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printer purchases

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  printer purchases Popping Mad <rainbow@colition.gov> - 2025-08-03 03:49 -0400
    Re: printer purchases c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-03 04:10 -0400
      Re: printer purchases Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2025-08-03 18:51 +0000
      Re: printer purchases Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-08-05 16:57 +1000
        Re: printer purchases Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-06 09:26 +0100
          Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-06 10:10 +0100
            Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-06 20:01 +0000
            Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-08 22:10 +0000
              Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 00:05 +0000
                Re: printer purchases c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-08 22:54 -0400
                  Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 04:27 +0000
                    Re: printer purchases c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-09 01:37 -0400
                      Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 21:00 +0000
                Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-09 11:03 +0100
                  Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 21:12 +0000
                    Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-10 10:19 +0100
                  Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-10 01:59 +0000
    Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-04 05:36 +0000
      Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-04 09:15 +0200
      Re: printer purchases Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-04 09:16 +0100
        Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-04 11:17 +0100
        Re: printer purchases Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> - 2025-08-04 13:58 +0100
          Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-04 19:03 +0100
        Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-04 19:04 +0000
      Re: printer purchases "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-04 12:40 +0200
        Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-04 11:50 +0100
          Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-04 15:12 +0200
            Re: printer purchases "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-04 20:27 +0200
              Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-05 08:10 +0200
                Re: printer purchases "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-05 12:26 +0200
                Re: printer purchases Louis Krupp <lkrupp@invalid.pssw.com.invalid> - 2025-08-05 05:59 -0600
                  Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-05 15:12 +0200
                    Re: printer purchases "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-06 12:38 +0200
                Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-09 00:15 +0000
            Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-04 19:09 +0000
              Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-05 08:10 +0200
                Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-09 00:13 +0000
                  Re: printer purchases Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2025-08-09 03:49 +0000
                    Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 04:36 +0000
                    Re: printer purchases Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-09 09:12 +0100
                      Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-09 11:08 +0100
                      Re: printer purchases Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2025-08-10 03:19 +0000
                        Re: printer purchases Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-10 09:43 +0100
                          Re: printer purchases Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-10 09:45 +0100
                  Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-09 11:31 +0200
            Re: printer purchases not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-08-05 09:15 +1000
              Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-05 08:12 +0200
                Re: printer purchases c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-05 03:48 -0400
                  Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-05 11:23 +0200
                  Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-05 10:49 +0100
                    Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-09 00:19 +0000
                  Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-05 19:29 +0000
                Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-05 10:42 +0100
                  Re: printer purchases Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-05 15:14 +0200
                    Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-05 14:54 +0100
                  Re: printer purchases c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-05 19:38 -0400
              Re: printer purchases c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-05 03:45 -0400
                Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-05 10:54 +0100
                Re: printer purchases not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-08-06 08:20 +1000
                  Re: printer purchases Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-06 00:01 +0100
        Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-08 22:06 +0000
          Re: printer purchases Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-09 00:17 +0100
            Re: printer purchases Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-09 00:33 +0100
            Re: printer purchases The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-09 11:00 +0100
              Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 21:02 +0000
          Re: printer purchases Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-08-09 14:04 +0000
            Re: printer purchases rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-09 21:15 +0000
            Re: printer purchases Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-10 01:56 +0000

Page 2 of 4 — ← Prev page 1 [2] 3 4  Next page →

#70324

On 04/08/2025 09:16, Nuno Silva wrote:
> One way or the other, if you don't print a lot, LASER has to be a much
> better option.
> 
> But one situation where you might still need the inkjet is colors,

Well I have a small color laserjet. Networked.

HP  that still runs without having to have HP cartridges.

It's pretty reliable

M252n

I got fed up with spending half a day cleaning inkjet nozzles to print 
one large drawing, back in the day.

I either print sections and tape them together now, or get a print from 
a print shop.

-- 
Truth welcomes investigation because truth knows investigation will lead 
to converts. It is deception that uses all the other techniques.

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#70327

On 04/08/2025 09:16, Nuno Silva wrote:
> Inkjet printers usually excel at dumping ink, and often this is because
> of the printing mechanism. So while some of the dumping might be
> manufacturers trying to get you to replace ink cartridges often, a part
> of it might be necessary, perhaps unless the heads are in the cartridges
> (which ought to make them more expensive, but at least means it's not
> harder to replace).

