On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:49:14AM +0100, Brett Parker wrote:
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:14:43AM +0100, Ted Harding wrote:
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I've come across the Lexmark Z708 inkjet, apparently available at PC World for ?29.99 (in-store). Not that I like inkjets, since the cartridge price leads to high running costs in the long term (it looks as though Lexmark cartridges, even black and white, cost over $20, i.e. nearly as much as the printer in this case). However, the price is right ... !
Know that feeling far too well. Infact, someone I knew just went and bought a new printer because it was cheaper than replacing the cartridges.
Lexmark printers are generally crap I wouldn't even consider buying one, also Brett your friend may have done themselves a mis-service as most new printers now only come with half filled ink cartridges or toners. (Of course if they were replacing an ancient printer then that wasn't necessarily a bad idea but I tend to use compatible cartridges on old printers because it doesn't matter if the cartridges clog up the print head and break the printer) Anyhow Ted, what kind of printer are you after? does it have to be inkjet?
Can't comment on that, but I've a nice little Epson C42UX Usb printer sitting here that just works, so USB should definately not be a problem :)
Epson stuff works nicely, I have a nice Epson Photo 900 on top of my desk that I paid 75 quid for from PCWorld (which uses USB) and I also just bought a Samsung ML-1510 laser printer which also uses usb for 50 quid delivered from http://www.office-world.co.uk to replace my dead laser (although it doesn't include a usb cable and officeworld charge 13 quid each for them! so I recommend buying a few usb cables from Ebuyer for 93p each+shipping (even with express next day shipping that would be about 7.50! and you get a free 32MB usb memory key if you mail in a form from the samsung website) but the toner cart you get with it is apparently only good for 1000 pages (but you can refill them if you want ;)) and the replacement toners are also 50 quid but good for 3000 pages. Oh, and this is a fairly small and portable printer which I guess would be handy if you want to move it around lots.
Oh and the box for the Samsung ML-1510 has a picture of Tux on it and specifically says it supports Linux as does the printing demo page and the manual also mentions Linux etc. also Samsung have released GPL drivers in the past so I figure they are quite a good company to support.
I haven't been able to suss out from websites what printer language it uses, for instance, so don't know whether ghostscript would be able to convert PS output to drive this printer.
Personally, I'd go for something that was slightly more open, and could be attacked more readily (or already had support in default distribution). It's probably worth your while taking a look at http://www.linuxprinting.org/ and finding a cheapy from the list of supported printers ;)
As Brett says try looking at here specifically http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html
That page suggests
"There are few good free software drivers for Canon and Lexmark inkjets. Do not buy one and expect success."
So I think I would use a 50 metre barge pole on that Lexmark ;)
Adam