# Printer (advice/recommendation) ? [SOLVED]

## HeXiLeD

I am looking to buy a printer and would like to know from you guys what do you recommend  in terms of being fully supported in linux.

currently i have an old cannon cbj 1200 which kinda works but its time to get something good.

I will divide my question in 3 parts:

a) simple printer

b) printer with scanner

c) printer 5 in one (printer/copier/scanner/fax/"optional card reader")

If possible a firewire printer but there is no problem with usb 2.0

I would like to read from you guys and what you have working and with what and if fully supported or not.

Basically detailed HW information and brand/model will  be very helpful.

Thanks for the attention in advance  :Smile: 

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## batistuta

In general hp printers tend to work fairly well. I have a deskjet 980cxi and it is fully supported, even the full duplex control. The only thing that I miss is the timer that dries the ink before flipping the page, but unless I print photos that's not a big deal.

The Gentoo printing guide points out a link to the LinuxPrintingGuide, where you can see how well is a printer supported. Since printers seem to be quite well supported in general, I would start by choosing three printers that you like based on magazine reviews, etc. HPs tend to be good but expensive (both printer and cartridges). Lexmarks are cartrige rip-offs and I wouldn't recommend them unless you need something cheap and print very little. As far as I know, Cannon offer a good price/value. From Epson I've heard varying things. Some printers have the head in the cartridge, while others separated (so you get a new head every time you change cartridge).

So decide:

- How much do you print

- How much quality you need. I personally don't care about photo quality, because I anyway order photos printouts online (cheaper+better)

- Inkjet or laser?

- Functionality (duplex, scanner, copier, etc)

- Size (fits on your desk?)

- Price

Make a list of your favourite three, and then see how well they are supported under Linux.

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## HeXiLeD

Thanks for the tips and i will check those links.

As for the details that  you mentionated:

a) average quantity printing. sometimes not much

b) Photo quality is not needed

c) inkjet

d) Functionality (depends on how much is supported )

e) Size doent matter

F) price will depend on the Functionality

later i will post my 3 main choices

edit: 

i like your printer and i will either get a an HP or Epson

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## batistuta

 *HeXiLeD wrote:*   

> i like your printer and i will either get a an HP or Epson

 

thanks   :Very Happy: 

My printer is 5 years old, so check for newer model. One warning: HP cartridges for my printer are *quite* expensive. But since I don't print much, this was for me a small factor. So this is very relative. What sold me for the HP (one thing) was the duplex printing. I know you can do it in SW, but I like the printer doing that automatically. When I print booking confirmations, train schedules (in Germany we use trains a lot), etc I like to travel with less paper.

In my particular case the scanner and faxing functionlaity was not an issue, since I can do that at work. So check what you need. In general, all-in-one printers are not much more expensive but are much bigger. In my case, I like a clean desk so size was an issue. Cannon has some small printers, with good overall quality and price/value. If I had to buy a new printer, I would not ignore Cannon.

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## HeXiLeD

How about ethernet printers? I am now looking for printers that use an ethernet port to connect to a router or ethernet card as a usb printer alternative.

Note: even better if they support usb and ethernet plugs.

Any suggestions ? (models/brands?)

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## doctork

If you can live with a monochrome laser printer, the Brother 5250 works well for me.  It has USB, Ethernet, and parallel connections.  I've used both the USB and ethernet connections with no problems.

jlk

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## lxg

I have a Brother MFC 7420 -- laser printer, copier, fax, scanner (no card reader). This one is a monochrome printer, but a similar model is available as color laser printer.

I can perfectly print and fax from my PC, although the driver setup, especially for the FAX, was a bit awkward. The scanner should work, too, but I'm not using it.

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## cyrillic

Any printer that has Postscript language support will be very compatible with Linux.

The Brother 5250 that doctork mentioned is a good choice.  I have a Brother 4070 that I am very happy with.

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## slackline

Highly recommend the HP 6310 Officejet, sits on my network and plays nicely with my (four) Gentoo systems which can do admin using net-misc/hplip and doesn't get screwed when the wife prints from M$-windoze (one day she will see the light, even if I blind her in doing so  :Laughing:  ).

Supports USB connection as well as ethernet.

