The Printing HOWTO
Grant Taylor
<gtaylor+pht@picante.com>
Dirk Allaert
<dirk.allaert@reachout.be>
v1.8, 2003-06-22
This is the Printing HOWTO, a collection of information on how to generate,
preview, print and fax anything under GNU/Linux. Almost everything applies
equally well to free software users using other Unix-like operating systems.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Terminology
1.2. History
1.3. Copyright
2. Quick Start
2.1. Where to Get Help
3. How to print
3.1. With BSD LPD and the lpr command
3.2. With System V LPD and the lp command
3.3. With CUPS
3.4. GUI Printing Tools
4. Kernel printer devices
4.1. The lp device (kernels <=2.1.32)
4.2. The parport device (kernels >= 2.1.33)
4.3. Serial devices
4.4. USB Devices
5. Supported Printers
5.1. Postscript
5.2. Non-Postscript
5.3. What printers work?
5.4. How to buy a printer
6. Spooling software
6.1. CUPS
6.2. LPD
6.3. LPRng
6.4. PPR
6.5. Others
7. How it all works
7.1. CUPS
7.2. LPD
8. How to set things up
8.1. Configuring CUPS
8.2. Configuring LPD
8.3. Large Installations
8.4. Accounting
9. Vendor Solutions
9.1. Red Hat
9.2. Debian
9.3. SuSE
9.4. Caldera
9.5. Corel
9.6. Mandrake
9.7. Slackware
9.8. Other Distributions
10. Ghostscript.
10.1. Invoking Ghostscript
10.2. Ghostscript output tuning
11. Networks
11.1. Printing to a Unix/lpd host
11.2. Printing to a Windows or Samba printer
11.3. Printing to a NetWare Printer
11.4. Printing to an EtherTalk (Apple) printer
11.5. Printing to a networked printer
11.6. Running an if for remote printers with old LPDs
11.7. From Windows.
11.8. From an Apple.
11.9. From Netware.
11.10. Networked Printer Administration
12. Windows-only printers
12.1. The Ghostscript Windows redirector
12.2. HP Winprinters
12.3. Lexmark Winprinters
13. How to print to a fax machine.
13.1. Using a faxmodem
13.2. Using the Remote Printing Service
13.3. Commercial Faxing Services
14. How to generate something worth printing.
14.1. Markup languages
14.2. WYSIWYG Word Processors
15. Printing Photographs
15.1. Ghostscript and Photos
15.2. Paper
15.3. Printer Settings
15.4. Print Durability
15.5. Shareware and Commercial Software
16. On-screen previewing of printable things.
16.1. PostScript
16.2. TeX dvi
16.3. Adobe PDF
17. Serial printers under lpd
17.1. Setting up in printcap
17.2. Older serial printers that drop characters
18. What's missing?
18.1. Plumbing
18.2. Fonts
18.3. Drivers
19. Credits
A. GNU Free Documentation License
A.1. PREAMBLE
A.2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
A.3. VERBATIM COPYING
A.4. COPYING IN QUANTITY
A.5. MODIFICATIONS
A.6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
A.7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
A.8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A.9. TRANSLATION
A.10. TERMINATION
A.11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
A.12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
1. Introduction
The Printing HOWTO should contain everything you need to know to help you set
up printing services on your GNU/Linux box(en). As life would have it, it's a
bit more complicated than in the point-and-click world of Microsoft and
Apple, but it's also a bit more flexible and certainly easier to administer
for large LANs.
This document is structured so that most people will only need to read the
first half or so. Most of the more obscure and situation-dependent
information in here is in the last half, and can be easily located in the
Table of Contents, whereas some information through section 10 or 11 is
probably needed by most people.
If you find this document or the [http://www.linuxprinting.org/]
linuxprinting.org website useful, consider buying something (ink, for
example) through the referral links on the site; such purchases support this
effort.
The linuxprinting.org website is a good place to find the latest version; it
is also, of course, distributed from [http://www.tldp.org] tldp.org and your
friendly local LDP mirror.
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1.1. Terminology
I try to use consistent terminology throughout this document, so that users
of all free Unix-like systems, and even users of non-Unix-like free software,
can benefit. Unfortunately, there are many handy ambiguous names and many
awkward unambiguous names, so just to be clear, here's a quick glossary of
what each name means:
Unix
Unix is an operating system constructed at Bell Labs by various
researchers. A variety of operating systems, mostly commercial, are based
on this code and are also included in the name Unix.
Un*x
Un*x is an awkward word used to refer to every Unix-like operating
system. A Unixlike operating system provides something similar to a POSIX
programming interface as its native API. GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris,
AIX, and even special-purpose systems like Lynx and QNX are all Un*x.
Linux
Linux is a Unixlike kernel and a small assortment of peripheral software
written by Linus Torvalds and hundreds of other programmers. It forms the
foundation of the most widely used Un*x operating system.
GNU
The GNU (GNU's Not Unix) project is a longtime development effort to
produce an entirely free Unixlike operating system. The GNU Project is in
many ways the father of most modern free software efforts.
GNU/Linux
A GNU/Linux operating system is a complete system comprised of the Linux
kernel, its peripheral programs, and the GNU runtime environment of
libraries, utilities, end-user software, etc. Red Hat, Debian, Caldera,
SuSE, TurboLinux, and similar companies are all commercial vendors of
complete GNU/Linux systems.
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1.2. History
This have been severel generations of the Printing HOWTO. The history of the
PHT may be chronicled thusly:
1. Grant Taylor wrote the printing HOWTO in 1992 in response to all the
printing questions in comp.os.linux, and posted it. This predated the
HOWTO project by a few months and was the first FAQlet called a `howto'.
This edition was in plain ASCII.
2. After joining the HOWTO project, the Printing-HOWTO was merged with an
Lpd FAQ by Brian McCauley <B.A.McCauley@bham.ac.uk>; Grant Taylor
continued to co-author the PHT for two years or so. At some point he
incorporated the work of Karl Auer <Karl.Auer@anu.edu.au>. This
generation of the PHT was in TeXinfo, and available in PS, HTML, ASCII,
and Info.
3. After letting the PHT rot and decay for over a year, and an unsuccessful
attempt at getting someone else to maintain it, this rewrite happened.
This generation of the PHT is written in SGML using the LinuxDoc DTD and
the SGML-Tools-1 package. Beginning with version 3.27, it incorporated a
summary of a companion printer support database; before 3.27 there was
never a printer compatibility list in this HOWTO (!).
4. In mid-January, 2000, Grand found out about the PDQ print "spooler". PDQ
provides a printing mechanism so much better than lpd ever did that he
spent several hours playing with it, rewrote parts of this HOWTO, and
bumped the version number of the document to 4.
5. In mid-2000, Grant moved his printing website to www.linuxprinting.org,
and began offering more powerful configuration tools there. He also
converted the HOWTO to DocBook, and initiated coverage of CUPS, LPRng,
and GPR/libppd.
6. In early 2001, Grant began using the GNU Free Documentation License,
which seems quite suitable. He also began an effort to clarify what is
and isn't Linux-specific; there are several free Unixlike kernels out
there, and they all use the same printing software.
7. In early 2003, after listening to a presentation from Till Kampeter at
FOSDEM, I (Dirk) decided to update this HOWTO. Since Grant last edited
the HOWTO, CUPS has gotten more mature and a lot more popular.
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1.3. Copyright
Copyright (c) 1992-2001 Grant Taylor.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license is included in Appendix A.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Quick Start
The quickest way to get started is simply to use the setup tools provided by
your vendor. Assuming that this includes support for your driver, and
assuming that your vendor shipped the driver for your printer, then it should
be easy to get a basic setup going this way. For information on
vendor-provided setup tools, see Section 9.
If your vendor's tool doesn't work out, you should figure out if your printer
is supposed to work at all. Consult the printer compatibility listings in
Section 5.3.1 as well as the online version described there.
If your printer is known to work with a driver, check that you have that
driver, and install if it not. Typically you will be able to find a
contributed Ghostscript package including newer Ghostscript code and assorted
third-party drivers. If not, you can compile it yourself; the process is not
trivial, but it is well documented. See Section 10 for more information on
Ghostscript.
After installing the proper driver, attempt again to configure your printer
with your vendor's tools. If that fails, select a suitable third party tool
from those described in Section 8. If that also fails, you'll need to
construct your own setup; again see Section 8.
If you're still stuck, you've got a little troubleshooting to do. It's
probably best to read most of this document first to get a feel for how
things are supposed to work; then you'll be in a better position to debug.
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2.1. Where to Get Help
The Usenet newsgroups comp.os.linux.hardware, comp.os.linux.setup, and
comp.periphs.printers all have a share of general printing questions. These
are well-trafficked newsgroups where an answer is sure to be found; check in
the Google Groups archives, too. There are also the linuxprinting.foo
newsgroups; these are available both as web-based forums and via NNTP; see
the website.
Please also poke around the web looking for your answers. [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/] LinuxPrinting.org is an excellent place to start;
other websites and projects are linked to from there.
If you need more help, please try newsgroups, mailing lists, your
distribution's support line, and so forth. If do want to contact me, please
do so via the discussion forums on [http://www.linuxprinting.org/]
LinuxPrinting.org; this will give others a chance to respond, and will
archive your problem and any solution publicly for the next hapless user.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. How to print
You actually use a different command to print depending on which spooling
software you use.
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3.1. With BSD LPD and the lpr command
If you've already got lpd setup to print to your printer, or your system
administrator already did so, or your vendor did so for you, then all you
need to do is learn how to use the lpr command. The [http://www.tldp.org/
HOWTO/Printing-Usage-HOWTO.html] Printing Usage HOWTO covers this, and a few
other queue manipulation commands you should probably know. Or just read the
lpr(1) man page.
In a nutshell, you specify the queue name with -P, and specify a filename to
print a file, or nothing to print from stdin. Driver options are
traditionally not controllable from lpr, but various systems accept certain
options with -o, -Z, or -J.
Example 1. lpr
lpr /etc/hosts
lpr -J "my hosts file" /etc/hosts
lpr -P mylaserjet /etc/services
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2. With System V LPD and the lp command
There are two sets of commands that you may encounter if you have to deal
with several brands of Unix. The BSD based LPD print system (*BSD, Linux)
uses lpr (print),lpq (display queue),lprm (remove jobs). System V based
systems on the other hand use lp (print), lpstat (display queue), cancel
(remove jobs). Solaris, SCO and others are System V Unix systems.
On SYSV systems, you can of course consult the man page of the lp command. To
specify a queue you use the -d option and a filename to print a file, or
nothing to print from stdin.
Example 2. lp
lp /etc/hosts
lp -d mylaserjet /etc/services
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3. With CUPS
CUPS provides both the System V and Berkeley command-line interfaces. This
means that you can use either lpr or lp to print. This is really nice if you
have a bunch of scripts that already use eg. lp or you have prior experience
with either a System V or a BSD flavor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4. GUI Printing Tools
Most spooling systems alone offer only a rather basic command-line interface.
Rather than use lpr directly, you may wish to obtain and use a front-end
interface. These generally let you fiddle with various printing options (the
printer, paper types, collation, n-up, etc) in an easy-to-use graphical way.
Some may have other features, as well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.1. KDEPrint
KDEPrint allows users access to printing subsystems (CUPS, LPD, RLPR, LPRng
etc.) through a KDE graphical user interface. With KDEPrint, you can easily
print, administer jobs and printers and the printing daemon. KDEPrint is a
replacement for the old QtCUPS and KUPS. It is easy to use for both
developers and users. KDEPrint is already a part of KDE since 2.2.0 and has
several nice features.
kprinter is the print dialog of KDEPrint which allows you to select the
destination printer and change printer options. Among the destination
printers, there are a few virtual printers allowing you to print to email,
fax or pdf.
Figure 1. kprinter
[snapshot-kdeprint-kprinter]
You can use KDEPrint's kprinter in any application that lets you configure
your print command. Examples of these are Mozilla and OpenOffice.
Figure 2. Using kprinter with Mozilla
[snapshot-kdeprint-mozilla]
KDEPrint also features a Print Preview. that you can select from the Print
Dialog. This is accomplished by passing the print file through the filters
which make it suitable for displaying on screen using KGhostView or an
external application like gv.
The KDEPrint Job Viewer KJobViewer allows you to view, move and cancel print
jobs.
Figure 3. KJobViewer
[snapshot-kdeprint-kjobviewer]
You can find more information about KDEPrint at [http://printing.kde.org/]
http://printing.kde.org/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.2. XPP
Another good choice for CUPS is the program [http://cups.sourceforge.net/xpp
/] XPP (see Figure 4). XPP is built from the FLTK library and is therefore
desktop agnostic.
To print with XPP, simply run the xpp program, and specify a file (or
nothing, if you're using xpp in place of lpr to print from stdin). Then
select a printer from the list of configured printers, and select any options
you'd like to apply from the various tabbed panels. See Figure 5 for an
example options panel highlighting the standard CUPS options.
When used with Foomatic driver interface system, XPP will also let you
control numeric parameters not normally supported by CUPS. This typically
includes such things as extended color tuning, cartridge alignment, and so
forth. See Figure 6 for an example of this.
You can save your selected printer and all the options with the `Save
Settings' button.
Figure 4. XPP Main Window
[snapshot-xpp-main]
Figure 5. CUPS/XPP Options Window
[snapshot-xpp-options]
Figure 6. CUPS/XPP Foomatic Options Window
[snapshot-xpp-foomaticoptions]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.3. GPR
[http://www.compumetric.com/linux.html] GPR, by Thomas Hubbell, uses code
from CUPS to filter Postscript jobs and offer easy user control over job
options. Some options (like n-way printing, page selection, etc) are
implemented directly by GPR, while most others are implemented by the printer
or by the spooler's filter system.
GPR works with LPD or LPRng; or can be compiled specifically for use with
GNUlpr. When compiled normally, it uses VA's libppd directly to produce
printer-specific PostScript which it will then submit to the lpr command.
When compiled for GNUlpr, it will submit your unmodified Postscript job to
the lpr command, along with the set of job options you specify. This is
arguably the better route, since it allows the Postscript to be redirected to
a different printer by the spooler when appropriate; unfortunately it
requires GNUlpr, which is not in wide circulation (although it is of course
trivial to install).
To use GPR, first select a printer (by LPD queue name) and check that GPR has
loaded the proper PPD file. If it hasn't, you'll need to specify the PPD
filename, and specify your printer's options in the Printer Configuration
dialog (you get this dialog by pressing the Printer Configuration button; it
contains assorted printer setup options defined by the PPD).
Once you've configured your printer in GPR, you can print jobs by specifying
the filename and selecting the proper options from the `Common' and
`Advanced' tabbed panels. The `Common' options are implemented directly by
GPR for all printers, while the `Advanced' options are defined by the PPD
file for your printer. You can see these option panels in Figure 8 and Figure
9.
Figure 7. GPR Main Options
[snapshot-gpr-main]
Figure 8. GPR Common Options
[snapshot-gpr-common]
Figure 9. GPR Printer Options
[snapshot-gpr-printer]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Kernel printer devices
There are two completely different device drivers for the parallel port;
which one you are using depends on your kernel version (which you can find
out with the command uname -a). The driver changed in Linux 2.1.33;
essentially all current systems will be running kernel 2.2 or later, so
you'll probably want to skip ahead to the parport driver section.
A few details are the same for both styles of driver. Most notably, many
people have found that Linux will not detect their parallel port unless they
disable "Plug and Play" in their PC BIOS. (This is no surprise; the track
record for PnP of non-PCI devices with Windows and elsewhere has been
something of a disaster).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1. The lp device (kernels <=2.1.32)
The Linux kernel (<=2.1.32), assuming you have compiled in or loaded the lp
device (the output of cat /proc/devices should include the device lp if it is
loaded), provides one or more of /dev/lp0,/dev/lp1, and /dev/lp2. These are
NOT assigned dynamically, rather, each corresponds to a specific hardware I/O
address. This means that your first printer may be lp0 or lp1 depending on
your hardware. Just try both.
A few users have reported that their bidirectional lp ports aren't detected
if they use an older unidirectional printer cable. Check that you've got a
decent cable.
One cannot run the plip and lp drivers at the same time on any given port
(under 2.0, anyway). You can, however, have one or the other driver loaded at
any given time either manually, or by kerneld with version 2.x (and later
1.3.x) kernels. By carefully setting the interrupts and such, you can
supposedly run plip on one port and lp on the other. One person did so by
editing the drivers; I eagerly await a success report of someone doing so
with only a clever command line.
There is a little utility called [http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/
tunelp.8.html] tunelp floating about with which you, as root, can tune the
Linux 2.0 lp device's interrupt usage, polling rate, and other options.
When the lp driver is built into the kernel, the kernel will accept an lp=
option to set interrupts and io addresses:
When the lp driver is built in to the kernel, you may use the
LILO/LOADLIN command line to set the port addresses and interrupts
that the driver will use.
Syntax: lp=port0[,irq0[,port1[,irq1[,port2[,irq2]]]]]
For example: lp=0x378,0 or lp=0x278,5,0x378,7 **
Note that if this feature is used, you must specify *all* the ports
you want considered, there are no defaults. You can disable a
built-in driver with lp=0.
When loaded as a module, it is possible to specify io addresses and interrupt
lines on the insmod command line (or in/etc/conf.modules so as to affect
kerneld) using the usual module argument syntax. The parameters areio=
port0,port1,port2 and irq=irq0,irq1,irq2. Read the man page for[http://
www.linuxprinting.org/man/insmod.1.html] insmod for more information on this.
**For those of you who can never find the standard port numbers when you need
them, they are as in the second example above. The other port (lp0) is at
0x3bc. I've no idea what interrupt it usually uses.
