Looking for ratings of all-in-one printers for Linux (Ubuntu in particular)

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 07 July 2018 18:55:41 Peter Flynn wrote:

> On 07/07/18 21:50, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> > I know there are probably multiple places where such ratings can be
> > found.  Not knowing which are reliable, I'm sort of asking for
> > ratings of the ratings, I guess.  Mostly, though, I want ratings of
> > recent models, from a Linux/Debian/Ubuntu perspective as opposed to
> > the usual Windows slant.
>
> I'm sure there are lots of places, but from the little I have seen,
> they tend to be "10 best printers" type sites. Well-intentioned but
> rarely with anything in them you can't get from the specs.
>
> From a Linux point of view: I have been using HP since forever, and I'
> generally happy with them, ever since I dropped my first LaserJet II
> from a desk onto a concrete floor unpacking it, picked it up, knocked
> the dent out of the paper tray, and it worked perfectly for a decade.
>
> But there are a few bobbles to every printer:
>
> 1. CUPS for Linux in the distros naturally tends to lag behind with
> drivers, so I always download HPLIP and install that. One of the
> reasons for picking HP is that there is active Linux community
> support. But most of the time, Linux identifies the printer and
> installs it without problems.
>
> 2. CUPS drivers are Postscript PPD files that are cross-platform, so
> if you find yours is out of date, you should in theory be able to copy
> the relevant one from an up-to-date system (eg a Mac or even a Windows
> box if you can find out where they are hidden :-) and use it to update
> the entry in CUPS (http://localhost:631 or
> /usr/bin/system-config-printer)
>
> 3. CUPS and the PPD files have bugs. You may find that certain
> features of your printer simply aren't available on Linux because
> either the print dialog doesn't have facilities to handle them, or it
> does but the PPD file doesn't implement them. This is a PITA.
> Notoriously, A3/Tabloid size (twice the size of A4 or Letter) fails
> spectacularly on big printers and crops the print image to A4/Letter
> even though it's feeding the large size paper: I ended up hand-editing
> the PPD files to fix it.
>
I have an MFC-J6920DW, which can be hand fed tabloid and have used it 
that way many times, in my case with rockhopper output, which can spit 
out a logic diagram of a CNC machine which makes it relatively easy to 
troubleshoot a machines configuration. Other than hand feeding that 
tabloid sized paper from the rear, it has Just Worked everytime I have 
used it that way.

> 4. By far the worst aspect are the applications' print dialogs, which
> are uniformly abysmal. They are RIDDLED with bugs, and they are pretty
> much all different, so sometimes you have to use a different
> application to print a PDF because the one you usually use doesn't
> provide for the feature you want. Chromium (mine is "Version
> 66.0.3359.181 (Official Build) Built on Ubuntu , running on LinuxMint
> 18.3 (64-bit)"), for example, has no A4 paper setting! It *does* have
> one called "Index card A4 8.27 × 11.69in" which is a stupendous piece
> of American bogosity, and I have no idea where it comes from, because
> none of my other
> applications have it: they all have regular A4. Evince cannot use my
> printer's double-sided capability, despite it being installed and
> activated, and available in every other application. Qpdfview can't
> change the quality setting because there is no such option in its
> dialog (used to be but it's not there now). Libre Office's dialog
> looks like something from the 1990s. GIMP's is pretty much the right
> thing, though.

I cannot argue with that, we really need a print dialog that handles 
everything. Evince FWIW, prints double sided just fine here. But okular 
does it better IMO.
>
> I'm using a HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 printer/scanner right now. Very
> nice, but they lied about the large paper: it can print both sides on
> A4/Letter but not on A3/Tabloid, which sucks. But it can apparently
> also work as a fax machine (what's a fax, Mom?).
>
> Ratings otherwise are not likely to be different between Win/Mac/Lin,
> as once it's installed and running, it should behave identically no
> matter what computer is sending it jobs.
>
> That's the theory, at least :-)
>
> ///Peter



-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
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