appeared in 1993 or so.  I recall it was called the "Zj stream
protocol" or something like that.  It is supposed to work with hplip
and some special drivers & firmware, but it is very unstable for us.
After wrestling with drivers a lot, I contacted their support and the
man said to me "we don't even make that, some Chinese company slaps
those together and we sell them to compete in the lowest part of the
market.  You get what you pay for."  A secretary ordered some because
they are windows compatible.  But they are really windows only.  At
all costs, avoid HP1018 or any HP device that does not support
postscript protocol.

I googled a bit to recover some memories.  It reminded me how awful
this was.  Some people seem to say they have got it working (but I'm
not believing it).

http://brange.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/installing-hp-laserjet-1018-in-ubuntu-linux-804-with-hplip-285/


Here's the part that killed me.
"The HP LaserJets 100, 1005, 1018, and 1020 need to have their
firmware loaded every time they are powered on."
(http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/foo2zjs)

I could get the printer set up for the users, but then somebody would
power everything down and no thing would work any more. Root
privileges were required to run the hp setup thing that could
re-download the firmware.

HP makes this difficult because they seem to change model numbers
every week.  The 1018 is not offered now, but they do have 1005 and
1006.  As far as I can tell now, the ones to avoid are the ones that
have this in the spec sheet

Language: Host based.

That means it is the windows firmware approach.

On the other hand, when they say this (as does P4015 series):

Languages HP PCL 6, HP PCL 5e, HP postscript level 3 emulation, direct
PDF (v1.4) printing (192 MB printer memory recommended)

then you are OK.



-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas

Ron Loftin wrote:
> 
> I'm considering a color laser printer
> instead of the inkjets that I've been using, and I'm dithering back
and
> forth over the question of direct-connect or networked printer.
In that case, I'd get something with Postscript support.  The
"native"
printer language driver will usually be a lot faster, but having the 
Postscript option will you use the printer when the native driver isn't 
available to you.  Plus, Postscript is useful in and of itself, 
especially on Linux, where so many programs speak Postscript.

I really like hardware duplexing and built-in networking, now that both 
are reasonably priced.

Avoid ink jet unless you need photo quality printing.  Laser is faster, 
cheaper in the long run, and gives sharper printouts.

Consider Xerox's solid ink printers.  They're even faster than laser, 
and quality is a toss-up relative to laser: they don't do really thin 
lines very well, but overall quality almost looks like offset printing. 
   It's only when it comes to photos that professional printing can 
exceed one of these printers.  Cost per page is a little higher than 
laser, but it's hard to argue with the speed and quality.

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 6:52 AM, Ron Loftin <reloftin at twcny.rr.com>
wrote:
>
> Since my old Epson C86 has finally managed to clog up the print heads,
> I'm in the market for a replacement.  I'd like to know what the
people
> on this list are using for printers that are currently available, since
> we are using versions of CUPS and foomatic that are frozen, and any
> other issues or "gotchas" that you are aware of.
>
> For the replacement printer, I'm considering a color laser printer
> instead of the inkjets that I've been using, and I'm dithering back
and
> forth over the question of direct-connect or networked printer.
> Suggestions, warnings, and horror stories are welcome.
>
I would avoid anything inkjet that is not HP for Linux, unless you
actually have a driver for the printer that works.  I tried a Canon,
but even with a driver that was supposed to work with it, I took it
back.

As for lasers, I've had a Minolta 1100 for a long time now - five
years or more.  I got it to replace my dead ATT laser that I won in a
contest back in 1994 (?), but that got me hooked on lasers.  The
Minolta was a replacement for the 1100W that I picked up at Costco on
sale cheap, but it wouldn't work with my (then) Win98/XP desktop at
all, and the 1100 did (even though it was not supposed to be
compatible with Win XP at all!).

When I switched over to CentOS, I had no trouble configuring the 1100
to work with the OS, and it's been humming along nicely ever since.

W.r.t. cost, I figure that I started off on the 1100 with two drums
(longer story - never mind) and I just recently switched over to the
new one after somewhere around 20,000 copies (could be more - I don't
remember where the counter is and I couldn't find it when I looked
inside when I replaced the drum), so I'll get a new laser printer when
this drum goes - they're cheap enough now that the price of the
replacement drum and one toner cartridge is more than a new printer
(with a new drum and cartridge).

Re inkjets, I would avoid Epsons like the plague - I've never had a
good one since my FX-85 (9-pin impact) was retired.  Canons are ok, if
you can get a driver, but they tend to give out after a year or two,
depending on your workload.  My HP seems ok so far - I got it mostly
because it was an all-in-one including fax (which is one feature I was
looking for) and a sheet feet scanner (the other feature I /really/
wanted, and it's pretty quick, too), and it was under $50.

However, all inkjets are basically cheap junk you need to replace
fairly often, and the price of two or three sets of cartridges exceeds
the cost of the printers.  (In fact, Epson carts are so expensive it's
more cost effective to replace the printer than the carts, or maybe it
was two sets of carts, and their printers don't like bulk ink at all.)

JMO (JMTC), YMMV.

mhr