From rfunk Sat Jan 30 12:17:03 1999
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 12:17:03 -0500
To: colug@bopper.wcbe.org
Subject: Re: [COLUG] printers
References: <36B088A8.AA5F2794@oracle-dba.com>
In-Reply-To: <36B088A8.AA5F2794@oracle-dba.com>; from Joseph Testa on Thu, Jan 28, 1999 at 10:56:24AM -0500

Joseph Testa wrote:
>ok so what are some of you using as a good printer that I can make with
>linux, i got ~$500 to spend and would like a printer that i dont have to
>mess with too much to make work(not like this damn sound card that I'm
>about to snap in half and go buy a soundblaster awe 128).

I'm using a Canon BJC-4000, with Ghostscript's bjc600 driver.  It also
has a FAST draft B&W text mode (can't figure out how to switch into
that mode in software though).  It requires switching cartridges for
color; the 600 line is better for doing more color, but it's not as
fast in B&W as the 4000 line.  (The 800 will also work.)
The more recent crop of BJC-4x00 printers *should* be able to use the
same driver, but I couldn't say for sure.
The 5000 and higher series are not currently ghostscript-compatible,
AFAIK, but the 200 and lower series should be.

A few months ago I was thinking about getting an Epson Stylus color,
but had trouble figuring out which of the currently available ones
would work with ghostscript.  (500, 600, and 800 have drivers, but how
about 640, 700, and 740?)

HPs should work if they use some version of PCL (or postscript of
course).

From rfunk Mon May 17 10:35:43 1999
Subject: Re: [COLUG] Printer drivers
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.04.9905160848150.473-100000@ip207.columbus6.oh.pub-ip.psi.net> from Gary at "May 16, 99 08:50:02 am"
To: colug@bopper.wcbe.org
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 10:35:43 -0400 (EDT)

>I recently bought a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 712c.  I was wondering if
>there is a driver for it.  I am running a basic install of RH 5.2.  If
>someone knows where I can get it or has it to send I would really
>appreciate it.

Never buy a printer (or most other hardware) without first checking to
see how well it's supported under Linux.... The Red Hat hardware
compatibility listing are a good place to check, even if you aren't
running Red Hat.
  http://www.redhat.com/corp/support/hardware/

And since printer support in Linux is basically the same as printer
support in ghostscript, the ghostscript supported printer listing is
useful:
  http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/printer.html
Note that ghostscript may need to be recompiled to get the driver you
need.

Anyway, your printer is basically what one might call a "winprinter"
-- all the intelligence is in the driver, and there's none in the
printer.  This makes it cheap, but difficult to support (though not as
bad as modems that do the same thing).  To make your printer work, you
need a bit of a hack tacked on to ghostscript:
  http://www.httptech.com/ppa/