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Old 16th March 2012
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bashrules bashrules is offline
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Question laser printer for lpr/gs?

Hi all,

I want to buy a laser printer for $200-$300, but I'm puzzled. The last time, I had a printer was in the 1990s (hp laserjet 4).

Back then, I was using lpr with gs filters directly sending output to the parallel port /dev/lp0. That's exactly what I want, again:

Interface: I think parallel printers are obsolete. That's ok. Then I prefer USB + ethernet or USB + wifi. When I buy an USB printer, I assume I can send output to /dev/da0 (or however an usb device is accessed under BSD), but how do I access a network printer with lpr?

Manufacturer: When googling, many linuxer recommended hp. That's fine with me and should work equally well under BSD.

Drivers: I don't want cups. I figured out that a lot of hp printers are supported through the hplib system http://hplipopensource.com/. The "screenshots" are a flash slideshow and show me GUIs. I don't want this. I want a printer supported by gs so I can use it as a filter for lpr.

Year: I would like to buy a recent model so it will be supported for many years (cartridges, etc.). It looks like that rules out usb + ethernet as usb + wifi becomes more and more popular.

Misc: The printer should be "green" and have no/low emissions (haven't google yet if this is generally regarded a problem or not). Then, the toner should be on the cheaper end. What else is important when looking for a printer?


Any idea how to best look for such a printer? Recommendation?


Bash
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