Printer recommendations?

[beforewisdom]

Hi;

I have never had a printer......ever.

The thought of getting a printer working on linux sounds scarey, but I can afford it now, I hate reading dense tech material online, and I have a lot to read.

How easy is it to get a printer working with knoppix.....both using the KDE or not using the KDE?

What are the issues that I should look out for when selecting a printer?

Steve

[rec9140]

I have never had a printer......ever.

The thought of getting a printer working on linux sounds scarey, but I can afford it now, I hate reading dense tech material online, and I have a lot to read.

How easy is it to get a printer working with knoppix.....both using the KDE or not using the KDE?

What are the issues that I should look out for when selecting a printer?

RULE #1 - Buy a TRUE HARDWARE based printer. A printer that supports NATIVELY - HP PCL and/or Adobe PostScript lanquages.

Many of the inkjet printers from Lexmark, Brother etc. are wimprinters, printers that DEPEND on wimpdoze to operate and will not function at all or with out a some work in Linux/Knoppix. Some will work under Linux using ghostsript, read more below.

Got a printer and not sure if its supports Linux?

Check: http://www.linuxprinting.org check your printer on the list to determine its support. Ths site also has pointers on what wimpdoze printers can be tricked into working.

I personally use a Lexmark Optra+ laser on an EdiMax printer server on my HLAN. The Lexmark supports HP-PCL and PostScript in hardware so is easily setup in Linux.

Setup is very similar to the wimpdoze mode for the most part, as far as KDE is concerned. If you plan to use Linux more in the CLI then a PCL or PostScript based printer would be best.

[timothy]

(Note: You might want to try the hardware forum elsewhere on this board for printer advice, instead :) Since this is in the harddrive installation section, I will bring it slightly back on topic by pointing out that I am talking here about configuring a printer on a HDD-installed Knoppix system already in place; I have not tried printing while running live-from-CD. One of the choices during the installation to hard drive is whether you would like CUPS to start at system boot, which I did select.)

Yesterday I put Knoppix on yet another machine, this one for my brother. I was visiting at my mom's; she has a Samsung ML-1710, a low-end black & white (also known as "b/w" or "monochrome") laser printer which retails around $200 in the U.S. and which I have seen via mail order and rebates for as little as $80. It uses a USB interface, which I consider the the right thing for printers to use until something better comes along :) Nicely universal, among machines 5 or fewer years old at any rate.

[Aside: You don't say what sort of printer you're looking for, but since inkjets generally suck, and color lasers are relatively expensive, I'm going to pretend that you want a compact black & white laser printer. Doesn't really change this process, I'm just suggesting ;)]

Since I wanted to print a PDF, I had figured I would need to use a USB key to transfer it from the Knoppix system to her Mac, and print it from there, but on the idle hope that I could just plug in the printer and go ... I plugged it in, then tried to print the PDF, which I was viewing with Ghostscript: result? ERROR of some type I don't remember. However, this is because I had done nothing besides plug in the USB cable. OK, so it's not *sheerly* plug and play. However, with a supported printer, it should take only about a minute to set it up.

Next step: I went to the KDE control panel (the circuit-board-looking thing in the KDE menu, if you are sticking with KDE on your installation of Knoppix) and selected the printer setup panel from the various configuration choices on the left.

I clicked "add" from the menu at the top of the printer setup page, indicated that this was a) a local printer and b) the first USB printer (there's no hint at this point that the computer can actually see the printer, but take it on faith -- if you're connecting a USB printer, and it's your only one, I think indicating that it's the first USB printer is the way to go. Worked for me, anyhow :))

Then, I selected Samsung as my manufacturer, at which point hit a snag: the ML-1710 is not a listed printer. Hoping that it would be close enough to some other model, chose instead the one that looked most similar to me, which is the ML-1200 or ML-1210 (I'm not in front of that machine right now, sorry for the imprecision), crossed fingers, clicked OK.

In the course of the setup, you're prompted for things like a name and a location for the printer: don't worry about these -- just call the printer what you'd like and describe its location to your own satisfaction. This is not a quiz asking for the exact model name or the technical designation of the printer's port. The questions are really just for your convenience, especially in a networked environment, so you can call it something like "steves_blkwhite_laser " located "next_to_monkeyhouse." If you were choosing from several printers later on, say you're on a network where several people have shared their printers, you might want to choose "cutegirls_color_laser," located "in_cutegirls_apartment" or whatever.

Result of the ML-1710-as-ML-1210: it worked. Perhaps the next version of the printer config tool will include model 1710 by name as well, but for now, I can vouch that the printer does work anyhow. The test page took a bit longer than I expected to emerge, but then came out, and going back to Ghostview I was able to print my PDF quite quickly, no problem. Since I'm not using any special features of the printer, and have no idea what those features might be, note that I'm only saying it works for b/w printing.

For an even less confusing experience, pick a printer that's explicitly supported; at home, I have a Lexmark e210, another cheap laser printer. That one is actually on the list by name ;)

Note that this is a relatively happy printing experience: it worked on my system, with the application I wanted it to work for. Sometimes printing is not that simple (uncooperative apps I guess), so I can't *guarantee* that things will go this smoothly. However, since I am a genuine butterfingers, if I can do it, probably anyone can do it.

Cheers,

timothy

[andrei]

my old Epson Stylus Color 640 works fine. its easy to configure knoppix for it. go to KNOPPIX->configure printers and the KDE wizard take you through real easy steps.

[fingers99]

If you want cheap black and white output, go for a second hand HP Laserjet. Otherwise, look at the supported printers (and stay clear of HP unless 600dpi output is good enough for you!).