[wellylug] Laser printers (fwd)

[Phillip Hutchings]

> Hi folks, some of you may remember the email below, which I sent about 18
> months ago. As it turned out, I did not buy a printer at that time. I am
> now looking to actually buy one, so I was wondering if anything
> significant has changed in that time? I still have the emails from those
> who replied to the original, so I'm just after 'updates' - are there any
> new printers on the market that anyone can recommend? Can you still buy PS
> printers? What's the Linux support like nowadays?

Not much has changed. All but the most basic laser printers support
PostScript or PCL5. My Lexmark E230 is essentially the same circuitry
as their high end ones with less RAM and features disabled, which I
suspect is because of the reduced RAM.

Watch out for Brother, they tend to make Windows GDI-only printers.

In terms of support, most laser printers that support MacOS X tend to
be PostScript/PCL compatible as well. Since MacOS X uses CUPS itself
those companies may put out Linux drivers as well.

> I take it colour laser printers are still specialty items?

Not so much, they're dropping in price. Fine for office use - eg
charts, newsletters - but not for photo printing.

> My budget could probably extend a little further now, so I'd say I'm
> looking for something new under $800. Light/medium usage, home-office
> stuff. Linux support mandatory. Colour not necessary. It doesn't have to
> be a laser, but I'm not familiar with the state of inkjet these days. The
> last inkjet I had in 1999 was complete rubbish. I'd also hope to get
> something relatively cheap to run.
>
> I'll be planning on network printing (via a Linux host) probably with
> CUPS? Any better ideas?

Worked fine for me to Windows and OS X clients.You do tend to lose
most configuration options if you go for generic driver.

-- 
Phillip Hutchings
http://www.sitharus.com/