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Color Laserprinter - which one?

Started by warpcafe, 2010.02.07, 18:03:28

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warpcafe

Hi,

2 weeks aog, I had to give my trusty Brother Laserprinter to a customer who was in the need of having a replacement printer immediately. Now it seems I can't get the printer back because the customer is way too satisfied with what was intended to be a short-term workaround and "forces" me to sell it (price is OK for me, so no problem here...).

In short - I will have to get myself a new printer.
Afetr I sold a couple of color laserprinters during last year and the overall response was quite positive regarding quality and reliability I figured that I could check if that would be an option for me. Since I know that support is somehow limited for our operating system of choice, I wanted to know whether someone already HAS experience with color laserprinters on eCS.

Before I present the possible candidates to you, let me mention the fact that I have a network print server box which is able to attach USB and parallel models. This means that I can use USB attached printers via LPR without having to worry a lot. Only the printer driver causes me issue, not the actual connectivity.
That said, here's my preliminary selection:
- Brother (my favorite laser printer brand) model HL-3040CN
- Samsung CLP 310
- Epson C1100N
- HP CP1515

With brother, they didn't mention the printer lanuage anywhere. I will have to check on this again...
Samsung is using a proprietary language that -I think- is even not well supported with CUPS.
Epson states their model is using "ESC/Page S". I know the Epson ESC is supported, but can't tell for this particular flavor. HP is the company I would really like to not buy something from, yet if it is the only possible way to go... sigh. They say it supports "HP PostScript Level 3 Emulation"... whatever that means, it doesn't sound to me like simple, standard "PostScript". :)

Which one is known to work "natively"? Which one works "best" when having CUPS installed?
Any suggestion what works, what not, or other models that come to mind?

Cheers, TIA,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

Raiko

Found some info about HP CP1518ni, which seems to be quite similar to HP CP1510 and CP HP1515;
http://en.ecomstation.ru/hardware.php?action=item&id=1483
A lot of things can be said about HP, but I'm very satisfied with the HP printers I've used. One that is more
than 12 years old, black and white laserprinter, still works nicely. I'm mostly using a HP2605dn color laser
printer and it works with the postscript driver that comes with eCS. Color prints are fine and duplex is also
working.

RobertM

Almost anything that has true postscript support is a good bet.


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

Hi,

@Raiko:
Thanks for the tips. Yeah, a lot can be said about HP :) nevertheless, it is the mechanical functions in HP printers that I am somehow disappointed of, although this refers to inkjet printers. The IT guys of the company I work for also recommended HP for color laserprinting... I might give them another chance.

@Rob:
Yeah, I know. That's why it makes me shiver when I read something that smells like a "proprietary emulation for PostScript"... gives me the feeling of having a PostScript-enabled printer only with the driver (which is Windows only then) :)

By the way - is there a method to determine if a printer's Linux drivers (CUPS, LPR, PPD file...) are useable with eCS's CUPS port?

Thanks for the feedback,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

Pete

Hi Thomas

If the linux printer driver uses CUPS without any extra software such as hplip then there is a good chance the printer will work with eCUPS using the linux PPD file.

Regards

Pete

warpcafe

Hi Pete,

thanks for the info, will keep this in mind.
After double-checking the Brother website, my new favorite is the HL-3070CW... because it has PCL6 and PostScript Level3 compatibility as far as one can trust their advertisement ;) anyway, Samsung is now definitely off the list since your comment reminded me that they use a proprietary thing in conjunction with CUPS.

Cheers,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

abwillis

I have a Brother 7820N.  Its not color but I am able to use its BR3 (PS3 emulation) by just updating the PPD file without even having to use CUPS.  IIRC, at one time, CUPS depended on a binary for Linux from Brother but I am not sure about currently.  The 7820N has parallel, USB, and network connectivity.  I planned to use the network interface which is good because the USB at the time I never got to work.  My system wouldn't see it until just as I was disconnecting it.  This may or may not be an issue with the one you are looking at but something to keep in mind.

Ben

I'm  using a Konica Magicolor 5440 DL.

It is a kick-ass colour laser with the best output I have seen on a color laser. It is a one pass printer and it is FAST.

Paul Smedley
ported the drivers for me and they work just fine with eCups.

The model was discontinued last year and went for over $1,000.00, but I bought mine brand new off the shell for $300.00.

It was a STEAL!

The cartridges can print 12,000,000 copies, (though not with the half-demos that come with them).