<sad-story>I had a nice inkjet once - double-sided and CD printing. 
Separate CMYK cartridges. One day, one colour had run out, so I replaced 
it. It cleaned the nozzles, and announced a second colour was out. So I 
replaced it..,... and yes, it worked through a complete set of 
cartridges without printing a thing. A pretty quick way of spending £50 
(and that's about 10 years ago).</sad-story> It went down the rubbish 
tip, and I bought a laser. A cartridge lasts us literally years, and 
works out at about 1p-2p, IIRC, a page. We don't do enough colour stuff 
to merit running a colour laser.

-- 
Mike Scott
Harlow, England

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#70335

On 04/08/2025 13:58, Mike Scott wrote:
> On 04/08/2025 09:16, Nuno Silva wrote:
>> Inkjet printers usually excel at dumping ink, and often this is because
>> of the printing mechanism. So while some of the dumping might be
>> manufacturers trying to get you to replace ink cartridges often, a part
>> of it might be necessary, perhaps unless the heads are in the cartridges
>> (which ought to make them more expensive, but at least means it's not
>> harder to replace).
> 
> <sad-story>I had a nice inkjet once - double-sided and CD printing. 
> Separate CMYK cartridges. One day, one colour had run out, so I replaced 
> it. It cleaned the nozzles, and announced a second colour was out. So I 
> replaced it..,... and yes, it worked through a complete set of 
> cartridges without printing a thing. A pretty quick way of spending £50 
> (and that's about 10 years ago).</sad-story> It went down the rubbish 
> tip, and I bought a laser. A cartridge lasts us literally years, and 
> works out at about 1p-2p, IIRC, a page. We don't do enough colour stuff 
> to merit running a colour laser.
> 
I got one 3rd party Cyan cartridge/drum that insisted in printing cyan 
in stripes.
I replaced it and all was OK

Only thing about 3rd party cartridges is color rendition.
Royal purple is not easy...


-- 
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, 
that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Jonathan Swift.

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#70339

On Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:16:21 +0100, Nuno Silva wrote:

> Actually, no, inkjet is only efficient if you print a lot. The less you
> print, the more you should prefer something that's not inkjet.

I don't print much. With inkjets every infrequent attempt to print 
resulted in a session with ammonia and a toothbrush to try to resurrect 
clogged cartridges. 

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#70325

On 2025-08-04 07:36, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Aug 2025 03:49:11 -0400, Popping Mad wrote:
> 
>> I need a color laser printer ...
> 
> Presumably you do a lot of printing. Me, I probably average a sheet a day,
> so an inkjet is sufficient for my needs. They also do better colour than a
> laser, I believe.
> 
>> ... and network ready ...
> 
> This is not really necessary. You can plug it via USB into one Linux box,
> and that can act as a server to receive print jobs from other machines.


When printing little, laser is more reliable. My experience with inkjets 
not used frequently is that the nozzles dry up or obstruct, and cleaning 
them wastes ink. A laser not used for months will print instantly and 
perfectly when powered up.

I also prefer networked printers; networked postscript or pdf is 
supported out of the box. An USB printer has chances of not working 
(well) with Linux.

And colour in lasers is just fine.


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#70326

On 04/08/2025 11:40, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2025-08-04 07:36, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> On Sun, 3 Aug 2025 03:49:11 -0400, Popping Mad wrote:
>>
>>> I need a color laser printer ...
>>
>> Presumably you do a lot of printing. Me, I probably average a sheet a 
>> day,
>> so an inkjet is sufficient for my needs. They also do better colour 
>> than a
>> laser, I believe.
>>
>>> ... and network ready ...
>>
>> This is not really necessary. You can plug it via USB into one Linux box,
>> and that can act as a server to receive print jobs from other machines.
> 
> 
> When printing little, laser is more reliable. My experience with inkjets 
> not used frequently is that the nozzles dry up or obstruct, and cleaning 
> them wastes ink. A laser not used for months will print instantly and 
> perfectly when powered up.
> 
> I also prefer networked printers; networked postscript or pdf is 
> supported out of the box. An USB printer has chances of not working 
> (well) with Linux.
> 
> And colour in lasers is just fine.
> 
> 
+1 on all these.