The source code for the Linux 2.0 parallel port driver is in /usr/src/linux/
drivers/char/lp.c.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2. The parport device (kernels >= 2.1.33)
Beginning with kernel 2.1.33 (and available as a patch for kernel 2.0.30),
the lp device is merely a client of the new parport device. The addition of
the parport device corrects a number of the problems that plague the old lp
device driver - it can share the port with other drivers, it dynamically
assigns available parallel ports to device numbers rather than enforcing a
fixed correspondence between I/O addresses and port numbers, and so forth.
The advent of the parport device has enabled a whole flock of new
parallel-port drivers for things like Zip drives, Backpack CD-ROMs and disks,
and so forth. Some of these are also available in versions for 2.0 kernels;
look around on the web.
The main difference that you will notice, so far as printing goes, is that
parport-based kernels dynamically assign lp devices to parallel ports. So
what was lp1 under Linux 2.0 may well be lp0 under Linux 2.2. Be sure to
check this if you upgrade from an lp-driver kernel to a parport-driver
kernel.
The most popular problems with this device seems to stem from
misconfiguration:
The Distribution
Some GNU/Linux distributions don't ship with a properly setup /etc/
modules.conf (or /etc/conf.modules), so the driver isn't loaded properly
when you need it to be. With a recent modutils, the proper magical lines
from modules.conf seem to be:
alias /dev/printers lp # only for devfs?
alias /dev/lp* lp # only for devfs?
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc # missing in Red Hat 6.0-6.1
The BIOS
Many PC BIOSes will make the parallel port into a Plug-and-Play device.
This just adds needless complexity to a perfectly simple device that is
nearly always present; turn off the PnP setting for your parallel port
("LPT1" in many BIOSes) if your parallel port isn't detected by the Linux
driver. The correct setting is often called "legacy", "ISA", or "0x378",
but probably not "disabled".
You can also read the [http://people.redhat.com/twaugh/parport/html/
parportguide.html] parport documentation in your kernel sources, or look at
the parport web site.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.3. Serial devices
Serial devices are usually called something like/dev/ttyS1 under Linux. The
utility [http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/stty.1.html] stty will allow you to
interactively view or set the settings for a serial port; [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/man/setserial.8.html] setserial will allow you to
control a few extended attributes and configure IRQs and I/O addresses for
non-standard ports. Further discussion of serial ports under Linux may be
found in the [http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Serial-HOWTO.html]
Serial-HOWTO.
When using a slow serial printer with flow control, you may find that some of
your print jobs get truncated. This may be due to the serial port, whose
default behavior is to purge any untransmitted characters from its buffer 30
seconds after the port device is closed. The buffer can hold up to 4096
characters, and if your printer uses flow control and is slow enough that it
can't accept all the data from the buffer within 30 seconds after printing
software has closed the serial port, the tail end of the buffer's contents
will be lost. If the command cat file > /dev/ttyS2 produces complete
printouts for short files but truncated ones for longer files, you may have
this condition.
The 30 second interval can be adjusted through the "closing_wait"
command-line option of setserial (version 2.12 and later). A machine's serial
ports are usually initialized by a call to setserial in the rc.serial boot
file. The call for the printing serial port can be modified to set the
closing_wait at the same time as it sets that port's other parameters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.4. USB Devices
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.4.1. USB 1.1
Linux supports USB pretty well. USB should work with any late-model 2.2
kernel, and any 2.4 kernel or newer. Of course you need kernel support for
USB, either linked in or through a module (recommended).
If you have a modular kernel, the following modules need to be loaded:
* usb-core.o
* usb-uhci.o or uhci.o or usb-ohci.o
* printer.o
Which one of usb-uhci.o or uhci.o or usb-ohci.o you need depends on the kind
of motherboard or adaptor you have. Intel and Via motherboards and Via based
adaptors are UHCI (you can use either usb-uhci.o or uhci.o). You can find out
which type of HCI (Host Controller Interface) you have with lspci -v|grep HCI
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.4.2. USB 2.0
To get high speed transfers out of a USB 2.0 capable device you must attach
it to an USB 2.0 controller and use the EHCI driver (ehci-hcd.o). A recent
2.4 kernel or higher is recommended if you want to use USB 2.0.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.4.3. Hints
One thing to remember is that USB devices are dynamically allocated. A USB
printer gets assigned a device file (/dev/usb/lp*) when it is turned on or
connected. This could mean that print jobs are sent to the wrong printer
because you turned them on in a certain order. CUPS uses special Uri's
containing manufacturer, model and printer serial number to keep sending the
jobs to the correct physical printer.
Although most USB printers work fine on Linux, there are exceptions. For
example the new MF devices from Epson (Stylus CX3200/CX5200) return garbage
when one polls the IEEE-1284 ID string via IOCTL, for example with the code
of the CUPS "usb" backend. Whereas one can poll the ID string via an
Epson-proprietary method.
Till Kamppeter has written some tools to retrieve the device ID string from
USB printers. [http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printing/
getusbprinterid.pl] getusbprinterid.pl and [http://www.linuxprinting.org/
download/printing/usb_id/test.c] usb_id_test.c are the same thing but
respectively in Perl and C. As mentioned above, the new MF devices from Epson
are an exception, but the "Epson proprietary method" is implemented in the
ttink tool of the [http://xwtools.automatix.de/] MTink package.
More documentation about USB is available at the [http://www.linux-usb.org/]
Linux USB Website.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Supported Printers
The Linux kernel will let you speak with any printer that you can plug into a
serial, parallel, or usb port, plus any printer on the network.
Unfortunately, this alone is insufficient; you must also be able to generate
data that the printer will understand. Primary among the incompatible
printers are those referred to as "Windows" or "GDI" printers. They are
called this because all or part of the printer control language and the
design details of the printing mechanism are not documented. Typically the
vendor will provide a Windows driver and happily sell only to Windows users;
this is why they are called Winprinters. In some cases the vendor also
provides drivers for NT, OS/2, or other operating systems.
Many of these printers do not work with free software. A few of them do, and
some of them only work a little bit (usually because someone has reverse
engineered the details needed to write a driver). See the printer support
list below for details on specific printers.
A few printers are in-between. Some of NEC's models, for example, implement a
simple form of the standard printer language PCL that allows PCL-speaking
software to print at up to 300dpi, but only NEC knows how to get the full
600dpi out of these printers.
Note that if you already have one of these Winprinters, there are roundabout
ways to print to one, but they're rather awkward. SeeSection 12 in this
document for more discussion of Windows-only printers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1. Postscript
As for what printers do work with free software, the best choice is to buy a
printer with native PostScript support in firmware. Nearly all Un*x software
that produces printable output produces it in PostScript, so obviously it'd
be nice to get a printer that supports PostScript directly. Unfortunately,
PostScript support is scarce outside the laser printer domain, and is
sometimes a costly add-on.
Un*x software, and the publishing industry in general, have standardized upon
Postscript as the printer control language of choice. This happened for
several reasons:
Timing
Postscript arrived as part of the Apple Laserwriter, a perfect companion
to the Macintosh, the system largely responsible for the desktop
publishing revolution of the 80s.
It's device-independent
Postscript programs can be run to generate output on a pixel screen, a
vector screen, a fax machine, or almost any sort of printer mechanism,
without the original program needing to be changed. Postscript output
will look the same on any Postscript device, at least within the limits
of the device's capabilities. Before the creation of PDF, people
exchanged complex documents online as Postscript files. The only reason
this standard didn't "stick" was because Windows machines didn't usually
include a Postscript previewer, so Adobe specified hyperlinks and
compression for Postscript, called the result PDF, distributed previewers
for it, and invented a market for their "distiller" tools (the
functionality of which is also provided by ghostscript's ps2pdf and
pdf2ps programs).
It's a real programming language
Postscript is a complete programming language; you can write software to
do most anything in it. This is mostly useful for defining subroutines at
the start of your program to reproduce complex things over and over
throughout your document, like a logo or a big "DRAFT" in the background.
But there's no reason you couldn't compute ?? in a Postscript program.
It's open
Postscript is fully specified in a publically available series of books
(which you can find at any good bookstore) and also online at [http://
partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/technotes/postscript.html] http://
partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/technotes/postscript.html. Although
Adobe invented it and provides the dominant commercial implementation,
other vendors like Aladdin produce independently coded implementations as
well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2. Non-Postscript
Failing the (larger) budget necessary to buy a Postscript printer, you can
use any printer supported by Ghostscript, the free Postscript interpreter
used in lieu of actual printer Postscript support. Note that most GNU/Linux
distributions can only ship a somewhat outdated version of Ghostscript due to
the license. Fortunately, there is usually a prepackaged up to date
Ghostscript made available in each distribution's contrib area.
Adobe now has a new printer language called "PrintGear". I think it's a
greatly simplified binary format language with some Postscript heritage but
no Postscript compatibility. And I haven't heard of Ghostscript supporting
it. But some PrintGear printers seem to support another language like PCL,
and these printers will work with GNU/Linux (if the PCL is implemented in the
printer and not in a Windows driver).
Similarly, Adobe offers a host-based Postscript implementation called
PressReady. This works much like Ghostscript does to provide Postscript
support for a non-Postscript printer, but has the disadvantage that it runs
only on Windows.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.3. What printers work?
You can look in several places to see if a particular printer will work. The
cooperatively maintained Printing HOWTO printer [http://www.linuxprinting.org
/database.html] database aims to be a comprehensive listing of the state of
GNU/Linux printer support. A summary of it is below; be sure to check online
for more details and information on what driver(s) to use.
The best bet for new printer shoppers is to consult the list of [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html] suggested printers. These center around
color inkjets and mono laser devices. You can even help support this document
and the website by buying from one of [http://www.linuxprinting.org/
affiliate.html] affiliated vendors.
Ghostscript's printer compatibility page has a list of some working printers,
as well as links to other pages.
[http://groups.google.com/] Google groups contains hundreds of "it works"
and "it doesn't work" testimonials. Try all three, and when you're done,
check that your printer is present and correct in the [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/database.html] database, so that it will be listed
properly in this document in the future.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.3.1. Printer compatibility list
This section is a summary of the online database. The online version includes
device specifications, notes, driver information, user-maintained
documentation, manufacturer web pages, and interface scripts for using
drivers with several print spooling systems (including LPR, LPRng, PDQ, and
CUPS). The online version of this list is also interactive; people can and do
add printers all the time, so be sure to check it as well. Finally, if your
printer isn't listed, add it!
Note that this listing is not gospel; people sometimes add incorrect
information, which are eventually weeded out. Entries which have not been
sanity-checked are marked with an asterisk (*). Verify from Google Groups
that a printer works for someone before buying it based on this list.
Printers here are categorized into four types:
Perfectly
Perfect printers work perfectly - you can print to the full ability of
the printer, including color, full resolution, etc. In a few cases
printers with undocumented "resolution enhancement" modes that don't work
are listed as perfect; generally the difference in print quality is small
enough that it isn't worth worrying about.
Mostly
You can print fine, but there may be minor limitations of one sort or
another in either printing or other features.
Partially
You can print, but maybe not in color, or only at a poor resolution. See
the online listing for information on the limitation.
Paperweight
You can't print a darned thing; typically this will be due to lack of a
driver and/or documentation on how to write one. Paperweights
occasionally get "promoted", either when someone discovers that an
existing driver works, or when someone creates a new driver, but you
shouldn't count on this happening.
In all cases, since this information is provided by dozens of people, none of
it is guaranteed to be correct; entries with an asterisk (*) are particularly
suspect. The facts, however, should be easy to corroborate from the driver
web pages and manufacturer web sites.
And without further ado, here is the printer compatibility list:
Table 1. Linux Printer Support
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Manufacturer|Perfectly |Mostly |Partially |Paperweight |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Alps | |MD-1000 | | |
| | |MD-1300 | | |
| | |MD-1500* | | |
| | |MD-2000 | | |
| | |MD-2010 | | |
| | |MD-2300 | | |
| | |MD-4000 | | |
| | |MD-5000 | | |
| | |MD-5500 | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Anitech |M24 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Apollo |P-1200 | | | |
| |P-1220 Barbie | | | |
| |P-1250 | | | |
| |P-2100 | | | |
| |P-2150 | | | |
| |P-2200 | | | |
| |P-2250 | | | |
| |P-2500 | | | |
| |P-2550 | | | |
| |P-2600 | | | |
| |P-2650 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Apple |12/640ps |Color StyleWriter 1500| | |
| |Dot Matrix |Color StyleWriter 2200| | |
| |ImageWriter |Color StyleWriter 2400| | |
| |ImageWriter LQ |Color StyleWriter 2500| | |
| |LaserWriter 4/600* |* | | |
| |LaserWriter 16/600* |ImageWriter II* | | |
| |LaserWriter IINTX* |LaserWriter NT | | |
| |LaserWriter IIg |StyleWriter 1200 | | |
| |LaserWriter Pro 630* |StyleWriter I | | |
| |LaserWriter Select 360* |StyleWriter II | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Avery |Personal Label Printer+* |Personal Label Printer| | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Brother |HL-4Ve |HJ-400 |DCP-1200 |4550* |