Was about £100 GBP when I purchased it, although that was about a year ago, so you in all likelihood can either get it cheaper/get a newer (feature rich) model for the same/similar price.

slack

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## HeXiLeD

Ok so we have now a few choices:

HP 6310 Officejet

Brother 4070

Brother MFC 7420 -- laser printer, copier, fax, scanner (no card reader)

Brother 5250 - monochrome laser printer

For now i will exclude Brother 5250 - monochrome laser printer 

LXJ

The Brother MFC 7420  for me seems to be a great option. The card reader is not a must; but if there is a model that had it and works nicely, i will consider it. 

Whats your feedback in detail about the fax option 

I also would like to know details about the scanner ( if possible )

cyrillic

About the Brother 4070: 

is it wireless too ?

Can you post more details about it's features, driver support and it's overall performance  rating from 0 to 10 every feature ?

Slack

HP 6310 Officejet

Can you post more details about it's features, and overall performance rating from 0 to 10 every feature ?

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## cyrillic

The Brother HL-4070CDW that I own is a 21ppm color laser (not a multifunction)

Connectivity : Parallel port, USB 2.0, 10/100 ethernet, 802.11b/g wireless

You can also do standalone printing of JPEG and PDF files from a USB memory stick, or card reader, or digital camera.

Driver : You can use generic Postscript, or (better yet) the PPD file supplied by Brother.  Linux compatibility is 100%

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## slackline

 *HeXiLeD wrote:*   

> Ok so we have now a few choices:
> 
> Slack
> 
> HP 6310 Officejet
> ...

 

I wouldn't consider myself an expert in printing scanning as I don't critically review the printer of have much experience of other printers on which to base an informed opinion.  I bought it as we wanted an all in one and I'd heard it worked fine with Linux thanks to the hplip project (official linux drivers and support from HP, check the site and see what they have drivers for and you may find a printer with the spec/price you want to go for if the 6310 doesn't fit).

My synopsis would be..

It scans fine with xsane

It prints b&w and colour A4 fine and reasonably quickly

Printing photo quality pics the quality is perfectly acceptable for the amount I paid, although I did find I had to fiddle around with dimensions a bit.

Quite compact size for an all-in-one

Card reader is handy, but I've only used it to read an SD card when the SD card reader on my desktop failed.  Transfer speeds were ok, but nothing great.

Can't comment on the fax functionality as I've not even hooked it up to a phone line yet.

As to functions this is pretty much everything. although I'm pretty sure HP have it on their site (a quick google pointed to this), and there are a ton of more comprehensive reviews out there.

Sorry not to be more comprehensive, but as I say I've not had many others to compare it to (one previous printer, not all-in-one) so a point scale of 1-10 for features would be somewhat baseless.

Hope the above helps though,

slack

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## HeXiLeD

So today  i am having  the final choice: 

hp 6310 or brother mfc 7345 or better 

I have not decided yet. Any final suggestions ?

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## cwr

I use a Samsung 2251, which is parallel, ethernet, and (I think) USB.  Mainly

I got it because it has very cheap replacement cartridges, and I could add a

Postscript interpreter.  I like it lot and it's very convenient to use, but I doubt

that that model is made any longer.  It might be worth looking at some Samsung

printers before you come to a decision.

(It's strictly a printer, mono laser.)

Will

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## HeXiLeD

i am looking at this one now:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-18972-238444-12019-3328086-3795309-3795393-3795426.html

Today i went to some stores and this model costs me 82.5 euros/121.5 usd. 

I also checked some laser ones from brother and another HP model  ( 9110 office jet ) which i really liked.

this can be another option:

HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One Printer - A909g (CB023A)

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-18972-238444-12019-3328086-3752454-3752458-3752460.html

Not sure yet what to buy.

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## HeXiLeD

The choice now is though between these 2:

HP Officejet Pro 8500  All-in-One Printer - A909g (CB023A)

Detail: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-18972-238444-12019-3328086-3752454-3752455-3752457.html

Video:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3371588/hp_officejet_pro_8500_wireless

review:

http://www.pcrush.com/product/All-in-One-Multifunction-Printers/281912/HP-Officejet-Pro-8500-Wireless-34-ppm-4800-x-1200-dpi-All-in-one-Printer?refid=1057&clnk=281912

Pros:

- Faster printing speed

- Printing duplex

- Better CPU than the brother

- Better DPI

- Price difference is about $30 from the brother

Cons:

- Design ( not that great )

- No wireless ( the basic model )

- No pcfax (only fax)

- no print duplex

- Too big

- No Answer machine

Brother

Details:

http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=MFC990CW&tab=spec

review:

http://reviews.cnet.com/multifunction-devices/brother-mfc-990cw/4505-3181_7-33394567.html

Video: 

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3371593/brother_mfc_990cw

The rich-featured brother makes it very appealing to me but:

Pros:

- Design ( love it )

- Cartrigdes price compared to the HP for amount of pages they can do, makes the HP cheaper on the long run if you print a lot.