I find older HP office machines reliable. Others swear by Brother.

One thing tough, the chunkier and more solid is is the better. Don't go 
too cheap.


-- 
"An intellectual is a person knowledgeable in one field who speaks out 
only in others...”

Tom Wolfe

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#70328

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>I find older HP office machines reliable. Others swear by Brother.
>
>One thing tough, the chunkier and more solid is is the better. Don't go 
>too cheap.

I had a used Lexmark Color 35-pages-a-minute laser from 2014 to 2023.
Was happy with it until I found out that the toner cartridges (rated
for 3500 pages, cost about 30 Euros per coloar) were empty after about
800 pages. My explanation is that the printer might move lots of toner
to the waste bottle when turning it on, and while that only happens
once a day in a department setting and then printing hundreds of pages
over the day, I turned it on to print one or two pages.

Stayed with the Lexmark since toner cartridges for more recent
printers had tripled in price since my Lexmark was built.

When it eventually died, I changed to a Canon Inkjet that gets fed by
ink bottles. It's an order of magnitude slower than the Lexmark, but
I'm still happy with it.

Greetings
Marc
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         |   " Questions are the         | Mailadresse im Header
Rhein-Neckar, DE   |     Beginning of Wisdom "     | 
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 6224 1600402

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#70337

On 2025-08-04 15:12, Marc Haber wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> I find older HP office machines reliable. Others swear by Brother.
>>
>> One thing tough, the chunkier and more solid is is the better. Don't go
>> too cheap.
> 
> I had a used Lexmark Color 35-pages-a-minute laser from 2014 to 2023.
> Was happy with it until I found out that the toner cartridges (rated
> for 3500 pages, cost about 30 Euros per coloar) were empty after about
> 800 pages. My explanation is that the printer might move lots of toner
> to the waste bottle when turning it on, and while that only happens
> once a day in a department setting and then printing hundreds of pages
> over the day, I turned it on to print one or two pages.

I don't have such a suspicion with my HP Colour Laserjet cp1515n, but it 
is good to know that it can happen.

My trouble with it is that the rollers can no longer grab heavyweight 
paper (120 grams/square meter vs 80). I have a bottle of a product that 
may rejuvenate the rubber, difficult to find, but I have not applied it yet.

It is old:

cer@minas-tirith:~> lpstat -a
cp1510n_ps accepting requests since 2015-04-01T20:17:57 CEST
cp1515n_hpijs accepting requests since 2010-03-09T21:32:13 CET
cp1515n_pcl3 accepting requests since 2010-03-09T21:43:17 CET

Oh, I just found the invoice, October 2008.
> Stayed with the Lexmark since toner cartridges for more recent
> printers had tripled in price since my Lexmark was built.

Good catch, we tend to forget to check those prices.

> 
> When it eventually died, I changed to a Canon Inkjet that gets fed by
> ink bottles. It's an order of magnitude slower than the Lexmark, but
> I'm still happy with it.
> 
> Greetings
> Marc


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#70350

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>I don't have such a suspicion with my HP Colour Laserjet cp1515n, but it 
>is good to know that it can happen.
>
>My trouble with it is that the rollers can no longer grab heavyweight 
>paper (120 grams/square meter vs 80). I have a bottle of a product that 
>may rejuvenate the rubber, difficult to find, but I have not applied it yet.

Is the printer specced for so heavy paper from the main cassette in
the first place? Many printers I know can print on heavy paper only
with the straight paper path.

Greetings
Marc
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         |   " Questions are the         | Mailadresse im Header
Rhein-Neckar, DE   |     Beginning of Wisdom "     | 
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 6224 1600402

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#70371

On 2025-08-05 08:10, Marc Haber wrote:
> "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> I don't have such a suspicion with my HP Colour Laserjet cp1515n, but it
>> is good to know that it can happen.
>>
>> My trouble with it is that the rollers can no longer grab heavyweight
>> paper (120 grams/square meter vs 80). I have a bottle of a product that
>> may rejuvenate the rubber, difficult to find, but I have not applied it yet.
> 
> Is the printer specced for so heavy paper from the main cassette in
> the first place? Many printers I know can print on heavy paper only
> with the straight paper path.