| |HL-8 |HL-1030 |HJ-100i* |MP-21C |
| |HL-10V |HL-1050 |HL-4V* | |
| |HL-10h |HL-1060 |HL-6* | |
| |HL-630 |HL-1240 |HL-6V* | |
| |HL-660 | |HL-630/631* | |
| |HL-720 | |HL-641/645/655M* | |
| |HL-730 | |HL-665* | |
| |HL-760 | |HL-730/730DX* | |
| |HL-820 | |HL-1270* | |
| |HL-960* | |HL-P2000* | |
| |HL-1020 | |M-1309* | |
| |HL-1040 | |M-1324* | |
| |HL-1070* | |M-1809* | |
| |HL-1250 | |M-1809 Color* | |
| |HL-1260 | |M-1824L* | |
| |HL-1270N | |M-1824L Color* | |
| |HL-1440 | |M-1909* | |
| |HL-1450 | |M-1909 Color* | |
| |HL-1470N | |M-1924L* | |
| |HL-1650 | |M-1924L Color* | |
| |HL-1660e | |M-4309* | |
| |HL-1670N | |MC-3000 | |
| |HL-2060 | |MFC 7150C | |
| |HL-2400CeN | |MFC-4000/4500/5500* | |
| |HL-2460 | |MFC-4350 | |
| |HL-2460N | |MFC-6550MC | |
| |HL-3400CN | |MFC-6550MC/7550MC* | |
| | | |MFC-8300 | |
| | | |MFC-9050 | |
| | | |MFC-9100c* | |
| | | |MFC-9500 | |
| | | |MFC-9600 | |
| | | |MFC-P2000* | |
| | | |MFC-P2500 | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|CItoh |M8510 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|CalComp |Artisan 1023 penplotter* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Canon |BJ-5 |BJC-50* |BJ F100* |BJC-5000* |
| |BJ-10e |BJC-55* |BJ F200* |BJC-5100 |
| |BJ-10v* |BJC-80* |BJ F600* |BJC-8500* |
| |BJ-15v* |BJC-85* |BJ F800* |LBP-460* |
| |BJ-20 |BJC-240* |BJ F6000* |LBP-600 |
| |BJ-30* |BJC-1000* |BJ-30v* |LBP-660* |
| |BJ-35v* |BJC-2000* |BJ-200e* |LBP-800* |
| |BJ-100 |BJC-2010* |BJ-220JCII* |Multipass L6000* |
| |BJ-200 |BJC-2100 |BJ-220JSII* |S200 |
| |BJ-330 |BJC-2110 |BJ-230* | |
| |BJC-70 |BJC-3000 |BJ-300 | |
| |BJC-210 |BJC-4310SP |BJC-35v* | |
| |BJC-250* |BJC-6000 |BJC-35vII* | |
| |BJC-250ex |BJC-7004* |BJC-50v* | |
| |BJC-255SP |BJC-8200* |BJC-80v* | |
| |BJC-265SP |LBP-4sx |BJC-210J* | |
| |BJC-600* |S100 |BJC-210SP | |
| |BJC-610 |S400* |BJC-240J* | |
| |BJC-620 |imageRunner 330s |BJC-250J* | |
| |BJC-680J* | |BJC-400J* | |
| |BJC-800 | |BJC-410J* | |
| |BJC-880J* | |BJC-420J* | |
| |BJC-4000 | |BJC-430J* | |
| |BJC-4100 | |BJC-430J Lite* | |
| |BJC-4200 | |BJC-430JD Lite* | |
| |BJC-4300* | |BJC-440J* | |
| |BJC-4400* | |BJC-455J* | |
| |BJC-4550* | |BJC-465J* | |
| |GP 335* | |BJC-600J* | |
| |GP 405 | |BJC-600e* | |
| |LBP-4+ | |BJC-610JW* | |
| |LBP-4U | |BJC-620JW* | |
| |LBP-8A1 | |BJC-700J* | |
| |LBP-310* | |BJC-820* | |
| |LBP-320 Pro* | |BJC-820J* | |
| |LBP-350* | |BJC-4200 Photo* | |
| |LBP-430 | |BJC-4304 Photo* | |
| |LBP-1000* | |BJC-4650* | |
| |LBP-1260 | |BJC-5500* | |
| |LBP-1760* | |BJC-5500J* | |
| |LIPS-II+* | |BJC-6100* | |
| |LIPS-III* | |BJC-6200* | |
| |LIPS-IV* | |BJC-6500* | |
| |LIPS-IVv* | |BJC-7000* | |
| | | |BJC-7004 Photo* | |
| | | |BJC-7100* | |
| | | |BJC-8000* | |
| | | |MultiPASS C2500* | |
| | | |MultiPASS C3000* | |
| | | |MultiPASS C3500* | |
| | | |MultiPASS C5000* | |
| | | |MultiPASS C5500 | |
| | | |S300 | |
| | | |S450* | |
| | | |S500 | |
| | | |S600 | |
| | | |S630 | |
| | | |S800 | |
| | | |S4500* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Citizen |ProJet II* |printiva700 | | |
| |ProJet IIc |printiva1700 | | |
| |printiva600C | | | |
| |printiva600U | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Compaq | |IJ750* |IJ900 |IJ300* |
| | |IJ1200 | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|DEC |DECWriter 500i* |1800* | | |
| |DECwriter 110i* |LN17* | | |
| |DECwriter 520ic* | | | |
| |LA50* | | | |
| |LA70* | | | |
| |LA75* | | | |
| |LA75 Plus* | | | |
| |LJ250 | | | |
| |LN03* | | | |
| |LN07* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Daewoo | | |DP-3630H* | |
| | | |DP-7200H* | |
| | | |DP-7400C* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Dymo-CoStar |ASCII 250* | | | |
| |ASCII+* | | | |
| |EL40* | | | |
| |EL60* | | | |
| |LabelWriter II* | | | |
| |LabelWriter XL* | | | |
| |LabelWriter XL+* | | | |
| |SE250* | | | |
| |SE250+* | | | |
| |Turbo* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Epson |ActionLaser 1100* |EPL-5700 |9-pin 136 Col* |AcuLaser C1000 |
| |ActionLaser II* |MC 5000 |9-pin 80 Col* |EPL-5500W* |
| |ActionPrinter 3250* |MJ 520C |24-pin 136 Col* |EPL-5700L |
| |AcuLaser C2000 |MJ 5100C |24-pin 80 Col* |EPL-5800L |
| |AcuLaser C2000PS |PM 790PT* |AP-800* |EPL-5900L |
| |AcuLaser C4000 |PM 850PT |AP-2250* |Stylus CX3200 |
| |AcuLaser C4000PS |PM 4000PX |AP-3250* | |
| |AcuLaser C8500 |PM 5000C |AP-3260* | |
| |AcuLaser C8500PS |Stylus Color 200* |AP-5000* | |
| |CL 700 |Stylus Color 300* |AP-5500* | |
| |CL 750 |Stylus Color II |ActionLaser 1000/ | |
| |Dot Matrix |Stylus Color IIs |EPL-5000* | |
| |EM 900C |Stylus Photo 785* |ActionLaser 1400* | |
| |EM 900CN |Stylus Photo 825* |ActionLaser 1500/ | |
| |EM 930C |Stylus Photo 875* |EPL-5200* | |
| |EM 930CN |Stylus Photo 895* |ActionLaser 1600/ | |
| |EPL-5200* |Stylus Photo 915 |EPL-5600* | |
| |EPL-5200+* |Stylus Photo 925 |ActionLaser II/EPL-4000*| |
| |EPL-5800 |Stylus Photo 950 |DFX-5000* | |
| |EPL-5800PS |Stylus Photo 960 |DFX-5000+* | |
| |EPL-5900 |Stylus Photo 2100 |DFX-8000* | |
| |EPL-5900PS |Stylus Photo 2200 |DFX-8500* | |
| |EPL-7100 |Stylus Pro 5000 |DLQ-2000 (360 dpi)* | |
| |EPL-N1600 |Stylus Pro 5500 |DLQ-3000+* | |
| |EPL-N1600PS |Stylus Pro XL |EPL-7000/7100* | |
| |EPL-N2050 | |EPL-8000/8100* | |
| |EPL-N2050+ | |EPL-N1200* | |
| |EPL-N2050PS | |EPL-N2000* | |
| |EPL-N2050PS+ | |EX-800* | |
| |EPL-N2120 | |EX-1000* | |
| |EPL-N2750 | |FX-286e* | |
| |EPL-N2750PS | |FX-850* | |
| |L-1000* | |FX-870* | |
| |LP 8000 | |FX-880* | |
| |LP-2000* | |FX-980* | |
| |LP-3000* | |FX-1000* | |
| |LP-7000* | |FX-1050* | |
| |LP-7000G* | |FX-1170* | |
| |LP-xx00* | |FX-1180* | |
| |LQ-24 | |FX-2170* | |
| |LQ-500 | |FX-2180* | |
| |LQ-570+* | |Generic 48 pin* | |
| |LQ-850 | |Generic ESC2P* | |
| |LQ-2550 | |Generic ESC_P 24-J84* | |
| |LX-1050* | |Generic ESC_P 24-J84C* | |
| |MC 7000 | |JX-80* | |
| |MJ 6000C | |LQ-100* | |
| |MJ 8000C | |LQ-150* | |
| |MachJet* | |LQ-300* | |
| |PM 700C | |LQ-300 Color* | |
| |PM 730C* | |LQ-400* | |
| |PM 750C | |LQ-510* | |
| |PM 760C* | |LQ-550* | |
| |PM 770C | |LQ-570* | |
| |PM 780C* | |LQ-670* | |
| |PM 800C | |LQ-850 (N9)* | |
| |PM 820C | |LQ-850+ (360 dpi)* | |
| |PM 880C* | |LQ-860* | |
| |PM 2000C | |LQ-870* | |
| |PM 2200C* | |LQ-950 (N9)* | |
| |PM 3000C | |LQ-1010* | |
| |PM 3300C | |LQ-1050* | |
| |PM 3500C | |LQ-1050 (N9)* | |
| |PM 7000C | |LQ-1050+ (360 dpi)* | |
| |SQ 1170 | |LQ-1060* | |
| |Stylus* | |LQ-1070* | |
| |Stylus 800* | |LQ-1070+* | |
| |Stylus C20SX | |LQ-1170* | |
| |Stylus C20UX | |LQ-2070* | |
| |Stylus C40SX | |LQ-2080* | |
| |Stylus C40UX | |LQ-2170* | |
| |Stylus C41SX | |LQ-2180* | |
| |Stylus C41UX | |LQ-2500* | |
| |Stylus C42SX | |LX-100* | |
| |Stylus C42UX | |LX-300* | |
| |Stylus C60 | |LX-300 Color* | |
| |Stylus C61 | |LX-400* | |
| |Stylus C62 | |LX-800* | |
| |Stylus C70 | |LX-810* | |
| |Stylus C80 | |LX-850* | |
| |Stylus C82 | |MC 2000 | |
| |Stylus Color* | |MC 9000 | |
| |Stylus Color 8 3 | |MC 10000 | |
| |Stylus Color 400 | |MJ-500C* | |
| |Stylus Color 440* | |MJ-510C* | |
| |Stylus Color 460* | |MJ-700V2C* | |
| |Stylus Color 480 | |MJ-800C* | |
| |Stylus Color 500 | |MJ-900C* | |
| |Stylus Color 580 | |MJ-910C* | |
| |Stylus Color 600 | |MJ-3000C* | |
| |Stylus Color 640 | |MJ-3000CU* | |
| |Stylus Color 660 | |MJ-5000C* | |
| |Stylus Color 670* | |MJ-5100C* | |
| |Stylus Color 680 | |MX-80 (w_GRAFTRAX 80)* | |
| |Stylus Color 740 | |PM 950C | |
| |Stylus Color 760 | |PM 9000C | |
| |Stylus Color 777 | |PM 10000 | |
| |Stylus Color 800 | |PX 7000 | |
| |Stylus Color 850 | |PX 9000 | |
| |Stylus Color 860 | |SQ-850* | |
| |Stylus Color 880 | |SQ-2500* | |
| |Stylus Color 900 | |SQ-2550* | |
| |Stylus Color 980 | |Stylus 200* | |
| |Stylus Color 1160 | |Stylus 300* | |
| |Stylus Color 1500 | |Stylus 400* | |
| |Stylus Color 1520 | |Stylus 500* | |
| |Stylus Color 3000 | |Stylus 800+* | |
| |Stylus Color I | |Stylus 820* | |
| |Stylus Color PRO | |Stylus 1000* | |
| |Stylus Photo | |Stylus 1500* | |
| |Stylus Photo 700 | |Stylus Color 600Q* | |
| |Stylus Photo 720* | |Stylus Photo 2000P | |
| |Stylus Photo 750 | |Stylus Pro* | |
| |Stylus Photo 780* | |Stylus Pro 7600 | |
| |Stylus Photo 790* | |Stylus Pro 9000 | |
| |Stylus Photo 810 | |Stylus Pro 9500 | |
| |Stylus Photo 820 | |Stylus Pro 9600 | |
| |Stylus Photo 830 | |Stylus Pro 10000 | |
| |Stylus Photo 870* | |Stylus Pro XL+* | |
| |Stylus Photo 890* | |TLQ-4800* | |
| |Stylus Photo 1200 | |TSQ-4800* | |
| |Stylus Photo 1270 | | | |
| |Stylus Photo 1280 | | | |
| |Stylus Photo 1290 | | | |
| |Stylus Photo 1290S | | | |
| |Stylus Photo EX | | | |
| |Stylus Photo EX3* | | | |
| |Stylus Pro 7000 | | | |
| |Stylus Pro 7500 | | | |
| |Stylus Scan 2000 | | | |
| |Stylus Scan 2500 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Fujitsu |1200* | | | |
| |2400* | | | |
| |3400* | | | |
| |FMLBP2xx Page Printer* | | | |
| |FMPR* | | | |
| |PrintPartner 10V* | | | |
| |PrintPartner 16DV* | | | |
| |PrintPartner 20W* | | | |
| |PrintPartner 8000* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Generic |PostScript Printer | |9-pin 136 Col* | |
| | | |9-pin 80 Col* | |
| | | |24-pin 136 Col* | |
| | | |24-pin 80 Col* | |
| | | |48 pin* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|GoldStar | | |GLP-1450* | |
| | | |GLP-2050* | |
| | | |GLP-5750* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|HP |2000C |Color LaserJet 5 |C LaserJet 4500* |DeskJet 3320 |
| |2500C |DesignJet 230 |C LaserJet 4550* |DeskJet 3420 |
| |2500CM |DesignJet 350C |C LaserJet 8500* |LaserJet 3100 |
| |2563 |DesignJet 650C |C LaserJet 8550* |LaserJet 3150 |
| |Business Inkjet 2200 |DesignJet 750C |Color LaserJet* |PhotoSmart |
| |Business Inkjet 2230 |DesignJet 750C Plus |Color LaserJet 5/5M* | |
| |Business Inkjet 2250 |DeskJet 350C |Color LaserJet 5000 | |
| |Business Inkjet 2250TN |DeskJet 420C |DesignJet 5500 | |
| |Business Inkjet 2280 |DeskJet 520 |LaserJet 2P Plus* | |
| |Business Inkjet 2600 |DeskJet 560C |LaserJet 3P* | |
| |Business Inkjet 3000 |LaserJet 2D |LaserJet 3Si* | |
| |Color Inkjet Printer CP1160 |LaserJet 3200 |LaserJet 4 Plus/4M Plus*| |
| |Color Inkjet Printer CP1700 |LaserJet 3200m |LaserJet 4/4M* | |
| |Color LaserJet 2500 |LaserJet 3200se |LaserJet 4LJ Pro* | |
| |Color LaserJet 4500 |LaserJet 3330 MFP |LaserJet 4P/4MP* | |
| |Color LaserJet 4550 |OfficeJet |LaserJet 4PJ* | |
| |Color LaserJet 4600 |OfficeJet 300 |LaserJet 4Si/4Si Mx* | |
| |Color LaserJet 5500 |OfficeJet 330 |LaserJet 4V/4MV* | |
| |Color LaserJet 8550GN |OfficeJet 350 |LaserJet 5/5M* | |
| |DesignJet 3500CP |OfficeJet 500 |LaserJet 5P/5MP* | |
| |DesignJet 5500ps |OfficeJet 600 |LaserJet 5Si/5Si Mx/ | |
| |DesignJet ColorPro CAD |OfficeJet 625 |5Si Mopier* | |
| |DeskJet |OfficeJet 635 |LaserJet 6L/6L Gold* | |
| |DeskJet 200 |OfficeJet 710 |LaserJet 6P/6MP* | |
| |DeskJet 310 |OfficeJet D135 |LaserJet 500 Plus* | |
| |DeskJet 320 |OfficeJet D145 |LaserJet 1000 | |
| |DeskJet 340C |OfficeJet D155 |LaserJet 2000* | |
| |DeskJet 400 |OfficeJet G85 |LaserJet 4000/4000N* | |
| |DeskJet 450 |OfficeJet G95 |LaserJet 4000T/TN* | |
| |DeskJet 500 |OfficeJet K60 |LaserJet Classic* | |
| |DeskJet 500C |OfficeJet K80 |LaserJet Plus* | |
| |DeskJet 505J Plus |OfficeJet LX |LaserJet Series 2* | |
| |DeskJet 510 |OfficeJet T45 |ThinkJet | |
| |DeskJet 540C |OfficeJet T65 | | |
| |DeskJet 550C |OfficeJet V40 | | |
| |DeskJet 600 |PSC 950 | | |
| |DeskJet 610C |PSC 2210 | | |
| |DeskJet 610CL | | | |
| |DeskJet 612C | | | |
| |DeskJet 630C | | | |
| |DeskJet 632C | | | |
| |DeskJet 640C | | | |
| |DeskJet 648C | | | |
| |DeskJet 656C | | | |
| |DeskJet 660C | | | |
| |DeskJet 670C | | | |
| |DeskJet 670TV | | | |
| |DeskJet 672C | | | |
| |DeskJet 680C | | | |
| |DeskJet 682C | | | |
| |DeskJet 690C | | | |
| |DeskJet 692C | | | |
| |DeskJet 693C | | | |
| |DeskJet 694C | | | |
| |DeskJet 695C | | | |
| |DeskJet 697C | | | |
| |DeskJet 710C | | | |
| |DeskJet 712C | | | |
| |DeskJet 720C | | | |
| |DeskJet 722C | | | |
| |DeskJet 810C | | | |
| |DeskJet 812C | | | |
| |DeskJet 815C | | | |
| |DeskJet 816C | | | |
| |DeskJet 820C | | | |
| |DeskJet 825C | | | |
| |DeskJet 830C | | | |
| |DeskJet 832C | | | |
| |DeskJet 840C | | | |
| |DeskJet 841C | | | |
| |DeskJet 842C | | | |
| |DeskJet 843C | | | |
| |DeskJet 845C | | | |
| |DeskJet 850C | | | |
| |DeskJet 855C | | | |
| |DeskJet 870C | | | |
| |DeskJet 880C | | | |
| |DeskJet 882C | | | |
| |DeskJet 890C | | | |
| |DeskJet 895C | | | |
| |DeskJet 916C | | | |
| |DeskJet 920C | | | |
| |DeskJet 930C | | | |
| |DeskJet 932C | | | |
| |DeskJet 933C | | | |
| |DeskJet 934C | | | |
| |DeskJet 935C | | | |
| |DeskJet 940C | | | |
| |DeskJet 948C | | | |
| |DeskJet 950C | | | |
| |DeskJet 952C | | | |
| |DeskJet 955C | | | |
| |DeskJet 957C | | | |
| |DeskJet 959C | | | |
| |DeskJet 960C | | | |
| |DeskJet 970C | | | |
| |DeskJet 975C | | | |
| |DeskJet 980C | | | |
| |DeskJet 990C | | | |
| |DeskJet 995C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1000C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1100C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1120C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1125C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1200C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1220C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1600C | | | |
| |DeskJet 1600CM | | | |
| |DeskJet 3820 | | | |
| |DeskJet 5550 | | | |
| |DeskJet 5551 | | | |
| |DeskJet 6122 | | | |
| |DeskJet 6127 | | | |
| |DeskJet Plus | | | |
| |DeskJet Portable | | | |
| |LaserJet | | | |
| |LaserJet 2 | | | |
| |LaserJet 2 w/PS | | | |
| |LaserJet 2P | | | |
| |LaserJet 2P Plus | | | |
| |LaserJet 3 | | | |
| |LaserJet 3D | | | |
| |LaserJet 3P w/ PCL5 | | | |
| |LaserJet 3P w/PS | | | |
| |LaserJet 4 | | | |
| |LaserJet 4 Plus | | | |
| |LaserJet 4L | | | |
| |LaserJet 4M | | | |
| |LaserJet 4ML | | | |
| |LaserJet 4P | | | |
| |LaserJet 4Si | | | |
| |LaserJet 4V | | | |
| |LaserJet 4V/4LJ Pro* | | | |
| |LaserJet 5 | | | |
| |LaserJet 5L | | | |
| |LaserJet 5M | | | |
| |LaserJet 5MP | | | |
| |LaserJet 5P | | | |
| |LaserJet 5Si | | | |
| |LaserJet 6 | | | |
| |LaserJet 6L | | | |
| |LaserJet 6MP | | | |
| |LaserJet 6P | | | |
| |LaserJet 1100 | | | |
| |LaserJet 1100A | | | |
| |LaserJet 1200 | | | |
| |LaserJet 1220 | | | |
| |LaserJet 2100 | | | |
| |LaserJet 2100M | | | |
| |LaserJet 2200 | | | |
| |LaserJet 3300 MFP | | | |
| |LaserJet 3310 MFP | | | |
| |LaserJet 3320 MFP | | | |
| |LaserJet 3320N MFP | | | |
| |LaserJet 4000 | | | |
| |LaserJet 4050 | | | |
| |LaserJet 4100 | | | |
| |LaserJet 5000 | | | |
| |LaserJet 5100 | | | |
| |LaserJet 8000 | | | |
| |LaserJet 8100 | | | |
| |LaserJet 8150 | | | |
| |LaserJet 9000 | | | |
| |LaserJet Plus | | | |
| |Mopier 240 | | | |
| |Mopier 320 | | | |
| |OfficeJet D125 | | | |
| |OfficeJet G55 | | | |
| |OfficeJet Pro 1150C | | | |
| |OfficeJet Pro 1170C | | | |
| |OfficeJet Pro 1175C | | | |
| |OfficeJet R45 | | | |
| |OfficeJet R60 | | | |
| |OfficeJet R65 | | | |
| |OfficeJet R80 | | | |
| |PSC 370 | | | |
| |PSC 380 | | | |
| |PSC 500 | | | |
| |PSC 750 | | | |
| |PSC 2110 | | | |
| |PSC 2150 | | | |
| |PaintJet | | | |
| |PaintJet XL | | | |
| |PaintJet XL300 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart 7150 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart 7350 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart 7550 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P100 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P130 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P230 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P1000 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P1100 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P1115 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P1215 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P1218 | | | |
| |PhotoSmart P1315 | | | |
| |e-printer e20 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Hansum | | |BJ-330H* | |
| | | |HS-650C* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Heidelberg |Digimaster 9110* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Hitachi |DDP 70 (with MicroPress)* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|IBM |3853 JetPrinter* | |4029 030 LaserPrinter 10| |