- Bluetooth/Wireless

- PCFAX which is something the HP does not do.

- Price difference is about $30 from the HP

Cons:

- The slow printing times are a negative for me even if i dont print much

- The wireless phone seems to be built in and not removable to be replaced if needed.

- Slower cpu compared to the HP

- Worse DPI

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## dmpogo

 *batistuta wrote:*   

>  *HeXiLeD wrote:*   i like your printer and i will either get a an HP or Epson 
> 
> thanks  
> 
> My printer is 5 years old, so check for newer model. One warning: HP cartridges for my printer are *quite* expensive. But since I don't print much, this was for me a small factor. So this is very relative. What sold me for the HP (one thing) was the duplex printing. I know you can do it in SW, but I like the printer doing that automatically. When I print booking confirmations, train schedules (in Germany we use trains a lot), etc I like to travel with less paper.
> ...

 

Actually the expense of the HP cartridges used to come with a (big) advantage if you do not print often.   HP has nozzle heads on its ink cartridge, so replacing it you were getting brand new print system every time.   At the same time I had an Epson printer, nice quality, but with infrequent use ink was drying in the nozzles, and cleaning them was an ever losing battle (once dried, I never got printing back to original quality, not to say that frequent running nozzle cleaning cycles consumed the ink quickly)

Canon as a company is in(famous) for complete lack of support for Linux, declared as a policy, so be careful with purchase, you will be relying on reversed engineered support from free drivers, and functionality support is very patchy between the models, especially if multifunction devices are concerned.

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## HeXiLeD

I have made my decision and just bought:

HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-in-One Printer - A909g (CB023A) 

Detail: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-18972-238444-12019-3328086-3752454-3752455-3752457.html

Video: 

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3371588/hp_officejet_pro_8500_wireless

review: 

http://www.pcrush.com/product/All-in-One-Multifunction-Printers/281912/HP-Officejet-Pro-8500-Wireless-34-ppm-4800-x-1200-dpi-All-in-one-Printer?refid=1057&clnk=281912

Topic is solved for me

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## m_gustafsson

Hi,

I am looking into buying the same printer at the moment.

May I ask if you succeeded in getting this printer up and running?

Does it work with CUPS?

Many thanks for any feedback.

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## HeXiLeD

Its working flawlessly.

I used the hplip software to set it up with cupsd and i have been printing with it.

The scanner features also work great with xsane

The only thing  i haven't setup was to access to memory cards from network (not sure how to do it and if its possible with this model)

Receiving/Sending fax works as well.

I am very satisfied with this printer the only thing i would like to be do with it is to access the memory cards from network.

```
net-print/cups-1.3.11-r1  USE="X acl -avahi dbus gnutls -java jpeg -kerberos -ldap pam perl php png ppds python samba slp ssl -static tiff -xinetd -zeroconf"

net-print/hplip-3.9.10  USE="-doc fax gtk hpcups -hpijs -libnotify -minimal -new-hpcups -parport -policykit -qt3 -qt4 scanner snmp static-ppds -udev-acl
```

note: i use it as a network printer, not usb.

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## m_gustafsson

Thanks!

I am just about to install my new 8500 printer  :Smile: 

If I find out how to access the memory cards I will report back.

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## HeXiLeD

Today i finally buried this printer after 2 years of problems with it.

It printed about 5000 pages without problems but after that the problems started. 

I changed the print heads  2 times on top of the original ones.

Endless amount of cartridges and never printed well again.

The bigger problem i had was with the printing and the cartridges. It either complained about ink levels or complained about replacing the cartridge of x, y, z colour. No matter what i replaced it keep complaining and i kept replacing with brand new original cartridges which after a few times printing stopped working. 

Overall i ended up by spending more money in print heads and cartridges than the $350 that it cost me.

HP related forums out there are also a joke when it comes to tech support.

Today there was only one way of making sure this brick would never bother anyone else and the solution was in a tool bag...

In retrospective i regret the purchase and will never buy HP again.

The quest restarts... any other recommendations ? No need  for fax, wireless, memory cards functionality.

Just print, copy, scan.

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