Anyone know how to print to this ?

Chris

Paul Rudin wrote:
> Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Yes, in future it's best to stick to manufacturers that do a good job of
>> supporting Linux like HP and Epson. Canon seem to be stepping up to the
>> plate slowly too it seems.
>
> I've had all sorts of problems with my Epson R800, even when I can get
> it to print the print quality is not as good as printing from
> Windows. Whereas a couple of different HP printers have been fine. I'd
> be reluctant to buy an Epson again on the strength of linux support.

OK. I've only ever had HP printers with no problems, but generally heard
good things about Epson too. I guess for them they still have some
models which aren't great.

Tony Houghton

In 87d4tsauxy.fsf@rudin.co.uk
Paul Rudin <paul.nospam@rudin.co.uk> wrote:

> I've had all sorts of problems with my Epson R800, even when I can get
> it to print the print quality is not as good as printing from
> Windows. Whereas a couple of different HP printers have been fine. I'd
> be reluctant to buy an Epson again on the strength of linux support.

My experience was the opposite with an Epson Stylus Photo 895. The
gimp-print driver (as it was then, now renamed gutenprint I think)
always produced excellent results whereas the Windows driver always
wanted to default to a lower quality mode and needed tweaking to correct
the colours for different makes of ink and paper.

AFter it died it was replaced with an HP D2360. I haven't really
experimented with printing to it from Linux but the Windows driver is
dreadful. Besides coming with hundreds of MB of crap, whenever anything
goes wrong eg a paper jam, you have to disconnect the printer and reboot
Windows to clear the print queue. If you're lucky that works first time
and you don't have to keep repeating the process for several days.

--
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk

Chris

Tony Houghton wrote:
> In 87d4tsauxy.fsf@rudin.co.uk
> Paul Rudin <paul.nospam@rudin.co.uk> wrote:
> AFter it died it was replaced with an HP D2360. I haven't really
> experimented with printing to it from Linux but the Windows driver is
> dreadful. Besides coming with hundreds of MB of crap, whenever anything
> goes wrong eg a paper jam, you have to disconnect the printer and reboot
> Windows to clear the print queue. If you're lucky that works first time
> and you don't have to keep repeating the process for several days.
>

Fortunately the HP hplip software is included in some distros by default
(e.g. Mepis) and as such no faffing is required - just install via CUPS
et al.

Alternatively, if your model is too new, the HP hplip software itself is
a breeze to install and allows a lot of control over your printer's
output. It's much quicker and smaller than the Mac software bundle I
needed to get my C5180 AiO working. A definite thumbs up for Linux

James Wilkinson

Rikishi 42 wrote:
> Long version:
> There is - unfortunatly - nothing strange about that. it happens a lot.
>
> If you can't find a printer in the base list of printers in Yast, and you
> want to know if it has a chance of ever working under Linux, first try to
> find out what language it's using. If it's PostScript or PCL you're all
> right. You might have to find a PPD, edit a few seetings: easy.
> If it's GDI based, it's very - if not completely - unlikely to ever work.
> Any other language is an adventure waiting to be lived. :-)
>
> I've just downloaded the drivers for Windows, uncompressed them (the EXE is
> really a Winzip self-Extracting file) and browsed the driver files a bit.
> Guess what I found: a directory called GDI, which is the only one containing
> anything remotely like a driver. The rest is mostly presentation junk.
>
> So... You're stuffed.

It ain't necessarily so ...

You're right for most printers, but not necessarily for Samsungs.

Thing is, they released a GPLed driver for (some of) their GDI printers
that works with Linux, and called it "gdi" (not the most sensible name).
That driver got into most Linux distributions.

As far as I can tell, their GDI language is common between a lot of
printers. So the Original Poster might well find that by trying to set
it up as various other GDI printers, it starts working.

See also http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gdi

Hope this helps,

James.

--
E-mail: james@ | DON'T be put off by "horror stories" spread by others.
aprilcottage.co.uk | People who talk about death and serious injury are very
| rarely the ones who have actually suffered such things.
| -- Adrian Plass

Nix

On 30 Nov 2007, Chris told this:

> Nix wrote:
>> Stuff like that doesn't merit the name `support'. Thank goodness for the
>> ghostscript pxlmono driver --- but I'm still stuck with 600dpi rather
>> than 1200, for now...
>
> Yes, in future it's best to stick to manufacturers that do a good job of
> supporting Linux like HP and Epson. Canon seem to be stepping up to the
> plate slowly too it seems.

I forgot the most important feature of this hardware: it was very cheap
indeed and I already knew pxlmono would work with it before I bought
it.

> Or pick OS independent hardware that talk PS or PCL.

It talks PCL6, which allegedly can go up to 1200dpi --- but GS can only
talk PCL5. (Yes, I should implement PCL6 support, but that means
learning enough about PCL to do that.)

--
`Some people don't think performance issues are "real bugs", and I think
such people shouldn't be allowed to program.' --- Linus Torvalds

Rikishi 42

On 2007-11-29, Martin <mlburke@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Its a Samsung spp-2020 below is the output from lsusb -v as you can see
> it sees it fine just need to know how to talk to it. Its a dedicated
> photo printer just at the moment I'm having to bluetooth everything to it
> when you have one or two piccys to print its fine but would love to print
> from gimp to it.
>
> I have looked on the net for drivers but samsung strangely enough have
> not got a driver, and there known for there linux friendlyness.