| |4019* | |* | |
| |4029 10P* | |5183 Portable Printer* | |
| |4303 Network Color Printer* | |Infoprint 20* | |
| |Execjet 4072* | |Infoprint 21* | |
| |Infoprint 12* | |Infoprint 32* | |
| |Page Printer 3112* | |Infoprint 40* | |
| |ProPrinterII* | |Infoprint 70* | |
| | | |Infoprint 2085* | |
| | | |Infoprint 2105* | |
| | | |Network Printer 12* | |
| | | |Network Printer 17* | |
| | | |Network Printer 24* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Imagen |ImPress* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Infotec |4651 MF* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Jepcom | | |JP-B330* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Kodak |DigiSource 9110* | | | |
| |IS 70 CPII* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Kyocera |F-800T* |FS-3500* |F-800A/F-800* | |
| |F-1010* | |F-820* | |
| |F-3300 | |F-1000A/F-1000* | |
| |FS-600* | |F-1200S* | |
| |FS-600 (KPDL-2)* | |F-1800A/F-1800* | |
| |FS-680* | |F-2000A/F-2200S* | |
| |FS-800* | |F-3000A/F-3300* | |
| |FS-1000* | |F-5000A/F-5000* | |
| |FS-1000+ | |FS-400A/FS-400* | |
| |FS-1010 | |FS-850A/FS-850* | |
| |FS-1200 | |FS-1500A/FS-1500* | |
| |FS-1700+* | |FS-1550+* | |
| |FS-1750* | |FS-1550A/FS-1550* | |
| |FS-1800 | |FS-1600+* | |
| |FS-1900 | |FS-1600A/FS-1600* | |
| |FS-3750* | |FS-1700* | |
| |FS-3800 | |FS-1800/FS-1800N* | |
| |FS-5900C* | |FS-3400+* | |
| |FS-9100DN | |FS-3400A/FS-3400* | |
| |FS-9500DN | |FS-3500A/FS-3500* | |
| |P-2000* | |FS-3600+* | |
| | | |FS-3600A/FS-3600* | |
| | | |FS-3700* | |
| | | |FS-3700+* | |
| | | |FS-3800/FS-3800N* | |
| | | |FS-5500A/FS-5500* | |
| | | |FS-5800C* | |
| | | |FS-6300* | |
| | | |FS-6500/6500+* | |
| | | |FS-6700* | |
| | | |FS-6900* | |
| | | |FS-7000* | |
| | | |FS-7000+* | |
| | | |FS-9000* | |
| | | |LS 6550* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|LaserMaster | | | |LM 1000 |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Lexmark |4039 10plus |1020 Business* |1000 |Winwriter 100* |
| |E210 |3000* |1020* |Winwriter 150c* |
| |Optra C710 |3200 |1100 |Winwriter 200* |
| |Optra Color 40 |4076* |2030* |Z13 |
| |Optra Color 45 |Z31 |2050 |Z23 |
| |Optra Color 1200 |Z42* |2070 |Z33 |
| |Optra Color 1275 | |5000 | |
| |Optra E* | |5700* | |
| |Optra E+* | |7000* | |
| |Optra E310 | |7200 | |
| |Optra E312* | |Winwriter 400* | |
| |Optra Ep* | |X73 | |
| |Optra K 1220 | |Z11 | |
| |Optra M410 | |Z12 | |
| |Optra M412 | |Z22* | |
| |Optra R+* | |Z32 | |
| |Optra S 1250* | |Z43* | |
| |Optra S 1855* | |Z51 | |
| |Optra Se 3455* | |Z82 | |
| |Optra T610 | | | |
| |Optra T612 | | | |
| |Optra T614 | | | |
| |Optra T616 | | | |
| |Optra W810 | | | |
| |Valuewriter 300* | | | |
| |Z52 | | | |
| |Z53 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Minolta |PagePro 6* | |PagePro 8L* |PagePro 6L |
| |PagePro 6e* | | |PagePro 1100L |
| |PagePro 6ex* | | | |
| |PagePro 8* | | | |
| |PagePro 1100 | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Mitsubishi |CP50 Color Printer* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|NEC |MultiWriter* | |SuperScript 100C* |SuperScript 610plus|
| |P2X* | |SuperScript 150C* |* |
| |PC-PR150* | |SuperScript 650C* |SuperScript 660* |
| |PC-PR201* | |SuperScript 750C* |SuperScript 660plus|
| |PC-PR1000* | |SuperScript 860* |* |
| |PC-PR2000* | |SuperScript 870* | |
| |PICTY180* | |SuperScript 1260* | |
| |PinWriter P6* | | | |
| |PinWriter P6 plus* | | | |
| |PinWriter P7* | | | |
| |PinWriter P7 plus* | | | |
| |PinWriter P60* | | | |
| |PinWriter P70* | | | |
| |Pinwriter P20* | | | |
| |SilentWriter LC 890* | | | |
| |Silentwriter 95f* | | | |
| |Silentwriter2 S60P* | | | |
| |Silentwriter2 model 290* | | | |
| |SuperScript 660i* | | | |
| |SuperScript 1800 | | | |
| |SuperScript 4600N* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Oce |3165* | | | |
| |9050* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Okidata |ML 320 |DP 5000 |ML-184 Turbo* |Okijet 2010 |
| |ML 321 |Microline 182 |ML-192* | |
| |ML 380* |OL400w* |ML-193* | |
| |Microline 600CL* |OL410e |ML-320* | |
| |Microline 620CL* |OL610e/S |ML-320 Turbo* | |
| |Microline IBM compatible 9 pin*|Okijet 2500* |ML-321* | |
| |OL400 |Okipage 4w |ML-321 Turbo* | |
| |OL400e |Okipage 4w+* |ML-380* | |
| |OL400ex |Okipage 6w |ML-390* | |
| |OL600e* |Okipage 8w |ML-390 Turbo* | |
| |OL610e/PS |Okipage 8w Lite |ML-391* | |
| |OL800 |Okipage 8z |ML-391 Turbo* | |
| |OL810e/PS |Super 6e |ML-393* | |
| |OL810ex | |ML-393C* | |
| |OL830Plus | |ML-395B* | |
| |Okipage 6e | |ML-395C* | |
| |Okipage 6ex* | |ML-520* | |
| |Okipage 8c | |ML-521* | |
| |Okipage 8p | |ML-590* | |
| |Okipage 10e | |ML-591* | |
| |Okipage 10ex | |ML-3410* | |
| |Okipage 12i | |ML-4410* | |
| |Okipage 14ex | |Microline 192+* | |
| |Okipage 20DXn | |OL410ex* | |
| | | |OL810e* | |
| | | |OL820* | |
| | | |OL1200* | |
| | | |OkiPage 6e/6ex* | |
| | | |OkiPos 425D* | |
| | | |OkiPos 425S* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Olivetti |JP350S* | |JP450 | |
| |JP470* | | | |
| |PG 306* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Others | | |BJ-230* | |
| | | |HDMF NONE-FF* | |
| | | |LG GIP 3000Q_3000+* | |
| | | |VP-6570K* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|PCPI |1030* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Panasonic |KX-P1123* |KX-P2123* |KX-P1124i* |KX-P6100* |
| |KX-P1124* |KX-P6150* |KX-P1180* |KX-P6300 GDI* |
| |KX-P1150* | |KX-P1180i* |KX-P8410* |
| |KX-P2023* | |KX-P1191* | |
| |KX-P2135* | |KX-P1624* | |
| |KX-P2150* | |KX-P1654* | |
| |KX-P4410* | |KX-P1695* | |
| |KX-P4450* | |KX-P2124* | |
| |KX-P5400* | |KX-P2130* | |
| |KX-P8420* | |KX-P2180* | |
| |KX-P8475* | |KX-P2624* | |
| | | |KX-P3123* | |
| | | |KX-P3124* | |
| | | |KX-P3624* | |
| | | |KX-P6500* | |
| | | |KX-PS600* | |
| | | |KX-Pxxxx 24-pin* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Pentax |PocketJet 200 | | | |
| |PocketJet II | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Printrex | | |820 DL* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|QMS |2425 Turbo EX* |ps-810* | |magicolor 2 |
| |LPK-100* | | | |
| |magicolor 2+* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Qnix | | |PICASSOI* | |
| | | |PICASSOII* | |
| | | |QBJ-3630E* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Raven | |LP-410 | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Ricoh |4081* |Aficio 401* | |Aficio Color 2206* |
| |4801* | | |Afico FX10* |
| |6000* | | | |
| |Aficio 220* | | | |
| |Aficio 700 | | | |
| |Aficio AP2000 | | | |
| |RPDL I Laser Printer* | | | |
| |RPDL II Laser Printer* | | | |
| |RPDL III Laser Printer* | | | |
| |RPDL IV Laser Printer* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Sambo | | |PageJet P1* | |
| | | |PageJet P2* | |
| | | |Stylus 800H+* | |
| | | |Stylus 1000H+* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Samsung |ML-85* |ML-85G |MJ 630V* |ML-5050G* |
| |ML-200 |QL-85G |SLB-3106G* |SF/MSYS/MJ-4700/ |
| |ML-210 | |SP-2417HW* |4800/4500C* |
| |ML-1000 | |SP-2421HW* | |
| |ML-1010 | |SP-2433HW* | |
| |ML-1020 | |SP-4017* | |
| |ML-1200 | |SP-4021* | |
| |ML-1210 | | | |
| |ML-1220 | | | |
| |ML-4500 | | | |
| |ML-4600* | | | |
| |ML-5000a* | | | |
| |ML-5080 | | | |
| |ML-6000/6100* | | | |
| |ML-6040 | | | |
| |ML-7000/7000P/7000N* | | | |
| |ML-7050* | | | |
| |QL-5100A* | | | |
| |QL-6050* | | | |
| |SI-630A* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Seiko |SpeedJET 200* |SLP* | | |
| | |SLP 120* | | |
| | |SLP 220* | | |
| | |SLP EZ30* | | |
| | |SLP Plus* | | |
| | |SLP Pro* | | |
| | |SLP-100* | | |
| | |SLP-200* | | |
| | |SLP-240* | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Sharp |AR-161* |AJ-1800 | |AJ-2100 |
| | |AJ-1805 | | |
| | |AJ-2000 | | |
| | |AJ-2005 | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Sindo | | |ExecJet 4072* | |
| | | |ExecJet 4076* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Sony | | |IJP-V100 | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Star |JJ-100* |LC 90* |LC 24-15 Multi-Font* |WinType 4000* |
| |LC24-100* |LC24-200* |LC 24-20 Multi-Font* | |
| |LS-04 |LaserPrinter 8 |LC 24-200 Colour* | |
| |NL-10* |NX-1001* |LC-15 Multi-Font* | |
| | |StarJet 48* |LC-20* | |
| | | |LC-100 Colour* | |
| | | |NX-1040R* | |
| | | |NX-1500* | |
| | | |NX-2415* | |
| | | |NX-2420R* | |
| | | |NX-2430* | |
| | | |Starjet SJ-144* | |
| | | |XB 24-200 Multi-Font* | |
| | | |XB 24-250 Multi-Font* | |
| | | |XB-2420* | |
| | | |XB-2425* | |
| | | |XR-1020* | |
| | | |XR-1520* | |
| | | |ZA-200 Multi-Font* | |
| | | |ZA-250 Multi-Font* | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Tally |MT908* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Tektronix |3693d color printer, 8-bit mode|Phaser 350* | | |
| |* | | | |
| |4693d color printer, 2-bit mode| | | |
| |* | | | |
| |4693d color printer, 4-bit mode| | | |
| |* | | | |
| |4695* | | | |
| |4696* | | | |
| |4697* | | | |
| |Phaser 780 | | | |
| |Phaser 850* | | | |
| |Phaser IISX* | | | |
| |Phaser PX* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|Xerox |2700 XES |Able 1406 |DocuPrint C8* |DocuPrint P8* |
| |3700 XES |DocuPrint C6* |DocuPrint C11* |WorkCentre 385 |
| |4045 XES* |DocuPrint M750* |DocuPrint XJ6C |WorkCentre XD120f* |
| |DocuPrint 4508 |DocuPrint M760* |DocuPrint XJ8C |WorkCentre XE80 |
| |DocuPrint C20 |DocuPrint P8e |Document Homecentre |WorkCentre XE90fx |
| |DocuPrint C55* |DocuPrint P12* |WorkCentre 450cp* | |
| |DocuPrint N17 |DocuPrint P1202* |WorkCentre 470cx* | |
| |DocuPrint N32* | |WorkCentre XK35c | |
| |DocuPrint N4512 | | | |
| |DocuPrint N4512 PS | | | |
| |Document Centre 400* | | | |
+------------+-------------------------------+----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
* This entry has not been sanity-checked.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.4. How to buy a printer
It's a bit difficult to select a printer these days; there are many models to
choose from. Here are some shopping tips:
Cost
You get what you pay for. Most printers under $200-300 can print
reasonably well, but printing costs a lot per page. For some printers, it
only takes one or two cartridges to add up to the cost of a new printer!
This is specially true for cheap inkjets. Similarly, the cheapest
printers won't last very long. The least expensive printers, for example,
have a MTBF of about three months; obviously these are poorly suited for
heavy use.
Inkjets
Inkjet printheads will clog irreparably over time, so the ability to
replace the head somehow is a feature. Inkjet printheads are expensive,
with integrated head/ink cartridges costing ten times (!) what ink-only
cartridges go for, so the ability to replace the head only when needed is
a feature. Epson Styluses tend to have fixed heads, and HP DeskJets tend
to have heads integrated into the cartridges. Canons have three-part
cartridges with independently replaceable ink tanks; I like this design.
OTOH, the HP cartridges aren't enormously more expensive, and HP makes a
better overall line; Canon is often the third choice from the print
quality standpoint. Epson Styluses and HP inkjets are the best supported
by free software at the moment.
Lasers
Laser printers consume a drum and toner, plus a little toner wiping bar.
The cheapest designs include toner and drum together in a big cartridge;
these designs cost the most to run. The best designs for large volume
take plain toner powder or at least separate toner cartridges and drums.
Photography
The best color photograph output is from continuous tone printers which
use a silver halide plus lasers approach to produce??surprise!??actual
photographs. Since these printers cost tens of thousands to buy, [http://
www.ofoto.com] Ofoto.com offers inexpensive print-by-print jobs. The
results are stunning; even the best inkjets don't compare.
The best affordable photo prints come from the dye-sublimation devices
like some members of the Alps series (thermal transfer of dry ink or dye
sublimation), or the few consumer-grade Sony photo printers.
Unfortunately the Alps devices have poor free software support (the one
report I have from a Alps user of the Ghostscript driver speaks of
banding and grainy pictures), and even then it's unclear if the dye-sub
option is supported. I have no idea if the Sonys work at all.
The more common photo-specialized inkjets usually feature 6 color CMYKcm
printing or even a 7 color CMYKcmy process. All photo-specialized
printers are expensive to run; either you always run out of blue and have
to replace the whole cartridge, or the individual color refills for your
high-end photo printer cost an arm and a leg. Special papers cost a
bundle, too; you can expect top-quality photo inkjet output to run over a
US dollar per page. See also the section on printing photographs later in
this document, and the sections on color tuning (such as it is) in
Ghostscript.
Lately color lasers have been getting a lot cheaper, these devices may be
interesting for color reports. Color lasers are a lot cheaper per page
than inkjets. However they may still not be suited for photographs. One
day color lasers may become common and replace those boring monochrome
laser printers.
Speed
Speed is proportional to processing power, bandwidth, and generally
printer cost. The fastest printers will be networked Postscript printers
with powerful internal processors. Consumer-grade printers will depend
partly on Ghostscript's rendering speed, which you can affect by having a
reasonably well-powered machine; full pages of color, in particular, can
consume large amounts of host memory. As long as you actuallyhave that
memory, things should work out fine.
Forms
If you want to print on multicopy forms, then you need an impact printer;
many companies still make dot matrix printers, most of which emulate
traditional Epson models and thus work fine.
Labels
There are two supported lines of label printer; look for the Dymo-Costar
and the Seiko SLP models. Other models may or may not work. Avery also
makes various sizes of stick-on labels in 8.5x11 format that you can run
through a regular printer.
Plotting
Big drafting formats are usually supported these days by monster inkjets;
HP is a popular choice. Mid-sized (11x17) inkjets are also commonly used
for smaller prints. Much plotting of this sort is done with the languages
RTL, HP-GL, and HP-GL/2, all of which are simple HP proprietary vector
languages usually generated directly by application software.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Spooling software
Until recently, the choice for free software users was simple - everyone ran
the same old lpd lifted mostly verbatim out of BSD's Net-2 code. Even today,
some vendors ship this software. But this is beginning to change. SVR4-like
systems including Sun's Solaris come with a completely different print
spooling package, centered around lpsched.
Today, there are a number of good systems to chose from. They are all
described below; read the descriptions and make your own choice. CUPS is a
good option and recommended for most users; it has excellent Postscript
printer support, offers IPP support, a web interface, and a number of other
features. For business environments with mainly networked Postscript
printers, a front-end program like GPR with LPRng is another option; it
handles PPD options directly and has a nice interface.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1. CUPS
[http://www.cups.org/] CUPS has become the standard printing system in most
distributions today. What makes CUPS different from the rest ? CUPS is an
implementation of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), a new standard
intended to solve some of the deficiencies of the old LPD protocol. CUPS also
supports LPD, SMB and AppSocket (JetDirect) with reduced functionality. The
implementation of CUPS has been driven by Michael Sweet of Easy Software
Products; CUPS is distributed under the GPL. Being a new protocol, the IPP
has a number of advantages on the ancient LPD protocol:
* the scheduler is a HTTP 1.1 web server and also delivers a web interface
* printer options, you can even ask the IPP device what options and
document formats it supports.
