OT: printer, our cups port, and is-there-a-generic-laser?

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:28:08 -0700, Gary Kline <kline at thought.org> wrote:
> is there a laser other than the brother {tm}?  i mean, that the
> members of this org would go for?

Yes: Office printers, even used ones are fine. Pay attention
that they have:
	- ethernet port
	- postscript
	- if not: PCL

I'm using a HP Laserjet 4000 with duplex unit myself for many
years now - HAPPILY, as I can honestly admit, and in the past,
I've been using a HP Laserjet 4 attached to the parellel port.
All those "old" printers work wonderfully using just system
tools (lpr), as they speak PS, which is the default output
format for printing from any UNIX application. If they don't
speak PS or are slow processing it, use apsfilter from ports
together with gs (Ghosescript) to make PCL from any input.
You can do funny things like add "pretty printing" to any
text input (e. g. LaTeX), or even issue "lpr picture.jpg"
from the command line. Integration of the system tools to
image processing or office software is no problem.

Don't mess with USB and inkpee, it will cost you more in the
final calculation.

I also read that some of the brother printers are quite good,
as well as Kyocera, but I don't have own experience with them,
so I traditionally suggest getting a HP printer. Office printer.
Used office printer. For cheap. Really. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...