On Sunday, 24 December 2023 10:13:47 IST Shachar Shemesh wrote:
> HP work on Linux using proprietary drivers. It's a mixed bag.
Are you sure?
* Their HPLIP[1] suite is developed by HP and are distributed as GPL-2+
* I've used several HP printers over the years, mostly with Fedora and
sometimes from Debian
(for different reasons, both distributions are very careful not to bundle
proprietary software)
* For most reasonable printers in the last years, the word "driver"
actually refers to PPD file
* When configuring HPLIP/CUPS, there is a huge list of available models
-- here is a small part of Fedora's HPLIP package:
> ...
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_8010_series.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_8020_series.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_8040_series.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_8700.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_9010_series.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_9100_series-pcl3.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_color_mfp_x585.ppd.gz
> /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-officejet_color_x555-ps.ppd.gz
> ...
(sometimes I had to pick a model from the same family, because I didn't
have the exact model number)
* Most HP (and other vendors) printers support PCL and/or Postscript/PDF
(on a simple "Jetdirect" port 9100, no special driver)
On a separate note, if you buy a printer in the last two years -- look for the
"*AirPrint*" logo (and "*AirScan*" if it has a scanner):
* These are Apple brands for "*Driverless*" printing (and scanning,
respectively)
* Like some other Apple technologies, these proprietary implementation
has an open specification.
* So if your distribution is modern (Debian-12 "bookworm", cough, cough)
-- it works out of the box.
* A nice bonus is that people can print directly from many Cellphone (not
only iPhones, also Android)
Bye,
--
Oron Peled Voice: +972-4-8228492
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for Mother
Nature cannot be fooled. -- R.P. Feynman
--------
[1] https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/hplip
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