----- Original Message -----
From: "robert perry" <rperry1...@verizon.net>
To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 2:39 PM
Subject: How to Research Availability of Print Drivers
I intend to purchase a multifunction printer (including fax, scanner, &
copier) and return to utilizing the BSD operating systems. Early research
indicates that few printer manufacturers formally support the FreeBSD or
Unix operating systems but imply that drivers may still be available
elsewhere. In the past, I remember visiting certain websites that provided
links to drivers but have forgotten the address. Could someone refresh my
memory or provide an address that could help?
===============
From Robert Bonomi:
For the 'printer' side, look for something that supports a 'standard'
printer _language_ -- preferably PostScript -- over a serial or parallel
port, or the 'lpr/lpd' protocol over a network connection.
*OR* look at the (limited!) list of 'winrinters' directly supported by
Ghostscript.
For faxing, look for something tht is 'Class2.0' (aka EIA/TIA 592)
compliant.
any standard fax software -- like 'hylafax' - will talk to it.
For scanning, see the manpage for SANE(7). also <www.sane-project.org>
The higher-end Brother MFP units pretty much work 'out of the box', for
everything except scanning.
Brother provides scanner driver binaries for SANE on Linux, and source-code
for the adventurous. A quick persual indicates that a number of *nix
varients are supported, including several *BSD varients (FreeBSD is not
explicitly mentioned, unfortunately) It does not look like it would
require 'linuxemulator' compilation.
A quick attempt at './configure' indicated a need for some tweaking of
pathnames or file location.
=================
From Polytropon:
Maybe you're thinking about linuxprinting.org which provides
PPD device descriptions that can be incorporated in CUPS which
has become the "de-facto standard" for printing?
=================
From Da Rock:
Maybe try openprint.org?
Thank you all for your suggestions. I was able to review each and I think
they'll be helpful. I almost forgot how much fun this could be.
Bob Perry
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