* access control which restricts print jobs, job controls, and system
administration commands coming from and to specified computers and
printers. Like Apache, you can control access to CUPS using Allow and
Deny directives.
* proxy support (since IPP uses HTTP)
* encryption support
*
Today, all major operating system vendors actively support IPP, as well as
the major printer vendors. IPP is a standard printing protocol in Windows
2000 (IIS needs to be installed) which may be a better option for free
software users than the proprietary SMB protocol. However, on Windows 2000
automatic printer driver downloading only works with SMB and not with IPP,
this may be a reason for administrators with a lot of Windows clients to
choose for SMB printer sharing using Samba and CUPS.
There are a number of very good features in it, including sensible option
handling; web, GUI, and command-line interfaces; and a mime-based filtering
system with strong support for Postscript.
There are several sets of PPDs which you can use with CUPS:
Built-in
The default CUPS installation contains generic PPDs for 9-pin and 24-pin
Epson matrix printers, Epson Stylus Color, Stylus Photo printers, HP
LaserJet, DeskJet printers and Dymo Label printers. These will enable you
to print to a lot of printer models, but will not give you access to
specific capacities of the models
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/foomatic.html] Foomatic
Foomatic can generate a suitable PPD for use with any printer driver that
has full details entered in the linuxprinting.org database. The PPD gets
used together with a backend script named foomatic-rip. foomatic-rip uses
free software drivers. At the moment there is support for a rather large
number of printers in this system. Foomatic forms a basis for
non-Postscript printer support in most GNU/Linux distributions. CUPS and
Foomatic are becoming quite popular and this is currently the recommended
printing system for most situations.
Postscript PPDs
CUPS can use vendor-supplied PPD files for Postscript printers directly.
Often these come with the Windows drivers for a printer, or can be found
on the printer vendor's website. If you have a choice between a driver
for Windows 9x and Windows NT/W2K, than select the driver for Windows NT.
[http://www.adobe.com/products/printerdrivers/winppd.html] Adobe also
distributes PPD files for many Postscript printers.
ESP Print Pro
Easy Software Products, Inc. sells CUPS bundled with a collection of
proprietary drivers. Although they are not free software, they do drive
many common printers. The bundle is somewhat expensive measured against
the price of a single supported printer, but it certainly has a place.
The package includes graphical front-end tools.
Gimp-Print
The [http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/] Gimp-Print drivers are high
quality drivers for Canon, Epson, Lexmark, and PCL printers for use with
Ghostscript, CUPS, Foomatic, and the Gimp.
[http://www-124.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/linux/projects/omni/] OMNI
Omni is a package made by IBM, now containing support for more than 450
printers. The OMNI printer driver model is distributed by IBM under LGPL
License.
[http://hpinkjet.sourceforge.net/] HPIJS
HPIJS supports around 150 of HP's own printers at excellent print quality
now (currently only via the Foomatic path). As of Version 1.0.1 , the "hp
Product Only" clause has been removed from the license and the drivers
are distributed with a BSD license.
The third-party program [http://cups.sourceforge.net/xpp/] XPP (see Figure 4)
offers a very nice graphical interface to the user functionality of CUPS,
including an marvelous interface to print-time options (shown in Figure 5).
For information on using XPP, see Section 3.4.2.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. LPD
LPD, the original BSD Unix Line Printer Daemon, has been the standard on Unix
for years. It is available for every style of Unix, and offers a rather
minimal feature set derived from the needs of timesharing-era computing.
Despite this somewhat peculiar history, it is still useful today as a basic
print spooler. To be really useful with modern printer, a good deal of extra
work is needed in the form of companion filter scripts and front-end
programs. But these exist, and it does all work.
LPD is also the name given to the network printing protocol by RFC 1179. This
network protocol is spoken not only by the LPD daemon itself, but by
essentially every networked print server, networked printer, and every other
print spooler out there; LPD is the least common denominator of
standards-based network printing.
[http://www.lprng.org] LPRng(see Section 6.3) is a far better implementation
of the basic LPD design than the regular one; if you must use LPD, consider
using LPRng instead. There is far less voodoo involved in making it do what
you want, and what voodoo there is is well documented. LPRng is essentially
an enhanced LPD implementation with better security and extra features.
There are a large number of LPD sources floating around in the world.
Arguably, some strain of BSD Unix is probably the official owner, but
everyone implements changes willy-nilly, and they all cross-pollinate in
unknown ways, such that it is difficult to say with certainty exactly which
LPD you might have. Of the readily available LPDs, [http://sourceforge.net/
projects/lpr/] GNUlpr offers one with a few minor modifications that make the
user interface much more flexible. The GNUlpr supports command-line option
specification with a-o flag; options are then passed through to filters. This
is similar to the features offered by a number of traditional Unix vendors,
and similar to (although incompatible with) LPRng's -z option mechanism.
If you go with LPD, the best way to use it is via a front-end. There are
several to chose from; KDEPrint, GPR (see Section 3.4) and XPP are perhaps
the best. Others exist; tell me about them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3. LPRng
Some GNU/Linux vendors provide LPRng, a far less ancient LPD print spooling
implementation. LPRng is far easier to administer for large installations
(read: more than one printer, any serial printers, or any peculiar non-lpd
network printers) and has a less frightfully haphazard codebase than does
stock lpd. It can even honestly claim to be secure - there are no SUID
binaries, and it supports authentication via PGP or Kerberos.
LPRng also includes some example setups for common network printers - HP
LaserJets, mainly - that include some accounting abilities. LPRng uses more
or less the same basic filter model as does BSD lpd, so the LPD support
offered by the linuxprinting.org website applies to LPRng as well. This can
help you effectively use free software drivers for many printers.
LPRng is distributed under either the GPL or an Artistic license.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.4. PPR
[http://ppr.trincoll.edu/] PPR is a Postscript-centric spooler which includes
a rudimentary Postscript parsing ability from which it derives several nice
features. It includes good accounting capabilities, good support for
Appletalk, SMB, and LPD clients, and much better error handling than lpd.
PPR, like every other spooler here, can call Ghostscript to handle
non-Postscript printers.
PPR was written by, and is in use at, Trinity College. The license is
BSD-style; free for all use but credit is due.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.5. Others
6.5.1. PDQ
PDQ stands for "Print, Don't Queue", and the way it works reflects this
design. PDQ is a non-daemon-centric print system which has a built-in, and
sensible, driver configuration syntax. This includes the ability to declare
printing options, and a GUI or command line tool for users to specify these
options with; users get a nice dialog box in which to specify resolution,
duplexing, paper type, etc.
Running all of the filters as the user has a number of advantages: the
security problems possible from Postscript are mostly gone, multi-file LaTeX
jobs can be printed effectively as dvi files, and so forth.
PDQ is not without flaws: most notably it processes the entire job before
sending it to the printer. This means that, for large jobs, PDQ may simply be
impracticalâyou can end up with hundreds of megs being copied back and
forth on your disk. Even worse, for slow drivers like the better quality
inkjet drivers, the job will not start printing until Ghostscript and the
driver have finished processing. This may be many minutes after submission.
There's a real place for PDQ; it has a simple design that doesn't subtract
user control. And the normal control path crosses no security boundaries, so
it can't have the classes of security bug people are always finding in other
systems. And to top it off, it's small.
However there is no active development done on PDQ. A new maintainer would be
most welcome.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.5.2. GNUlpr
GNUlpr began its life in some work that HP sponsored VA Linux to do.
Unfortunately, GNUlpr is now pretty much dead.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.5.3. CPS
The [http://www.tww.cx/cps.php] Coherent Printing System is a set of Perl
scripts called "lpr", "lpd", "lprm", and "lpq". These replace the programs of
the same name which come with many Linux systems.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.5.4. CEPS
The Cisco Enterprise Print System was developed by Damian Ivereigh when he
was a sysadmin at Cisco. He did more than he was hired to do, he developed a
new printing system to improve the administrative hassle. Cisco authorized
the release of the software for free under the GNU General Public License.
Installing CEPS will however only pay off at large organisations.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. How it all works
In order to get printing working well, you need to understand how your
spooling software works. All systems work in essentially the same way,
although the exact order might vary a bit, and some systems skip a step or
two:
Figure 10. Spooling Illustration
[spool-illustration]
1. The user submits a job along with his selection of options. The job data
is usually, but not always, Postscript.
2. The spooling system copies the job and the options over the network in
the general direction of the printer.
3. The spooling system waits for the printer to be available.
4.
5. The spooling system applies the user's selected options to the job, and
translates the job data into the printer's native language, which is
usually not Postscript. This step is called filtering; most of the work
in setting things up lies in getting the proper filtering to happen.
6. The job is done. The spooling system will usually do assorted cleanup
things at this point. If there was an error along the way, the spooler
will usually notify the user somehow (for example, by email).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1. CUPS
To print a job with CUPS, you can use both the BSD (see Section 5.3.1) and
System V commands making it really easy for people with prior experience with
either system.
Figure 11. Simplified CUPS illustration
[cups-overview]
Initially CUPS lacked an LPD backend. This was of course quickly added.
Currently there are backends available for at least IPP, LPD, SMB, JetDirect,
USB, Netatalk, parallel and serial printers. You may find others on the net
or write your own.
There are only a handfull of built-in drivers, allowing you to print with
most printers but probably not at the maximum resolution. A PPD file for a
Postscript driver can be added to CUPS but if you want to print at best
quality with your fancy new HP Deskjet you are out of luck. It is here that
Foomatic comes to the rescue. You can use Foomatic in combination with CUPS.
Foomatic uses a CUPS filter called foomatic-rip to do its magic. foomatic-rip
uses PPD files to describe printer capabilities, even for non-Postscript
printers. CUPS + Foomatic is currently the recommended printing system. Some
Linux distributions already use it and the number that do will only grow.
The CUPS scheduler does not only accept jobs, it is also a administrative
webinterface. Currently you can add/delete printers, cancel jobs, start/stop
printers. Moving jobs will be available in a later release.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. LPD
Lpd stands for Line Printer Daemon, and refers in different contexts to both
the daemon and the whole collection of programs which run print spooling.
These are:
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/lpd.8.html] lpd
The spooling daemon. One of these runs to control everything on a
machine, AND one is run per printer while the printer is printing.
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/lpr.1.html] lpr
The user spooling command. Lpr contacts lpd and injects a new print job
into the spool.
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/lpq.1.html] lpq
Lists the jobs in a print queue.
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/lpc.8.html] lpc
The Lpd system control command. With lpc you can stop, start, reorder,
etc, the print queues.
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/lprm.1.html] lprm
lprm removes a job from the print spool.
So how does it fit together? The following things happen:
1. At boot time, lpd is run. It waits for connections and manages printer
queues.
2. A user submits a job with the lpr command or, alternatively, with an lpr
front-end like GPR, PDQ, etc.Lpr contacts lpd over the network and
submits both the user's data file (containing the print data) and a
control file (containing user options).
3. When the printer becomes available, the main lpd spawns a child lpd to
handle the print job.
4. The child lpd executes the appropriate filter(s) (as specified in the if
attribute in/etc/printcap) for this job and sends the resulting data on
to the printer.
The lp system was originally designed when most printers were line printers -
that is, people mostly printed plain ASCII. By placing all sorts of magic in
the if filter, modern printing needs can be met with lpd (well, more or less;
many other systems do a better job).
There are many programs useful for writing LPD filters. Among them are:
gs
Ghostscript is a host-based Postscript interpreter (aka a Raster Image
Processor or RIP). It accepts Postscript and produces output in various
printer languages or a number of graphics formats. Ghostscript is covered
in Section 10.
ppdfilt
[http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=1658] ppdfilt is a standalone
version of a CUPS component. It filters Postscript, executing a few basic
transformations on it (n-up printing, multiple copies, etc) and adding in
user option statements according to a Postscript Printer Definition (PPD)
file usually included with Postscript printers.
ppdfilt is best used together with an option-accepting LPD system (like
the GNUlpr, or LPRng) and a filter script which parses user-provided
options into the equivalent ppdfilt command. VA Linux and HP provide a
modified rhs-printfilters package which does exactly this; it produces
nice results if you have a Postscript printer. See Section 8.2.2 for
information on this system.
ps2ps
ps2ps is a utility script included with Ghostscript. It filters
Postscript into more streamlined Postscript, possibly at a lower Language
Level. This is useful if you have an older Postscript printer; most
modern software produces modern Postscript.
mpage
mpage is a utility which accepts text or Postscript, and generates n-up
output??that is, output with several page images on each piece of paper.
There are actually several programs which do this, includingenscript,
nenscript, anda2ps.
a2ps
a2ps, aka any-to-ps, is a program which accepts a variety of file types
and converts them to Postscript for printing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. How to set things up
For common configurations, you can probably ignore this section entirely -
instead, you should jump straight to Section 9 below, or better yet, your
vendor's documentation. Most GNU/Linux distributions supply one or more
"idiot-proof" tools to do everything described here for common printers.
If your vendor's tool doesn't work out for you, or you'd like the ability to
interactively control printing options when you print, then you should use
some other system. APS Filter is another good system; it configures LPD
queues and filters very easily on most any sort of Unix system.
You can also use the printing system interfaces from the [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/] linuxprinting.org website to connect many free
drivers into several spooling systems. Once this project is complete, these
interfaces will offer the best functionality: all styles of free software
drivers are supported, user-settable options are available, and most common
spooling systems are supported. Currently the foomatic print system is used
in most modern distributions anyway. However, your distro may include a
slightly outdated version of foomatic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.1. Configuring CUPS
If you are using a client with CUPS and a CUPS server has already been
configured, installing the printers on your client can not get much easier
than this: do nothing. Through broadcasting, the client should find the CUPS
server and automatically configure the printers that are installed on that
print server. This is one of the features of CUPS that will be really
appreciated on large networks.
Manually configuring printers with CUPS, also is a peace of cake. If you are
new to CUPS and/or Unix printing, the way to go is probably the web
interface. If you have to configure lots of printers, using the command-line
will probably be faster.
The URL to access the CUPS web interface is http://hostname:631/admin by
default. The port can be changed in cupsd.conf if necessary.
To add a printer from the command-line the general syntax is lpadmin -p
printer -E -v device -m ppd Lpadmin with the -p option adds or modifies a
printer. The printers are saved in the file The -x option deletes the named
printer. Read the lpadmin man page for available options.
Example 3. command-line examples
/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p testpr1 -E -v socket://192.168.1.9 -m deskjet.ppd
/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p testpr2 -E -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -m laserjet.ppd
/usr/sbin/lpadmin -x testpr1
More information about configuring printers and options can be found in the
[http://www.cups.org/documentation.html] CUPS documentation. The Software
Administrators Manual will teach you all you need to know about configuring
printers with CUPS.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2. Configuring LPD
Until recently most GNU/Linux distributions shipped with LPD. This section
describes a very basic setup for LPD; further sections detail the creation of
complex filters and network configuration.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.1. Basic LPD configuration
The minimal setup for lpd results in a system that can queue files and print
them. It will not pay any attention to whether or not your printer will
understand them, and will probably not let you produce attractive output. But
we have to start somewhere.
To add a print queue to lpd, you must add an entry in/etc/printcap, and make
the new spool directory under /var/spool/lpd.
An entry in /etc/printcap looks like:
# LOCAL djet500
lp|dj|deskjet:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/dj:\
:mx#0:\
:lp=/dev/lp0:\
:sh:
This defines a spool called lp,dj, or deskjet, spooled in the directory /var/
spool/lpd/dj, with no per-job maximum size limit, which prints to the device/
dev/lp0, and which does not have a banner page (with the name of the person
who printed, etc) added to the front of the print job.
Go now and read the man page for [http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/
printcap.5.html] printcap.
The above looks very simple, but there a catch - unless I send in files a
DeskJet 500 can understand, this DeskJet will print strange things. For
example, sending an ordinary Unix text file to a deskjet results in literally
interpreted newlines, and gets me:
This is line one.
This is line two.
This is line three.
ad nauseam. Printing a PostScript file to this spool would get a beautiful
listing of the PostScript commands, printed out with this "staircase effect",
but no useful output.
Clearly more is needed, and this is the purpose of filtering. The more
observant of you who read the printcap man page might have noticed the spool
attributes if andof. Well, if, or the input filter, is just what we need
here.
If we write a small shell script called filter that adds carriage returns
before newlines, the staircasing can be eliminated. So we have to add in an
if line to our printcap entry above:
lp|dj|deskjet:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/dj:\
:mx#0:\
:lp=/dev/lp0:\
:if=/var/spool/lpd/dj/filter:\
:sh:
A simple filter script might be:
#!perl
# The above line should really have the whole path to perl
# This script must be executable: chmod 755 filter
while(<STDIN>){chomp $_; print "$_\r\n";};
# You might also want to end with a form feed: print "\f";
If we were to do the above, we'd have a spool to which we could print regular
Unix text files and get meaningful results. (Yes, there are four million
better ways to write this filter, but few so illustrative. You are encouraged
to do this more efficiently.)
The only remaining problem is that printing plain text is really not too hot
- surely it would be better to be able to print PostScript and other
formatted or graphic types of output. Well, yes, it would, and it's easy to
do. The method is simply an extension of the above linefeed-fixing filter.