Yes, certainly it is rated. In the print dialog I can choose 220 grams 
paper.

There is no straight paper path, both trays are in the front.


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#70376

On 8/5/2025 12:10 AM, Marc Haber wrote:
> "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> I don't have such a suspicion with my HP Colour Laserjet cp1515n, but it
>> is good to know that it can happen.
>>
>> My trouble with it is that the rollers can no longer grab heavyweight
>> paper (120 grams/square meter vs 80). I have a bottle of a product that
>> may rejuvenate the rubber, difficult to find, but I have not applied 
>> it yet.
> Is the printer specced for so heavy paper from the main cassette in
> the first place? Many printers I know can print on heavy paper only
> with the straight paper path.
>

Is it still possible to buy a new printer with a straight paper path? I 
haven't seen one in a long time.

Louis

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#70377

Louis Krupp <lkrupp@invalid.pssw.com.invalid> wrote:
>On 8/5/2025 12:10 AM, Marc Haber wrote:
>> "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>> I don't have such a suspicion with my HP Colour Laserjet cp1515n, but it
>>> is good to know that it can happen.
>>>
>>> My trouble with it is that the rollers can no longer grab heavyweight
>>> paper (120 grams/square meter vs 80). I have a bottle of a product that
>>> may rejuvenate the rubber, difficult to find, but I have not applied 
>>> it yet.
>> Is the printer specced for so heavy paper from the main cassette in
>> the first place? Many printers I know can print on heavy paper only
>> with the straight paper path.
>>
>
>Is it still possible to buy a new printer with a straight paper path? I 
>haven't seen one in a long time.

My Canon has a reasonably straight paper path if you feed the paper
from the upper rear feed, it only has to go around a 45 degree bend
which is "straight" when compared to the 180-or-so-bend when feeding
from the cassette.

Greetings
Marc
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         |   " Questions are the         | Mailadresse im Header
Rhein-Neckar, DE   |     Beginning of Wisdom "     | 
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 6224 1600402

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#70462

On 2025-08-05 15:12, Marc Haber wrote:
> Louis Krupp <lkrupp@invalid.pssw.com.invalid> wrote:
>> On 8/5/2025 12:10 AM, Marc Haber wrote:
>>> "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>>> I don't have such a suspicion with my HP Colour Laserjet cp1515n, but it
>>>> is good to know that it can happen.
>>>>
>>>> My trouble with it is that the rollers can no longer grab heavyweight
>>>> paper (120 grams/square meter vs 80). I have a bottle of a product that
>>>> may rejuvenate the rubber, difficult to find, but I have not applied
>>>> it yet.
>>> Is the printer specced for so heavy paper from the main cassette in
>>> the first place? Many printers I know can print on heavy paper only
>>> with the straight paper path.
>>>
>>
>> Is it still possible to buy a new printer with a straight paper path? I
>> haven't seen one in a long time.
> 
> My Canon has a reasonably straight paper path if you feed the paper
> from the upper rear feed, it only has to go around a 45 degree bend
> which is "straight" when compared to the 180-or-so-bend when feeding
> from the cassette.

My old HP cp1515n (colour) has 180° both in the cassette and in the 
manual feed tray.

I also have a Laserjet M209dw (BW) on another site that prints on both 
sides. The cassette is 180°, and for the reverse side the paper goes 
twice, I don't know exactly how, but it has to bend both ways somehow. 
It goes very fast, I doubt it is durable. Single tray.

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#70637

On Tue, 05 Aug 2025 08:10:04 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:

> Is the printer specced for so heavy paper from the main cassette in the
> first place? Many printers I know can print on heavy paper only with the
> straight paper path.

Like the legendary Canon LBP-CX engine, that was the basis for both the 
first Apple LaserWriter and the first HP LaserJet.

The downside of the straight paper path is the pages end up stacked in 
reverse of printing order.

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#70340

On Mon, 04 Aug 2025 15:12:31 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:

> Stayed with the Lexmark since toner cartridges for more recent printers
> had tripled in price since my Lexmark was built.

I don't know how it is recently but I moved away from Lexmark because of 
problems with the Linux drivers. 