Short version: you're stuffed. :-)


Long version:
There is - unfortunatly - nothing strange about that. it happens a lot.

If you can't find a printer in the base list of printers in Yast, and you
want to know if it has a chance of ever working under Linux, first try to
find out what language it's using. If it's PostScript or PCL you're all
right. You might have to find a PPD, edit a few seetings: easy.
If it's GDI based, it's very - if not completely - unlikely to ever work.
Any other language is an adventure waiting to be lived. :-)

I've just downloaded the drivers for Windows, uncompressed them (the EXE is
really a Winzip self-Extracting file) and browsed the driver files a bit.
Guess what I found: a directory called GDI, which is the only one containing
anything remotely like a driver. The rest is mostly presentation junk.

So... You're stuffed.



PS: I also found out you really, really must use THEIR program to print,
under Windows or Mac. Not just any soft. Only THEIR little tool.
Nasty...

PPS: don't stop looking. There's allways the chance some old, smelly, loony
hermit has come up with a solution anyway. Keep the faith!



--
There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying.
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Douglas Adams

Martin

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:37:32 +0100, Rikishi 42 wrote:

> On 2007-11-29, Martin <mlburke@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> Its a Samsung spp-2020 below is the output from lsusb -v as you can see
>> it sees it fine just need to know how to talk to it. Its a dedicated
>> photo printer just at the moment I'm having to bluetooth everything to
>> it when you have one or two piccys to print its fine but would love to
>> print from gimp to it.
>>
>> I have looked on the net for drivers but samsung strangely enough have
>> not got a driver, and there known for there linux friendlyness.
>
> Short version: you're stuffed. :-)
>
>
> Long version:
> There is - unfortunatly - nothing strange about that. it happens a lot.
>
> If you can't find a printer in the base list of printers in Yast, and
> you want to know if it has a chance of ever working under Linux, first
> try to find out what language it's using. If it's PostScript or PCL
> you're all right. You might have to find a PPD, edit a few seetings:
> easy. If it's GDI based, it's very - if not completely - unlikely to
> ever work. Any other language is an adventure waiting to be lived. :-)
>
> I've just downloaded the drivers for Windows, uncompressed them (the EXE
> is really a Winzip self-Extracting file) and browsed the driver files a
> bit. Guess what I found: a directory called GDI, which is the only one
> containing anything remotely like a driver. The rest is mostly
> presentation junk.
>
> So... You're stuffed.
>
>
>
> PS: I also found out you really, really must use THEIR program to print,
> under Windows or Mac. Not just any soft. Only THEIR little tool.
> Nasty...
>
> PPS: don't stop looking. There's allways the chance some old, smelly,
> loony hermit has come up with a solution anyway. Keep the faith!


Thanks for the info it basically what I thought I note that the do a mac
driver, but for some strange reason no linux

Looks like I'm going to be sticking with bluetooth for now.





--
If its not broke must be linux

Rikishi 42

On 2007-11-29, Martin <mlburke@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the info it basically what I thought I note that the do a mac
> driver, but for some strange reason no linux

Nothing really strange about that. It looks like a somewhat older device.
You'll notice they only have a Mac OS driver, not OS/X.

Normally they'd only have a Windows driver, but quiet a few people that used
to do photo printing had a Mac, not too long ago.



> Looks like I'm going to be sticking with bluetooth for now.

Get a USB memmory card reader, to get the pictures to the printer via a
memory card.



--
There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying.
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Douglas Adams

Nix

On 29 Nov 2007, Martin uttered the following:
> I have looked on the net for drivers but samsung strangely enough have
> not got a driver, and there known for there linux friendlyness.

Really? My Samsung ML-2250 laser printer `driver' was a worthless
binary-only lump that tried to unpack setuid root executables into /etc
and replace all of CUPS with an ancient insecure version, and its
binary-only CUPS filter did an excellent job of dumping core and not
such a good job of anything else.

Stuff like that doesn't merit the name `support'. Thank goodness for the
ghostscript pxlmono driver --- but I'm still stuck with 600dpi rather
than 1200, for now...

--
`Some people don't think performance issues are "real bugs", and I think
such people shouldn't be allowed to program.' --- Linus Torvalds

Martin

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:50:53 +0100, Rikishi 42 wrote:

> On 2007-11-29, Martin <mlburke@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> Thanks for the info it basically what I thought I note that the do a
>> mac driver, but for some strange reason no linux
>
> Nothing really strange about that. It looks like a somewhat older
> device. You'll notice they only have a Mac OS driver, not OS/X.
>
> Normally they'd only have a Windows driver, but quiet a few people that
> used to do photo printing had a Mac, not too long ago.
>
>
>
>> Looks like I'm going to be sticking with bluetooth for now.
>
> Get a USB memmory card reader, to get the pictures to the printer via a
> memory card.

Unfortunatly my printer wont print via a memory card just throws up a
red light at me.




--
If its not broke must be linux