An Ubuntu Friendly Printer Recommendation.

[David Gerard]

On 10 March 2010 14:08, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

> Disclaimer: I'm selling Linux computers to end-users at the moment,
> but I think that what people ask and expect of computers today is fair
> enough. "The printer works" actually means "I take it out of the box,
> I plug it in and I can print". Nothing more must be required of the
> user - no manual installation, compiling drivers, re-assigning
> different models or anything. No user intervention past plugging in
> the cable is the standard to go for here.


Yeah. CUPS is *mostly* good here, except of course that the business
model for printers is "disposable piece of garbage that uses our
expensive cartridges."


>> Lastly, I wouldn't use a laser printer to print a photo if you paid me
>> for it - the colours are horrid, which is why big expensive "plotters"
>> are always ink.

> Horses for courses.
> Inkjets may give better print quality for photos, but they cost a bomb
> to run. Lasers are relatively cheap.


I bought a lovely six-colour Epson inkjet specifically for lovely
photos, fully aware of the running costs. Of course, the thing's
broken now (paper feeder doesn't work) 'cos it was cheap plastic
rubbish. Good for a few years, though.

At work we have a four-colour HP laser (which works straight out of
CUPS in Ubuntu 9.10) which does really quite nice photos. Not as good
as an inkjet at its best, but certainly not "horrid" by any stretch.
Mind you, said laser is huge and expensive and doubles as a
photocopier and scanner and is definitely built to take a beating in
an office setting.


- d.