Such a filter is called a magic filter. Don't bother writing one yourself
unless you print strange things - there are a good many written for you
already, and most have easy-to-use interactive configuration tools. You
should simply select a suitable pre-written filter:
foomatic-rip
[http://www.linuxprinting.org/lpd-doc.html] foomatic-rip is a filter
designed to use data from the LinuxPrinting.org printer database. It
supports essentially all free software printer drivers, including regular
Ghostscript drivers, Uniprint drivers, and the assorted filter programs
floating around out there. foomatic-rip works with CUPS, LPRng, LPD,
GNUlpr, PPR, PDQ, no spooler.
APS Filter
[http://www.apsfilter.org/] apsfilter is a filter designed for use on a
wide variety of Unices. It supports essentially all Ghostscript drivers.
It, too, works with various strains of LPD, including stock BSD and
LPRng.
RHS-Printfilters
RHS-Printfilters is a filter system constructed by Red Hat. It shipped
beginning, I think, in version 4 of Red Hat Linux, as the backend to the
easy-to-use printtool GUI printer configuration tool.
The rhs filter system is built on an ASCII database listing distributed
with it. This listing supports many Ghostscript and Uniprint drivers, but
not filter-style drivers. The filters constructed also do not support
much in the way of user-controllable options at print time.
The printtool places a configuration file named postscript.cfg in the
spool directory. Inside this Bourne shell-style file, each setting is a
variable. In unusual cases, you can make useful changes directly to the
config file which the printtool won't allow; typically this would be the
specification of an unusual Ghostscript driver, or a PPD filename for the
VA rhs-printfilters version.
VA Linux has made some enhancements to the rhs-printfilters system under
contract from HP. With the proper versions, it is possible to select
options for Postscript printers under control of Adobe PPD files. I cover
this system inSection 8.2.2.
There's one catch to such filters: older version of lpd don't run the if
filter for remote printers, while most newer ones do (although often with no
arguments). The version of LPD shipped with modern GNU/Linux and FreeBSD
distributions does; most commercial Unices that still ship LPD have a version
that does not. See the section on network printing later in this document for
more information on this. If you only have locally-connected printers, then
this won't affect you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.2. LPD for PostScript Printers
While most versions of LPD don't gracefully handle PostScript (never mind
user options), VA Linux modified LPD and Red Hat's filtering software to
support PostScript printers fairly well. Because the intention was to donate
the code to the gnu project, they called it [http://lpr.sourceforge.net/]
GNUlpr
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.2.1. How it works
VA's system uses Postscript Printer Definition, or PPD, files. PPD files are
provided by printer manufacturers and declare the available options on a
printer, along with the Postscript code needed to activate them. With the VA
system, the normal LPD scheme works a little differently:
1. The user can specify options with the -o flag. For example, you might
specify -o MediaType:Transparency if you were about to print on overhead
film. Alternatively, the front-end [http://www.compumetric.com/
linux.html] GPR can be used to specify options in a dialog box; you can
see screenshots of GPR in Section 3.4.3.
2. LPR passes the options to LPD as an extended attribute in the LPD control
file.
3. A modified version of the rhs-printfilters package is given the extended
options data in an environment variable, and uses ppdfilt to add these
options to the print data.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.2.2. Obtaining and Installing
You can obtain RPM packages, or source tarballs, from the project's website
on SourceForge. For installation details, consult the project's installation
micro-HOWTO. In essence, you need to uninstall the Red Hat version of
printtool, lpd, and rhs-printfilters entirely, and then install the VA
versions, plus ppdfilt, gpr, and a few other utilities.
You will also need PPD files for your Postscript printers. PPD files are
usually fairly easy to find. VA Linux and HP distribute PPD files for many
Laserjet models. Other vendors provide PPDs for their own printers, and Adobe
distributes [http://www.adobe.com/products/printerdrivers/winppd.html] PPD
files for many printers.
At the moment, much of this is a bit difficult to install. But future
installation tools will build upon the printer configuration library
libprinterconf, which enables both the autodetection and rhs-printfilter
configuration of both networked and local printers.
Note It is possible to use GPR alone, without the modified LPD or even
rhs-printfilters. GPR can be compiled with all the logic needed to
massage Postscript jobs directly. This may be an easier-to-install
option suitable for people who never really need to print using lpr
directly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.2.3. Controlling Postscript Options
Once you've setup VA's Postscript-capable LPD system (GNUlpr), you can
control your printer's options in two ways:
With the GUI
To use GPR, you first make sure that you've specified the proper PPD
file. Then the printer's options will be available on the `Advanced'
panel. Basic ppdfilt options will be available on the `Common' panel.
With the command line
This lpr supports the -o option. You may specify any option/value pair
from your printer's PPD file with -o. For example, consider this PPD file
option clause:
*OpenUI *PrintQuality/Print Quality: PickOne
*DefaultPrintQuality: None
*OrderDependency: 150 AnySetup *PrintQuality
*PrintQuality None/Printer Setting: ""
*PrintQuality Quick/QuickPrint: "<< /DeviceRenderingInfo ...
*PrintQuality Normal/Normal: "<< /DeviceRenderingInfo << /...
*PrintQuality Pres/Presentation: "<< /DeviceRenderingInfo ...
*PrintQuality Image/1200 Image Quality: "<< /DeviceRenderi...
*CloseUI: *PrintQuality
For the option PrintQuality, the possible values are Quick, Normal,Pres,
or Image. You might give a command like:
% lpr -o PrintQuality:Image file.ps
There are a number of options common to all printers which will work in
addition to the ones from your PPD. These include:
page-ranges
You can specify a range of pages to print. For example,page-ranges:
2-3.
page-set
You can print only odd or even pages. For example,page-set:odd.
number-up
You can print multiple pages on each piece of paper. For example,
number-up:2.
Other options are detailed in the ppdfilt man page.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.3. File Permissions
By popular demand, I include below a listing of the permissions on
interesting files on my system. There are a number of better ways to do this,
ideally using only SGID binaries and not making everything SUID root, but
this is how my system came out of the box, and it works for me. (Quite
frankly, if your vendor can't even ship a working lpd you're in for a rough
ride).
-r-sr-sr-x 1 root lp /usr/bin/lpr*
-r-sr-sr-x 1 root lp /usr/bin/lprm*
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root /usr/sbin/lpd*
-r-xr-sr-x 1 root lp /usr/sbin/lpc*
drwxrwxr-x 4 root lp /var/spool/lpd/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root lp /var/spool/lpd/lp/
Lpd must currently be run as root so that it can bind to the low-numbered lp
service port. It should probably become UID lp.lp or something after binding,
but I don't think it does. This is simply one more reason to avoid the stock
BSD LPD.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3. Large Installations
Large installations, by which I mean networks including more than two
printers or hosts, have special needs. Below are some tips.
CUPS has some nice features that make a good choice for a large network.
Printer classes, access control and automatic client configuration to name a
few.
If you use LPD, for really large environments, merely distributing printcap/
filter information becomes a difficult problem; the Cisco Enterprise Print
System addresses this and is probably either a good starting point or a
nearly complete solution, depending on your needs. Medium to large
environments can be well supported by native LPRng features.
* Each printer should have a single point of control, where an
administrator can pause, reorder, or redirect the queue. To implement
this, have everyone printing to a local server, which will then queue
jobs and direct them to the proper printer. For large campuses or
distributed networks, have one server per building or other suitable
network subset.
* Use CUPS or LPRng, at least on servers; the BSD LPD is too buggy for
"real" use. But don't take my word for it??you should test a number of
spoolers and see which suits you best.
* Client systems should not have unique printing configurations. CUPS
provides automatic client configuration of printers on the same subnet.
You can even configure CUPS (BrowsePoll) to poll servers on other subnets
for available printers. These features limit the amount of configuration
that needs to take place at the client. To implement a uniform printing
configuration with LPRng, use LPRng's extended printcap syntax so that
you have one printcap to use everywhere. CEPS provides for this by
building atop a lightweight distributed database instead of traditional
printcap files.
* Print queues should not be named for make or model; name print queues for
something sensible like location (floor2_nw) or capability
(color_transparency). Three years from now, when a printer breaks, you
will be able to replace it with a different make or model without causing
confusion.
* Operate a web page which shows detailed information on each printer,
including location, capabilities, etc. Consider having it show the queue
and include a button to remove jobs from the queue. Complex networked
environments are unmanageable for users without proper documentation.
* On Windows and Apple systems, use either the platform-specific drivers
everywhere (Samba supports the Windows automagical driver-download
mechanism) or, better, use generic Postscript drivers everywhere. Do not
mix and match; primitive word processors often produce different output
when the installed printer driver changes; users cannot deal with output
that varies depending on the particular client/printer pair.
* If at all possible, buy a large-volume printer for large-volume printing.
If on a budget, use LPRng's multiple printers/one queue facility or CUPS
printer classes and assign a babysitter; printers are complex mechanical
devices that will often jam and run out of paper in such configurations.
* Do not feel that printers must be plugged into workstations; Ethernet
"print servers" now cost under $100. The ability to locate printers
anywhere you can network is a big improvement over forced location near a
host; locate printers in sensible, central locations.
* Use any SNMP trap or other monitoring/alert facility available to you -
someone should be tasked with running around and fixing printers with no
ink or paper. Npadmin (see Section 11.10.1) can be used to do some
management operations with SNMP printers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.4. Accounting
Regular LPD provides very little to help you with accounting. You can specify
the name of an accounting file in the af printcap attribute, but this is
merely passed as an argument to your if filter. It's up to you to make your
if filter write entries to the accounting file, and up to you to process the
accounting file later (the traditional format is mainly useful for line
printers, and is nontrivial to parse in Perl, so there's no reason to
preserve it). Also, if you're using foomatic-rip program as your filter,
you'll need to make changes, since it depends on being given a configuration
file as the ``accounting'' file name.
CUPS provides page accounting by passing jobs through the pstops filter. This
filter expects Postscript input. If you use print "raw" jobs, this is always
counted as 1 page. This means that accounting will not work, if you print
from Windows client with the native printer driver.
Ghostscript provides a PageCount operator that you can use to count the
number of pages in each job; basically you just tack a few lines of
postscript onto the end of the job to write an accounting file entry; for the
best example of this see the fileunix-lpr.sh in the Ghostscript source
distribution.
Note that the unix-lpr implementation of accounting writes to a file from the
Ghostscript interpreter, and is thus incompatible with the recommended
-dSAFER option. A better solution might be to query the printer with a PJL
command after each job, or to write a postscript snippet that prints the
pagecount on stdout, where it can be captured without having to write to a
file.
The LPRng print spooler includes an HP-specific sample implementation of
accounting; I assume that it queries the printer with PJL. This technique
should work for most PJL, Postscript, or SNMP printers with which you have
two-way communications.
If you have a networked printer that supports SNMP, you can use the npadmin
program to query a pagecount after each job. This should work properly for
all print jobs. See Section 11.10.1 for more information on npadmin.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Vendor Solutions
This section is, by definition, incomplete. Feel free to send in details of
your favorite distribution.
There are a number of third-party packages out there designed to make printer
configuration under Unix easy. These are covered in Section 8; see the
subsection there for your particular spooling software for pointers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.1. Red Hat
Red Hat has a GUI printer administration tool called printtool which can add
remote printers and printers on local devices. It lets you choose a
ghostscript-supported printer type and Unix device file to print to, then
installs a print queue in/etc/printcap and uses a filter program from the
rhs-printfilters package to support postscript and other common input types.
This solution works fairly well, and is trivial to setup for common cases.
Red Hat 6.x shipped a BSD LPD flavor; Red Hat 7.x and 8.0 appear to default
to using LPRng.
Where Red Hat 6.x and 7.x fail is when you have a printer which isn't
supported by their standard Ghostscript (which is GNU rather than Aladdin
Ghostscript, and which supports fewer printers). Check in the printer
compatibility list above (or [http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi]
online) if you find that you can't print properly with the stock Red Hat
software. If your printer isn't supported by Red Hat's tools, you may need to
install a contributed venison of Aladdin Ghostscript, and will probably also
be better off if you use the lpdomatic or apsfilter packages, which know all
about the printers supported by late-model Ghostscripts, and others besides.
Red Hat 8.0 still installs LPRng by default although you can select CUPS. But
even if you explicitly select only CUPS, LPRng is still installed. In Red Hat
8.1 CUPS will finally be the default spooler.
Red Hat 9.0 finally uses CUPS as default spooler.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.2. Debian
Debian offers a choice between plain LPD, LPRng, or CUPS; LPRng or CUPS are
probably the better choices. PDQ is provided in the unstable tree (currently
called sid). Debian also offers a choice of printer configuration tools;
apsfilter version 5 or later is probably your best bet, since that venison
adds support for LPRng and Ghostscript's uniprint driver scheme. Red Hat's
printtool is also supported, for those who like GUI administration tools.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.3. SuSE
The printing system on SuSE Linux is based on apsfilter, with some
enhancements; SuSE's apsfilter will recognize all common file formats
(including HTML, if html2ps is installed). There are two ways to setup
printers on SuSE systems:
* YaST will let you configure "PostScript", "DeskJet" and "Other printers",
supported by Ghostscript drivers; it's also possible to setup HP's GDI
printers (DeskJet 710/720, 820, 1000, via the "ppa" package). YaST will
provide/etc/printcap entries for every printer ("raw", "ascii", "auto"
and "color", if the printer to configure is a color printer). YaST will
create spool directories and it will arrange apsfilterrc files, where
you're able to fine tune some settings (Ghostscript preloads, paper size,
paper orientation, resolution, printer escape sequences, etc.). With YaST
it's also possible to setup network printers (TCP/IP, Samba, or Novell
Netware Printer).
* In addition SuSE includes the regular SETUP program from the original
apsfilter package (with some enhancements); runlprsetup to invoke this
configuration script. Once you get accustomed to its GUI, you'll be able
to configure local and network printers.
The SuSE installation manual explains both of these setup procedures.
Wolf Rogner reported some difficulties with SuSE. Apparently the following
bugs may bite:
* Apsfilter's regular SETUP script is a bit broken, as are the KDE setup
tools. Use YaST. [ Ed: does this still apply? It's been some time Wolf's
report. ]
* For networked printers that need to be fed from Ghostscript, you'll need
to first uncomment the line REMOTE_PRINTER="remote" in /etc/apsfilterrc.
Then run YaST to configure the printer and, under Network configurations,
set up a remote printer queue.
* YaST's setup doesn't allow color laser printers, so configure a mono
printer and then change mono to color everywhere in the printcap entry.
You may have to rename the spool directory, too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.4. Caldera
Caldera ships LPRng. I have no idea what sort of setup tools they offer.
I've just signed up a Caldera employee as a maintainer of the
LinuxPrinting.org database; evidently they plan to ship a CUPS and
Foomatic-based print system in future releases.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.5. Corel
Corel is Debian-based, so all the Debian facts above should still apply. In
addition, they've written their own setup tool, based on the sysAPS library
which in turn uses my database. They've certainly done so as part of
WordPerfect.
Corel operates a printing support newsgroup named [news://cnews.corel.com/
corelsupport.linux.printing] corelsupport.linux.printing. The bulk of the
traffic appears to be WordPerfect and Corel Linux related.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.6. Mandrake
As of version 7.2b1, Mandrake ships with CUPS standard. The program QtCUPS is
used to provide a clean GUI administration interface. Till went to some
trouble to include as many drivers as possible, and they ship CUPS PPD files
build with my own [http://www.linuxprinting.org/foomatic.html] foomatic
interface code. Mandrake was the first distro to ship CUPS.
I think Earlier Mandrake versions shipped with the Red Hat printtool.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.7. Slackware
Slackware ships with APS Filter. The apsfilter SETUP script is installed as
the command `apsfilterconfig'. You should be able to get a reasonable setup
by simply running that.
As of Slackware 9.0, CUPS is included in the extras dir of slackware but the
default is still LPRng + APSFilter.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.8. Other Distributions
Please send me info on what other distributions do!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Ghostscript.
[http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/] Ghostscript is an incredibly significant
program for free software-driven printing. Most printing software under Unix
generates PostScript, which is typically a $100 option on a printer.
Ghostscript, however, is free, and will generate the language of your printer
from PostScript.
Ghostscript is available in several forms. The commercial version of
Ghostscript, called Aladdin Ghostscript, may be used freely for personal use
but may not be distributed by commercial entities. It is generally a year or
so ahead of the free Ghostscript; at the moment, for example, it supports
many color inkjets that the older Ghostscripts do not and has rather better
PDF support.
The main free version of Ghostscript is GNU Ghostscript, and is simply an
aged version of Aladdin ghostscript. This somewhat awkward arrangement has
allowed Aladdin to be a totally self-funded free software project; the
leading edge versions are done by L Peter and a few employees, and are
licensed to hardware and software vendors for use in commercial products.
Unfortunately, while this scheme has provided for L Peter's continued work on
Ghostscript for years, it has also inhibited the participation of the wider
free software community. Driver authors, in particular, find the arrangement
poor. L Peter's retirement plans mandate a larger community involvement in
the project, so he is considering license changes, and has established a
SourceForge project.
The third version of Ghostscript is ESP Ghostscript, maintained by Easy
Software Products (authors of CUPS) under contract from Epson. ESP
Ghostscript is a combination of the gimp-print driver project's drivers and
GNU Ghostscript, plus assorted usability patches. This version is not yet in
full swing, but it will be available soon, and will hopefully simplify life
for owners of Gimp-print-driven printers.
Whatever you do with [http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/gs.1.html] gs, be very
sure to run it with the option for disabling file access (-dSAFER).
PostScript is a fully functional language, and a bad PostScript program could
give you quite a headache.
Speaking of PDF, Adobe's Portable Document Format (at least through 1.3) is
actually little more than organized PostScript in a compressed file.
Ghostscript can handle PDF input just as it does PostScript. So you can be
the first on your block with a PDF-capable printer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.1. Invoking Ghostscript
Typically, Ghostscript will be run by whatever filter you settle upon (I
recommend Foomatic if your vendor didn't supply anything that suits you), but
for debugging purposes it is often handy to run it directly.
gs -helpwill give a brief listing of options and available drivers (note
that this list is the list of drivers compiled in, not the master list of all
available drivers).
