From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Sep 16 22:19:11 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id WAA16254 for chat-outgoing; Tue, 16 Sep 1997 22:19:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from obie.softweyr.ml.org ([199.104.124.49]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id WAA16249 for ; Tue, 16 Sep 1997 22:19:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from wes@localhost) by obie.softweyr.ml.org (8.7.5/8.6.12) id XAA01552; Tue, 16 Sep 1997 23:22:07 -0600 (MDT) Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 23:22:07 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <199709170522.XAA01552@obie.softweyr.ml.org> From: Wes Peters To: Sean Kelly CC: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Printer recommendation In-Reply-To: <341EF83C.CC026F34@fsl.noaa.gov> References: <341EF83C.CC026F34@fsl.noaa.gov> Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Sean Kelly writes: > Hi everyone. > > My trusty old Panasonic PostScript KX-P4455 laser printer is on its last > leg, and I frankly don't want to maintain the beast anymore. A lot of > my Windows- and Mac-using friends seem pretty happy with these color > inkjets that seem to have saturated the market, and I have to admit they > look pretty darn good! > > Would anyone care to recommend a unit? > > I'd like color, but the majority of my printing is black/white. The > color had better be decent, though. It doesn't need to be overly > speedy. 600dpi resolution or better. It doesn't need PostScript, > because thanks to the latest fonts, Ghostscript's output finally rivals > that of honest-to-goodness PostScript Level 2. But that does mean it > needs to grok one of Ghostscript's output formats. I'd prefer a serial > interface (got plenty of ports on several machines), but those are > pretty rare on printers these days. Ethernet would be fine, if it's not > too expensive. And, naturally, this'll go on a FreeBSD system. My trusty Epson Stylus 300 has been whining along for nearly 3 years now, and has never given me a problem. I bought it and two brothers, both immediately sold to friends, back when both Comptuer City and Circuit City was closing them out for $99. Mine's got the fourth cartridge in it now, and still prints quite nicely. It's attached to my FreeBSD system, fed by Ghostscript + apsfilter from Unix, and Samba from my wife's Win95 system. The newer Epson color Stylii, along with an up-to-date Ghostscript, will give you color postscript. I'm not sure about support for the Canon printers in Ghostscript, but they seem to have lower consumables costs than the Epsons. HP consumables are much higher than either the Epson or Canon. Good luck. Let us know how you do, my wife wants a color printer soon (and I want to separate our computers by an entire floor). -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com