Ubuntu to run my printer

[David Fletcher]

On Sat, 2014-06-14 at 13:14 +1000, Phil wrote:
> On 06/14/2014 12:30 PM, Douglas Pollard wrote:
> > I am tired of my printer cartridges drying out and having to but new
> > ones. Is their an ubuntu program that will run my printer in a Nozzel
> > cleaning Operation at some preset interval. They got the darn things
> > fixed so if a single color dreis out you can't print in back and white.
> > That is aggravating.
> >
> 
> I had exactly the same gripe Douglas. I replaced my last ink jet printer 
> with a HP colour laser and have never had any problems. I bought the 
> printer about a year ago and I'm still using the original cartridges.
> 


+1

Had exactly the same problem here. My replacement is a Brother
HL-3040CN, which is a network or USB connected colour laser. I can leave
it for a couple of months or more, then switch it on and it prints
perfectly every time.

If you have an Epson printer, you could probably use a cron job to run
the escputil with the head cleaning option from time to time, but this
itself will of course be wasting a bucket of ink, plus you'd have to
leave the printer permanently switched on, wasting electricity as well.
Whatever you do, inkjets tend to cost you a fortune.

If I may repeat the points made in another thread some months ago as
best as I can remember:-

If you do loads of printing, you need a laser because toner will cost
you far less than ink. But if you only print occasionally, you need a
laser, because you'll waste loads of ink on head cleaning every time you
need to print.

In other words, if you need to print, you need a laser. The other
advantage is, when printing envelopes, as far as I know toner doesn't
run when it gets spots of rain on it like ink does.

Photo printing? Costs a fortune to do at home, so just take them to the
supermarket to get them done on the proper Fuji photo lab.

Dave


-- 
Lisa Simpson:- "They must have programmed it to eliminate the
competition."
Bart Simpson:- "You mean like Microsoft?"