You might run gs for testing purposes like: `gs <options> -q -dSAFER
-sOutputFile=/dev/lp1 test.ps'.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.2. Ghostscript output tuning
There are a number of things one can do if Ghostscript's output is not
satisfactory (actually, you can do anything you darn well please, since you
have the source).
Some of these options, and others are described in the Ghostscript User Guide
(the file [http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/aladdin/doc/Use.htm] Use.htm in the
Ghostscript distribution; possibly installed under /usr/doc or/usr/share/doc
on your system) are all excellent candidates for driver options in your
filter system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.2.1. Output location and size
The location, size, and aspect ratio of the image on a page is controlled by
the printer-specific driver in ghostscript. If you find that your pages are
coming out scrunched too short, or too long, or too big by a factor of two,
you might want to look in your driver's source module and adjust whatever
parameters jump out at you. Unfortunately, each driver is different, so I
can't really tell you what to adjust, but most of them are reasonably well
commented.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.2.2. Gamma, dotsizes, etc.
Most non-laser printers suffer from the fact that their dots are rather
large. This results in pictures coming out too dark. If you experience this
problem with an otherwise untunable driver, you could use your own transfer
function. Simply create the following file in the ghostscript lib-dir and add
its name to the gs call just before the actual file. You may need to tweak
the actual values to fit your printer. Lower values result in a brighter
print. Especially if your driver uses a Floyd-Steinberg algorithm to
rasterize colors, lower values ( 0.2 - 0.15 ) are probably a good choice.
%!
%transfer functions for cyan magenta yellow black
{0.3 exp} {0.3 exp} {0.3 exp} {0.3 exp} setcolortransfer
It is also possible to mend printers that have some kind of color fault by
tweaking these values. If you do that kind of thing, I recommend using the
filecolorcir.ps, that comes with ghostscript (in the examples/ subdirectory),
as a test page.
For many of the newer color inkjet drivers, there are command-line options,
or different upp driver files, which implement gamma and other changes to
adapt the printer to different paper types. You should look into this before
playing with Postscript to fix things.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.2.3. Color Printing in Ghostscript
Ghostscript's default color dithering is optimized for low-resolution
devices. It will dither rather coarsely in an attempt to produce 60ppi output
(not dpi, ppi - the "apparent" color pixels per inch you get after
dithering). This produces rather poor output on modern color printers;
inkjets with photo paper, in particular, are capable of much finer ppi
settings.
To adjust this, use the Ghostscript option-dDITHERPPI=x, where x is the value
to use. This may or may not have an effect with all drivers; many newer
drivers (the Epson Stylusstp driver, for example) implement their own
dithering and pay no attention to this setting. Some drivers can use either
the regular Ghostscript or driver-specific dithering (the Canon Bubblejet
bjc600 driver, for example).
Ghostscript's dithering is in fact rather rudimentary. Many things needed for
good output on modern printers are simply not available in the Ghostscript
core. Various projects to fix this situation??and the free software world
does have the software to do so ready and waiting??are hampered by
Ghostscript's licensing situation and the resulting "cathedral" development
style. Beginning at the Open Source Printing Summit 2000, however, all the
necessary people are talking, so you can expect this situation to improve
shortly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Networks
One of the features of most spoolers is that they support printing over the
network to printers physically connected to a different machine, or to the
network directly. With the careful combination of filter scripts and assorted
utilities, you can print transparently to printers on all sorts of networks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.1. Printing to a Unix/lpd host
To allow remote machines to print to your printer using the LPD protocol, you
must list the machines in/etc/hosts.equiv or/etc/hosts.lpd. (Note that
hosts.equiv has a host of other effects; be sure you know what you are doing
if you list any machine there). You can allow only certain users on the other
machines to print to your printer by using the rs attribute; read the [http:/
/www.linuxprinting.org/man/lpd.8.html] lpd man page for information on this.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.1.1. With lpd
To print to another machine, you make an/etc/printcap entry like this:
# REMOTE djet500
lp|dj|deskjet:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/dj:\
:rm=machine.out.there.com:\
:rp=printername:\
:sh:
Note that there is still a spool directory on the local machine managed by
lpd. If the remote machine is busy or offline, print jobs from the local
machine wait in the spool area until they can be sent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.1.2. With rlpr
You can also use rlpr to send a print job directly to a queue on a remote
machine without going through the hassle of configuring lpd to handle it.
This is mostly useful in situations where you print to a variety of printers
only occasionally. From the announcement forrlpr:
Rlpr uses TCP/IP to send print jobs to lpd servers anywhere on a network.
Unlike lpr, it *does not* require that the remote printers be explicitly
known to the machine you wish to print from, (e.g. through /etc/printcap) and
thus is considerably more flexible and requires less administration.
rlpr can be used anywhere a traditional lpr might be used, and is backwards
compatible with traditional BSD lpr.
The main power gained by rlpr is the power to print remotely *from anywhere
to anywhere* without regard for how the system you wish to print from was
configured. Rlpr can work as a filter just like traditional lpr so that
clients executing on a remote machine like netscape, xemacs, etc, etc can
print to your local machine with little effort.
Rlpr is available from [ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/printing/]
Metalab.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.2. Printing to a Windows or Samba printer
There is a Printing to Windows mini-HOWTO out there which has more info than
there is here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.2.1. From LPD
It is possible to direct a print queue through the [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/man/smbclient.1.html] smbclient program (part of the
Samba suite) to a TCP/IP based SMB print service. Samba includes a script to
do this called smbprint. In short, you put a configuration file for the
specific printer in question in the spool directory, and install the smbprint
script as theif.
The /etc/printcap entry goes like this:
lp|remote-smbprinter:\
:sh:\
:lp=/dev/null:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\
:if=/usr/local/sbin/smbprint:
You should read the documentation inside the smbprint script for more
information on how to set this up.
You can also use smbclient to submit a file directly to an SMB printing
service without involving lpd. See the man page.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3. Printing to a NetWare Printer
The ncpfs suite includes a utility called nprint which provides the same
functionality as smbprint but for NetWare. You can get ncpfs from [ftp://
metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/ncpfs/] Metalab. From the LSM
entry for version 0.16:
"With ncpfs you can mount volumes of your NetWare server under Linux. You
can also print to NetWare print queues and spool NetWare print queues to the
Un*x print spooler. You need kernel 1.2.x or 1.3.54 and above. ncpfs does NOT
work with any 1.3.x kernel below 1.3.54."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3.1. From LPD
To make nprint work via lpd, you write a little shell script to print stdin
on the NetWare printer, and install that as the if for an lpd print queue.
You'll get something like:
sub2|remote-NWprinter:\
:sh:\
:lp=/dev/null:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/sub2:\
:if=/var/spool/lpd/nprint-script:
The nprint-script might look approximately like:
#! /bin/sh
# You should try the guest account with no password first!
/usr/local/bin/nprint -S net -U name -P passwd -q printq-name -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.4. Printing to an EtherTalk (Apple) printer
The netatalk package includes something like nprint and smbclient. Others
have documented the procedure for printing to and from an Apple network far
better than I ever will; see the Linux Netatalk-HOWTO.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.5. Printing to a networked printer
Many printers come with an ethernet interface which you can print to
directly, typically using the LPD protocol. You should follow the
instructions that came with your printer or its network adaptor, but in
general, such printers are "running" lpd, and provide one or more queues
which you can print to. An HP, for example, might work with a printcap like:
lj-5|remote-hplj:\
:sh:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lj-5:\
:rm=printer.name.com:\
:rp=raw:
HP Laserjet printers with JetDirect interfaces generally support two built in
lpd queues - "raw" which accepts PCL (and possibly Postscript) and "text"
which accepts straight ascii (and copes automatically with the staircase
effect). If you've got a JetDirect Plus3 three-port box, the queues are named
"raw1", "text2", and so forth.
Note that the ISS company has identified an assortment of denial of service
attacks which hang HP Jetdirect interfaces. Most of these have been addressed
beginning in Fall 98. These sorts of problems are common in embedded code;
few appliance-style devices should be exposed to general Internet traffic.
In a large scale environment, especially a large environment where some
printers do not support PostScript, it may be useful to establish a dedicated
print server to which all machines print and on which all ghostscript jobs
are run. This will allow the queue to be paused or reordered using the topq
and lprm commands.
This also allows your GNU/Linux box to act as a spool server for the printer
so that your network users can complete their print jobs quickly and get on
with things without waiting for the printer to print any other job that
someone else has sent. This is suggested too if you have unfixable older HP
Jetdirects; it reduces the likelihood of the printers wedging.
To do this, set up a queue on your linux box that points at the ethernet
equipped HP LJ (as above). Now set up all the clients on your LAN to point at
the LPD queue (eg lj-5 in the example above).
Some HP network printers apparently don't heed the banner page setting sent
by clients; you can turn off their internally generated banner page by
telnetting to the printer, hitting return twice, typing "banner: 0" followed
by "quit". There are other settings you can change this way, as well; type "?
" to see a list.
The full range of settings can be controlled with HP's [http://www.hp.com/go/
webjetadmin] webJetAdmin software. This package runs as a daemon, and accepts
http requests on a designated port. It serves up forms and Java applets which
can control HP printers on the network. In theory, it can also control Unix
print queues, but it does so using the rexec service, which is completely
unsecure. I don't advise using that feature.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.5.1. To AppSocket Devices
Some printers (and printer networking "black boxes") support only a cheesy
little non-protocol involving plain TCP connections; this is sometimes called
the "AppSocket" protocol. Notable in this category are early-model JetDirect
(including some JetDirectEx) cards. Basically, to print to the printer, you
must open a TCP connection to the printer on a specified port (typically
9100, or 9100, 9101 and 9102 for three-port boxes) and stuff your print job
into it. LPRng has built-in support for stuffing print jobs into random TCP
ports, but with BSD lpd it's not so easy. The best thing is probably to
obtain and use the little utility called netcat.
Failing that, it can be implemented, among other ways, in Perl using the
program below. For better performance, use the program netcat ("nc"), which
does much the same thing in a general purpose way. Most distributions should
have netcat available in prepackaged form.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.6. Running an if for remote printers with old LPDs
One oddity of older versions of lpd is that the if is not run for remote
printers. (Versions after 0.43 or so have the change originated on FreeBSD
such that the if is always run). If you find that you need to run anif for a
remote printer, and it isn't working with your lpr, you can do so by setting
up a double queue and requeueing the job. As an example, consider
thisprintcap:
lj-5:\
:lp=/dev/null:sh:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lj-5:\
:if=/usr/lib/lpd/filter-lj-5:
lj-5-remote:sh:rm=printer.name.com:\
:rp=raw:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lj-5-raw:
in light of this filter-lj-5 script:
#!/bin/sh
gs <options> -q -dSAFER -sOutputFile=- - | \
lpr -Plj-5-remote -U$5
The -U option to lpr only works if lpr is run as daemon, and it sets the
submitter's name for the job in the resubmitted queue correctly. You should
probably use a more robust method of getting the username, since in some
cases it is not argument 5. See the man page for [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/man/printcap.5.html] printcap.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.7. From Windows.
Printing from a Windows (or presumably, OS/2) client to a Un*x server is
directly supported over SMB through the use of the SAMBA package, which also
supports file sharing of your Un*x filesystem to Windows clients.
Samba includes fairly complete documentation, and there is a good Samba FAQ
which covers it, too. You can either configure a magic filter on the Un*x box
and print PostScript to it, or run around installing printer-specific drivers
on all the Windows machines and having a queue for them with no filters at
all. Relying on the Windows drivers may in some cases produce better output,
but is a bit more of an administrative hassle if there are many Windows
boxes. So try Postscript first. Modern versions of Samba should support the
automagical driver download mechanism offered by Windows NT servers to deal
with this problem.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.8. From an Apple.
Netatalk supports printing from Apple clients over EtherTalk. See the
Netatalk HOWTO Page for more information.
Really, though, any modern Mac can print over TCP/IP using the LPD protocol
just fine. UVa provides a very nice [http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/mac/
ip_printing/ip_printing.html] support page detailing how to set this up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.9. From Netware.
The ncpfs package includes a daemon named pserver which can be used to
provide service to a NetWare print queue. From what I understand, this system
requires a Bindery-based NetWare, eg 2.x, 3.x, or 4.x with bindery access
enabled.
For more information on ncpfs and it's pserver program, see the ncpfs FTP
site.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.10. Networked Printer Administration
Most networked printers support some method of remote administration. Often
there are easy-to-use web pages for configuration. More usefully, there is
often support for SNMP management. Typically you can find out interesting
information on printer status like ink and paper levels, print volumes, and
so forth, and you can usually change certain settings. SNMP printer control,
and a number of other printing-related things, are being standardized by the
IEEE's [http://www.pwg.org/] Printer Working Group
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.10.1. npadmin
[http://npadmin.sourceforge.net/] Npadminis a command-line program which
offers an interface to the common SNMP functionality of networked printers.
It implements the standard Printer MIB, as well as a few vendor-proprietary
schemes used mainly for older devices. Both printer-discovery style actions
and various printer status queries are supported.
npadmin has an excellent [http://npadmin.sourceforge.net/man/] man page, and
precompiled packages are distributed for a number of RPM and dpkg based
distributions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.10.2. Other SNMP tools
Besides npadmin, there are a number of SNMP tools that will be useful.
snmptraplogd can log SNMP trap events. This is useful for observing printer
jams, out of paper events, etc; it would be straightforward to retransmit
certain events to a pager, or to send an email.
While npadmin provides simplified support for many network printers' SNMP
interfaces, some printers may have vendor extensions which npadmin doesn't
know about. In this case, you can use the CMU SNMP tools, which support
arbitrary SNMP GET and SET operations, as well as walks and the like. With
these, and a bit of work, you can make use of any SNMP feature offered by
your printer's MIB. You may need to obtain a MIB from your vendor to figure
out what all the variables are; sometimes vendors think that people actually
use the proprietary tools they ship.
VA Linux's [http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=3648] libprinterconf
includes code to perform network printer discovery. Printers are identified
against a compiled-in library of printer signatures; at the moment the
library is not large, but does cover many common networked printer models.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. Windows-only printers
As I discussed earlier, some printers are inherently unsupported because they
don't speak a normal printer language, instead using the computer's CPU to
render a bitmap which is then piped to the printer at a fixed speed. In a few
cases, these printers also speak something normal like PCL, but often they do
not. In some (really low-end) cases, the printer doesn't even use a normal
parallel connection but relies on the vendor's driver to emulate what should
be hardware behavior (most importantly flow control).
In any case, there are a few possible workarounds if you find yourself stuck
with such a lemon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.1. The Ghostscript Windows redirector
There is now a Ghostscript printer driver available (called mswinpr2) that
will print using Windows GDI calls. There is also a port redirection tool
called redmon which will run a print job through Ghostscript before finally
printing it. (Rather like an if filter in Unix's LPD). Taken all together,
this allows a Windows machine to print PostScript to a Windows-only printer
through the vendor's driver.
If you have a host-based printer that can't be used directly, you can export
it as a "Postscript" printer by using redmon, Ghostscript, and mswinpr2 on a
Windows PC and print through the vendor's drivers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.2. HP Winprinters
Some HP printers use "Printing Performance Architecture" (marketing speak for
"we were too cheap to implement PCL"). This is supported in a roundabout way
via the pbm2ppa translator written by Tim Norman. Basically, you use
ghostscript to render PostScript into a bitmapped image in pbm format and
then use pbm2ppa to translate this into a printer-specific ppa format bitmap
ready to be dumped to the printer. This program may also come in ghostscript
driver format by now.
The ppa software can be had from the ppa home page; pbm2ppa supports some
models of the HP 720, 820, and 1000; read the documentation that comes with
the package for more details on ppa printer support.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.3. Lexmark Winprinters
Most of the cheap Lexmark inkjets use a proprietary language and are
therefore Winprinters. However, Henryk Paluch has written a program which can
print on a Lexmark 7000. Hopefully he'll be able to figure out color and
expand support to other Lexmark inkjets. See [http://bimbo.fjfi.cvut.cz/
~paluch/l7kdriver/] here for more info.
Similarly, there are now drivers for the 5700, 1000, 1100, 2070, 3200, and
others. See the supported printers listing above, and my web site, for more
information on obtaining these drivers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. How to print to a fax machine.
You can print to a fax machine with, or without, a modem.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.1. Using a faxmodem
There are a number of fax programs out there that will let you fax and
receive documents. One of the most powerful is Sam Leffler's [http://
www.hylafax.org/] HylaFAX. It supports all sorts of things from multiple
modems to broadcasting.
SuSE ships a Java HylaFax client which allegedly works on any Java platform
(including Windows and GNU/Linux). There are also non-Java fax clients for
most platforms; GNU/Linux can almost certainly handle your network faxing
needs.
Also available, and a better choice for smaller installations, is [http://
casas.ee.ubc.ca/efax/] efax, a simple program which sends and receives faxes.
The getty program mgetty can receive faxes using efax (and do voicemail or
interactive logins).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.2. Using the Remote Printing Service
There is an experimental service offered that lets you send an email message
containing something you'd like printed such that it will appear on a fax
machine elsewhere. Nice formats like postscript are supported, so even though
global coverage is spotty, this can still be a very useful service. For more
information on printing via the remote printing service, see the [http://
www.tpc.int/] Remote Printing WWW Site.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.3. Commercial Faxing Services
A number of companies operate web-based faxing services. [http://www.efax.com
/] EFax, in particular, offers free inbound faxes (to your own dedicated fax
number, no less) via email, and fax transmission for a fee. Other companies
offer similar services.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. How to generate something worth printing.