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#70351

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 04 Aug 2025 15:12:31 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
>> Stayed with the Lexmark since toner cartridges for more recent printers
>> had tripled in price since my Lexmark was built.
>
>I don't know how it is recently but I moved away from Lexmark because of 
>problems with the Linux drivers. 

All those printers were postscript capable, only needing a PPD. And
those are compatible with Windows. Never had an issue with that.

Greetings
Marc
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         |   " Questions are the         | Mailadresse im Header
Rhein-Neckar, DE   |     Beginning of Wisdom "     | 
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 6224 1600402

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#70636

On Tue, 05 Aug 2025 08:10:45 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:

> All those printers were postscript capable, only needing a PPD. And
> those are compatible with Windows. Never had an issue with that.

Nowadays we seem to have “driverless” printing, but I’m not sure how 
that’s supposed to work? Maybe all the printers have standardized on 
accepting PDF files or something ...

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#70647

On 2025-08-09, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 05 Aug 2025 08:10:45 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
>
>> All those printers were postscript capable, only needing a PPD. And
>> those are compatible with Windows. Never had an issue with that.
>
> Nowadays we seem to have “driverless” printing, but I’m not sure how 
> that’s supposed to work? Maybe all the printers have standardized on 
> accepting PDF files or something ...

At least from what I have been able to determine, it means CUPS
rasterizes the images on the host and then sends the uncompressed
rasterized image to the printer.  Prior to "driverless", CUPs (or
the earlier system) would send PS to the printer (if the printer
could take PS or PCL).

Around 2000-2003, I could print a page from a web browser, have
first page in my hand within a few seconds, and then have the
rest of the pages usually as fast as the printer's paper path
could shovel the paper.  Now with CUPS driverless, it's somewhere
around 15 seconds before I see the first page and another 15-20
seconds or so per duplexed pair of pages.  Printing a 30-page
credit report can take several minutes rather than one or two.

My current system runs Devuan Daedalus on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
8-Core Processor, 64GB of ECC RAM, and a Brother HL-L2360DW
printer.  The host system itself is well over an order of
magnitude faster than the Alpha machine I used in 2000-2003.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

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#70649

On 9 Aug 2025 03:49:33 GMT, Robert Riches wrote:

> At least from what I have been able to determine, it means CUPS
> rasterizes the images on the host and then sends the uncompressed
> rasterized image to the printer.  Prior to "driverless", CUPs (or the
> earlier system) would send PS to the printer (if the printer could take
> PS or PCL).

Our print interface sniffed at the file. If it was PS it checked the 
printer's capabilities. If it wasn't a PS printer, it shelled out to 
Ghostscript and then sent the rasterized file to the printer. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostscript

Long way around the barn but some of the upstream apps used nnscript to 
add headers, footers, landscape mode and so forth to reports, some only 
did straight ASCII reports. 

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#70653

Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> writes:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

>> Nowadays we seem to have “driverless” printing, but I’m not sure how
>> that’s supposed to work? Maybe all the printers have standardized on
>> accepting PDF files or something ...
>
> At least from what I have been able to determine, it means CUPS
> rasterizes the images on the host and then sends the uncompressed
> rasterized image to the printer.  Prior to "driverless", CUPs (or the
> earlier system) would send PS to the printer (if the printer could
> take PS or PCL).

https://openprinting.github.io/driverless/01-standards-and-their-pdls/

The defining characteristic of ‘driverless’ seems to be that there is no
separately delivered driver, and instead the printer’s properties are
advertized over the network. All the variants listed support client-side
rasterization, but they all include PDF as well, so I don’t think
client-side rasterization is a defining property of it.

> Around 2000-2003, I could print a page from a web browser, have
> first page in my hand within a few seconds, and then have the
> rest of the pages usually as fast as the printer's paper path
> could shovel the paper.  Now with CUPS driverless, it's somewhere
> around 15 seconds before I see the first page and another 15-20
> seconds or so per duplexed pair of pages.  Printing a 30-page
> credit report can take several minutes rather than one or two.

20 seconds to render a single page sounds excessive, unless you’re
printing something particularly complex. But I think that’s speculation
at this point. Investigating which driverless variant is in use and
whether the client is using much CPU during the delay might shed some
light on it.

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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