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Best Colour Laser Printer

Started by Ben, 2008.08.21, 00:51:33

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Ben

I know this topic comes up with some frequency, but it always seems in need of updating.

What is the best Colour Laser Printer available for OS/2?

Ideally I'd want to see high pages per cartridge, good, live colours, reliability and speed.

Needless to say good quality drivers are a must... and price is always a concern.

Any found a good one?

BigWarpGuy

#1
Color laser printers have come down in price. I do not know how many work with eCS. I have a HP color laserjet 1600 that I would like to have work with eCS on my Thinkpad T23. I am hoping that cups would get it to work with my eCS laptop. I am working on setting it  - being cups - up.  I am reading the how to page that was in another post.  8)

RobertM

I'm pretty happy with the older HPs (4600/5600 Series)... toner can be bought very cheaply, and the printers are pretty reliable. The PrinterWorks sells used ones at a pretty heavy premium, but everything we have ordered from them has been in excellent (like new) condition. eBay usually has a few of them pretty cheap. They are very fast as well (single pass 4 color printer). There are pretty cheap network options for it (internal and external), and changing a non-duplex one to a duplex one just requires a new formatter PCB (the actual hardware is in all models... the controller is the only difference). There are also a bunch of other finishing and additional tray options, and native OS/2 support in the PS and PCL driver sets.

We installed a Lexmark c500 Series at a client which I am very fond of (great prints, decent number of prints on a cartridge)... but the cartridges are kinda expensive (though there may be aftermarket ones that are cheaper, or wholesalers who sell them cheaper). They supposedly support OS/2 (drivers on CD and Lexmark's site), but we have not tried the OS/2 support (it's hooked to a customer's Windows XP client station, and no where near their OS/2 server). This printer also is very fast (it too is a single pass 4 color printer). It comes with duplex and network options.

For the Lexmark, dont bother checking their OS Compatibility List (it makes no mention of OS/2). Instead, go to drivers, select one of the c500 Series, and check it's driver page. Linux and DOS also get such treatment on their OS Compapitibility List.


Robert



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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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herwigb

Well, this one definitely is not a cheap color laserprinter, but it simply works perfectly with eCS:

http://www.epson.at/product/printer/epson_aculaser_c3800n/index.htm

It is superfast, and the printouts are brilliant. It comes with a PPD to import into the PostScript driver and all features are supported (2 papertrays, duplex printing...).

I have it directly hanging in the LAN and eCS machines print to it using SLPR port.

It supports ESC/P, PCL, PostScript and several other emulations I don't use.
Note, that I have not found an OS/2 PCL driver that supports all features and works flawlessly, but as I prefer PostScript (and for legacy reasons ESC/P anyway, that is not an issue for me).

Kind regards,
Herwig
Kind regards,
HerwigB.

Matthew Walsh

I've had a Minolta 2350 for years and it runs great. Never a problem and it uses both PCL-6 and PS drivers that are readily available.  Heavy, but networked well and a joy to use.
Matt W.

Ben

Thanks for replying everyone.

BigWarpGuy that printer seems to be USB only. If I'm not mistaken that serious limits the printing functionality under OS/2.

The HP 4600/5600 seems to be an inkjet.

The Epson Aculaser c3800n seemed to be a contender, (I've been using an Epson Actionlaser 1500 for 16 years now and it still works though 300 dpi no longer cuts it where quality is required), but it's only available in the EU and, at 82.7 lbs shipping is gonna add seriously to its $1,800.00 price tag.  :D

Matthew, the Minolta 2350 is a possibility though it is rated as "horribly noisy" by some, but otherwise quite good; How do you find it for noise?

Any one else have any suggestions?

Thanks.


Pete

Hi BigWarpGuy


I do not see the clj 1600 listed in the CUPS setup.

A quick search on the HP Linux site http://hplip.sourceforge.net/ gave this result:-

"HP Color LaserJet 1600
NOT supported by HPLIP. "


Looks like it might not be possible to get that printer working with CUPS - unless you have found a PPD file somewhere?

Regards

Pete

Pete

Hi Ben

What limits USB printers most often is the lack of an up-to-date printer driver.

A lot of people who have purchased inkjet printers in the past few years are using OMNI drivers for earlier model printers eg my Canon PIXMA iP4000 is a lot more capable than either the OMNI i850 or i950 drivers that are the only OS/2 drivers that work with the printer.

eCUPS looks like rectifying that situation  :-)


If your O/2 system has the last of the IBM USB driver updates installed then your real concern is whether there is a capable OS/2 printer driver to go with whatever printer(s) take your fancy. I guess with colour laser printers you should make sure that it is postscript capable and comes with a PPD file that you can import into the OS/2 pscript driver.


Regards

Pete

BigWarpGuy

Quote from: Pete on 2008.08.23, 03:03:50
Hi BigWarpGuy


I do not see the clj 1600 listed in the CUPS setup.

A quick search on the HP Linux site http://hplip.sourceforge.net/ gave this result:-

"HP Color LaserJet 1600
NOT supported by HPLIP. "


Looks like it might not be possible to get that printer working with CUPS - unless you have found a PPD file somewhere?

Regards

Pete

I will look on my Acer Aspire pc to see if I can find one there.  8)

Ben

Hi, Pete.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with the eCups driver with respect to the development. Paul is doing an unbelievable job... I'm not completely convinced that there isn't two of him... maybe even triplets!  :D

If I can put off purchasing until then I will. I do have some time, hence the reason for present research.

Thanks for the info.