Here we get into a real rat's-nest of software. Basically, Linux can run many
types of binaries with varying degrees of success: Linux/x86, Linux/Alpha,
Linux/Sparc, Linux/foo, iBCS, Win16/Win32s (with dosemu and, someday, with
Wine), Mac/68k (with Executor), and Java. I'll just discuss native GNU/Linux
and common Un*x software.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.1. Markup languages
Most markup languages are more suitable for large or repetitive projects,
where you want the computer to control the layout of the text to make things
uniform.
nroff
This was one of the first markup languages on the original version of
Unix. Man pages are the most common examples of things formatted in *roff
macros; many people swear by them, but nroff has, to me at least, a more
arcane syntax than needed (see Figure 12), and probably makes a poor
choice for new works. It is worth knowing, though, that you can typeset a
man page directly into postscript with groff. Most man commands will do
this for you with man -t foo | lpr.
Figure 12. Example of roff Input
.B man
is the system's manual pager. Each
.I page
argument given to
.B man
is normally the name of a program, utility or function.
The
.I manual page
associated with each of these arguments is then found and
displayed. A
.IR section ,
if provided, will direct
.B man
to look
only in that
.I section
of the manual.
TeX
TeX, and the macro package LaTeX, are one of the most widely used markup
languages on Un*x systems, although TeX did not originate on Unix and is
available to run on a wide variety of systems. Technical works are
frequently written in LaTeX because it greatly simplifies the layout
issues and isstill one of the few text processing systems to support
mathematics both completely and well. TeX's output format is dvi, and is
converted to PostScript or Hewlett Packard's PCL with dvips or dvilj. If
you wish to install TeX or LaTeX, install the whole teTeX group of
packages; it contains everything. Recent TeX installations include pdfTeX
and pdfLaTeX, which produce Adobe PDF files directly. Commands are
available do create hyperlinks and navigation features in the PDF file.
Figure 13. Example of LaTeX Input
\subsubsection{NAT}
Each real server is assigned a different IP address, and the NA
implements address translation for all inbound and outbound
packets.
\begin{description}
\item[Advantage] Implementation simplicity, especially if we
already implement other NAT capabilities.
\item[Disadvantage] Return traffic from the server goes through
address translation, which may incur a speed penalty. This
probably isn't too bad if we design for it from the
beginning.
\item[Disadvantage] NAT breaks the end-to-end semantics of normal
internet traffic. Protocols like ftp, H.323, etc would
require special support involving snooping and in-stream
rewriting, or complete protocol proxying; neither is likely
to be practical.
\end{description}
SGML
There is at least one free SGML parser available for Un*x systems; it
forms the basis of Linuxdoc-SGML's homegrown document system. It can
support other DTD's, as well, most notably DocBook. This document is
written in DocBook-DTD SGML; see Figure 14 for an example.
Figure 14. Example of DocBook SGML
<varlistentry>
<term>SGML</term>
<listitem>
<para>
There is at least one free SGML parser available for Un*x
systems; it forms the basis of Linuxdoc-SGML's homegrown
document system. It can support other DTD's, as well, most
notably DocBook. This document is written in DocBook-DTD
SGML.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.2. WYSIWYG Word Processors
There is no shortage of WYSIWYG word processing software. Several complete
office suites are available, including one that's free for personal use
(StarOffice).
StarOffice
This full-blown office suite has all the features you'd expect, including
both import and export of Microsoft Office file formats (including Word
documents). There's a mini-HOWTO out there which describes how to obtain
and install it. It generates PostScript, so should work with most any
printer that works otherwise on GNU/Linux.
WordPerfect
Corel distributes a basic version of WordPerfect 8 free for GNU/Linux,
and sells various packages of Word Perfect Office 2000 (which includes
WordPerfect, Corel Draw and Quattro Pro Versions 9). The Linux
WordPerfect Fonts and Printers page has information about configuring
WordPerfect for use with either Ghostscript or its built-in printer
drivers (which are apparently identical the DOS WordPerfect drivers, if
your printer's driver isn't included in the distribution).
Applix
Applix is a cross-platform (eg, various Unices, Windows, and others)
office suite sold by the Applix company. Red Hat and SuSE sold it
themselves when it was the only game in town; now sales have reverted to
Applix. This is the only native Unix-style application suite; it probably
fits in better with the Unix way of doing things.
AbiWord
[http://www.abisource.com/] AbiWord is one of several GPL WYSIWYG word
processor projects; this one has produced a very nice word processor
based on an XML format. It is capable of Word file import. AbiWord is
still a work in progress, although it is useful for small things now.
Figure 15. AbiWord
[snapshot-abiword]
LyX
LyX is a front-end to LaTeX which looks very promising. See the [http://
www.lyx.org/] LyX Homepage for more information. There is a KDE-styled
version of LyX, called Klyx; the author of LyX and the instigator of KDE
are the same person.
Figure 16. LyX
[snapshot-lyx]
Maxwell
Maxwell is a simple MS RTF-format based word processor which started as a
commercial product but is now distributed under the GPL.
Other vendors should feel free to drop me a line with your offerings.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15. Printing Photographs
There are many details to getting decent photo output from common printers.
If you haven't bought a photo printer yet, see the photo-related tips in
Section 5.4.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.1. Ghostscript and Photos
Ghostscript has some difficulties rendering color photographs through most
drivers. The problems are several:
* Many drivers have poorly tuned color support. Often the colors don't
match the Windows driver output or the screen. OTOH, all drivers, and
Ghostscript as a whole, have readily adjustable color support; the
"Gamma" settings (seeSection 10.2.2) are one thing to play with, and
there are others documented in Ghostscript'sUse.htm documentation file.
* I'm only aware of one Ghostscript driver with support for 6 and 7 color
printing; it's in beta at the moment and supports most Epson Stylus Photo
models. It is rumored to produce better color than the Windows driver
(!). The Ghostscript driver core itself provides no support for non CMYK
or RGB colors; arguably, some work to put that there is needed.
* Ghostscript often ends up dithering coarsely, or generating printouts
with artifacts like banding. The dithering can usually be corrected; see
Section 10.2.3, and read the documentation for your driver.
You should be able to correct some of these problems by tuning Ghostscript;
see Section 10 for more information on how to do this. Fiddling with
Ghostscript options is much easier if you declare them as options in your
spooling system.
That said, the obvious solution for now is to use non-Ghostscript software
for printing photos, and indeed, such things do exist. The main contender is
the print plugin in the Gimp, which supports pixel-for-pixel printing on
Epson Styluses and Postscript printers (with basic PPD support). That Epson
Stylus portion of that driver is available for Ghostcript, as well, as thestp
driver. Also possible to use for this purpose are the assorted external
pnm-to-foo programs used to print on printers like the cheap Lexmarks; these
print attempt to print pixmaps pixel-for-pixel.
The best solution, of course, is to buy a Postscript printer; such printers
can usually be completely controlled from available free software, and will
print to the full capability of the printer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.2. Paper
Color inkjets are extremely dependent on the paper for good output. The
expensive glossy coated inkjet papers will allow you to produce
near-photographic output, while plain uncoated paper will often produce muddy
colors and fuzzy details. Non-glossy coated inkjet papers will produce
results in between, and are probably best for final prints of text, as well.
Stiffer glossy coated "photo" papers will produce similar output to
lighter-weight glossy papers, but will feel like a regular photo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.3. Printer Settings
For photo output on most color inkjets, you should use the most highly
interlaced (and slowest) print mode; otherwise solid regions may have banding
or weak colors. Generally with Ghostscript this is what will happen when you
pick the highest resolution. With Postscript printers, you may need to add a
snippet to the prologue based on the settings available in the PPD file. The
Gimp's PPD support doesn't include (printer-specific) print quality settings,
but I added one in an ugly way for my own use; contact me if you'd like that.
If you use PDQ or CUPS, you can easily control all the printer settings you
need. VA Linux'slibppd and the GPR front-end can also add these options for
Postscript printers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.4. Print Durability
Color inkjet printouts usually fade after a few years, especially if exposed
to lots of light and air; this is a function of the ink. Printers with
ink-only consumables like the Epsons and Canons can buy archival inks, which
are less prone to this problem. Newer printers often use pigment-based inks,
which don't fade as much as the older dye-based ink did. No inkjet output is
really particularly good for long-term archival use. Write the bits to a CD-R
and store that instead.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.5. Shareware and Commercial Software
There's a program called [http://home.t-online.de/home/jj.sarton/startE.htm]
xwtools which supports photo printing with all the bells and whistles on an
assortment of Epson, HP, and Canon printers. Unfortunately, it was written
under NDA, so comes without source. Unless you use it for the Epson Stylus
Color 300 on GNU/Linux x86, it costs E15 for personal use; commercial pricing
is unknown.
The ESP Print Pro package from Easy Software supports some printers which
might otherwise be unsupported. These drivers are not reported to be very
well-tuned for photos, but they do work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16. On-screen previewing of printable things.
Nearly anything you can print can be viewed on the screen, too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.1. PostScript
Ghostscript has an X11 driver best used under the management of the
PostScript previewer [http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/] gv. The
latest versions of these programs should be able to view PDF files, as well.
Note that gv has replaced the older previewer "Ghostview"; the new user
interface is much prettier and featureful that ghostview's plain old Athena
GUI.
Figure 17. Gv
[snapshot-gv]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.2. TeX dvi
TeX DeVice Independent files may be previewed under X11 with[http://
www.linuxprinting.org/man/xdvi.1.html] xdvi. Modern versions of xdvi call
ghostscript to render PostScript specials.
A VT100 driver exists as well. It's called dgvt. Tmview works with GNU/Linux
and svgalib, if that's all you can do.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.3. Adobe PDF
Adobe's Acrobat Reader is available for GNU/Linux; just download it from the
[http://www.adobe.com/] Adobe web site.
You can also use xpdf, which is free software, and I believegv supports
viewing PDF files with gs under X11.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. Serial printers under lpd
Serial printers are rather tricky under lpd.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.1. Setting up in printcap
Lpd provides five attributes which you can set in/etc/printcap to control all
the settings of the serial port a printer is on. Read the [http://
www.linuxprinting.org/man/printcap.5.html] printcap man page and note the
meanings ofbr#, fc#,xc#, fs# andxs#. The last four of these attributes are
bitmaps indicating the settings for use the port. Thebr# attribute is simply
the baud rate, eg `br#9600'.
It is very easy to translate from [http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/
stty.1.html] stty settings to printcap flag settings. If you need to, see the
man page for stty now.
Use stty to set up the printer port so that you can cat a file to it and have
it print correctly. Here's what `stty -a' looks like for my printer port:
dina:/usr/users/andy/work/lpd/lpd# stty -a < /dev/ttyS2
speed 9600 baud; rows 0; columns 0; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>;
eol2 = <undef>; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W;
lnext = ^V; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 hupcl -cstopb cread -clocal -crtscts
-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr
-igncr -icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel
-opost -olcuc -ocrnl -onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0
bs0 vt0 ff0
-isig -icanon -iexten -echo -echoe -echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase
-tostop -echoprt -echoctl -echoke
The only changes between this and the way the port is initialized at bootup
are -clocal, -crtscts, and ixon. Your port may well be different depending on
how your printer does flow control.
You actually use stty in a somewhat odd way. Since stty operates on the
terminal connected to it's standard input, you use it to manipulate a given
serial port by using the `<' character as above.
Once you have your stty settings right, so that `cat file > /dev/ttyS2' (in
my case) sends the file to the printer, look at the file /usr/src/linux/
include/asm-i386/termbits.h. This contains a lot of #defines and a few
structs (You may wish to cat this file to the printer (you do have that
working, right?) and use it as scratch paper). Go to the section that starts
out
/* c_cflag bit meaning */
#define CBAUD 0000017
This section lists the meaning of the fc# and fs# bits. You will notice that
the names there (after the baud rates) match up with one of the lines of stty
output. Didn't I say this was going to be easy?
Note which of those settings are preceded with a - in your stty output. Sum
up all those numbers (they are octal). This represents the bits you want to
clear, so the result is yourfc# capability. Of course, remember that you will
be setting bits directly after you clear, so you can just use `fc#0177777' (I
do).
Now do the same for those settings (listed in this section) which do not have
a - before them in your stty output. In my example the important ones are CS8
(0000060), HUPCL (0002000), and CREAD (0000200). Also note the flags for your
baud rate (mine is 0000015). Add those all up, and in my example you get
0002275. This goes in your fs# capability (`fs#02275' works fine in my
example).
Do the same with set and clear for the next section of the include file,
"c_lflag bits". In my case I didn't have to set anything, so I just use `xc#
0157777' and `xs#0'.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.2. Older serial printers that drop characters
Jon Luckey points out that some older serial printers with ten-cent serial
interfaces and small buffersreally mean stop when they say so with flow
control. He found that disabling the FIFO in his Linux box's 16550 serial
port with [http://www.linuxprinting.org/man/setserial.8.html] setserial
corrected the problem of dropped characters (you apparently just specify the
UART type as an 8250 to do this).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18. What's missing?
Many of the parts for a complete printing system do not exist yet. Projects
are underway to address most of these, although most have not yet produced
running useful code, and efforts to standardize the necessary protocols and
APIs are in their infancy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.1. Plumbing
There's a general problem with getting all the parts to talk to one another;
especially in a spooler-independent way. This problem manifests itself most
noticeably in the pathetic application support for control over all the
"usual" printing features. There is simply no way for an application writer
to get information about printers, jobs, etc; no standardized way to submit
jobs; no good way to get job status back; nor even really a standardized way
to generate print data (although most of the new desktop systems offer
desktop-specific facilities for doing this).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.2. Fonts
Font handling on free systems is rather awkward. The display, the printer,
the application, and the data files should ideally all have access to the
same fonts. Unfortunately this was simply not the case. With the advent of
xft2 and fontconfig - which the newest distributions will start deploying -
this should finally be solved. Redhat 8.0 is AFAIK the first distro that uses
xft2.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.3. Drivers
There is still some work to be done on free software drivers. Although the
drivers have improved a lot the last several years, not all printers are
supported.
Printer vendors have a major role to play in this area. With the increasing
popularity of Linux it is getting really hard for them to simple ignore this
userbase.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
19. Credits
Special thanks to Grant Taylor for creating this HOWTO and to Till Kampeter
for foomatic and his expert advice.
The smbprint information is from an article by Marcel Roelofs <
marcel@paragon.nl>.
The nprint information for using Netware printers was provided by Michael
Smith <mikes@bioch.ox.ac.uk>.
The serial printers under lpd section is from Andrew Tefft <
teffta@engr.dnet.ge.com>.
The blurb about gammas and such for gs was sent in by Andreas<
quasi@hub-fue.franken.de>.
The two paragraphs about the 30 second closing_wait of the serial driver was
contributed by Chris Johnson <cdj@netcom.com>.
Robert Hart sent a few excellent paragraphs about setting up a print server
to networked HPs which Grant used verbatim.
And special thanks to the dozens upon dozens of you who've pointed out typos,
bad URLs, and errors in the document over the years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. GNU Free Documentation License
Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple
Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy
and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it
is not allowed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure
everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without
modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this
License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their
work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by
others.
This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of
the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the
GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free
software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program
should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does.
But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any
textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a
printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose
is instruction or reference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that
contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed
under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide,
royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the
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work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You
accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way
requiring permission under copyright law.
A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document
or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or
translated into another language.
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the
Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or
authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related
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Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be
a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters,
or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
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The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are
designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says
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the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as
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does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as
Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the
Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5
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A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
represented in a format whose specification is available to the general
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programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is
suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a
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otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has
been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is
not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any
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Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII
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PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats
include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can
be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which
the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the
machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors
for output purposes only.
The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such
following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License
requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have
any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent
appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the
text.
A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document whose title
either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that
translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section
name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledgements", "Dedications",
"Endorsements", or "History".) To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when
you modify the Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ"
according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states
that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are
considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards
disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers
may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.
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A.3. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially
or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and
the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced
in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of
this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the
reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you
may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large
enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may
publicly display copies.
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A.4. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed
covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document's license
notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that
carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the
front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also
clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front
cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally
prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the
title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as
verbatim copying in other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you
should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual
cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more
than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along
with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a
computer-network location from which the general network-using public has
access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete
Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the
latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent
copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one
year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through
your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them
a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
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A.5. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the
conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified
Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the
role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the
Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do
these things in the Modified Version:
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from
that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should,
if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You
may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of
that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version,
together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all
of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release
you from this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified
Version, as the publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to
the other copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving
the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this
License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and
required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to
it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher
of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no
section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the title,
year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page,
then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the
previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public
access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network
locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on.
These may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network
location for a work that was published at least four years before the
Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to
gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve
the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance
and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications
given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their
text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not
considered part of the section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be
included in the Modified Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to
conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that
qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the
Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as
invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in
the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any
other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing
but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example,
statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an
organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a
passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of
Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and
one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any
one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover,
previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are
acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old
one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old
one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give
permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply
endorsement of any Modified Version.
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A.6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions,
provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of
all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant
Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve
all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple
identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are
multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make
the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in
parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if
known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section
titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the
various original documents, forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise
combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled
"Dedications". You must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements".
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A.7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this
License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the
collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim
copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it
individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License
into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects
regarding verbatim copying of that document.
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A.8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and
independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright resulting from
the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's
users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included
an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate
which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of
the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire
aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket
the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if
the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed
covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
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A.9. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute
translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing
Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their
copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant
Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections.
You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in
the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include
the original English version of this License and the original versions of
those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the
translation and the original version of this License or a notice or
disclaimer, the original version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications",
or "History", the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1)
will typically require changing the actual title.
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A.10. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as
expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify,
sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically
terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received
copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses
terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
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A.11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU
Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be
similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address
new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the
Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any
later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and
conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has
been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the
Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose
any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
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A.12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the
License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices
just after the title page:
Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy, distribute
and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no
Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section
entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts,
replace the "with...Texts." line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination
of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend
releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software
license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free
software.
