Any chance of HP LaserJet and overall improved printer support?

[vox]

Dear Amigans,

as years go by, beside many leftovers in MOS/AROS/OS4 one thing is constantly bothering I: inability to have a decent print, since some old zkul days of dot matrix and early inkjets, which used to come with AOS drivers.

Surely, its manufacturers that should write the drivers (Steven says hello) but then again at least some popular models should be supported. So next to my SAM460ex sometimes revisited by DJ Nicks X1000 sits a HP LaserJet 1010 that I can`t use, at least not via direct USB connection.

Yes, there were some Print to file and via PC options to do the print, but that is workaround solution.

New printing sys has been mentioned by
a) Steven long ago, as usual
b) Trevor in his latest blog, explaining similar can happen when having non standard printers and non standard Apple device
c) a 700eur bounty active in MOS world
http://bounties.morphzone.info/bounties/show/12

Hope anyone - being AROS, OS4 and MOS will do the magic, or that my fav Linux CUPS will be ported and at least some LaserJets beyond 4 support will be added. At least that would be a giant milestone.

Any news, ideas, bounties, solutions other then mentioned waiting for a) or c) or saying it happens to others like in b)

[vox]

There is a PCL3 driver on OS4depot but I don't know if the HP1010 printer you mentioned would be backwards compatible with that standard.  The specifications say PCL5.

I understand the postscript works well in OS4 but haven't tested this for myself.

Is there ANY modern - that is PCL5 solution? In progress?

Does buying Turbo Print solves anything?

is there any modern printer that works under any of these tree?  that is in direct PRINT.

Ahh ... that is the weak point and should be given some attention, UNLIKE what TREVOR says. Maybe he should fund it? :hammer:

[vox]

The HP 1010 is a very cheap Windows driven economy printer. Unlike other HP printers is has a lot of features taken out of the hardware and put into the proprietary Windows software driver to save money.

HP printer support is already good on AmigaOS if you use a HP printer which support HPPCL such as the Laserjet 1100 or above.  Avoid the 1000 series.

We use several HP Laserjet printers in our office every day all connected to Amiga computers and they work well. We use the HP Laserjet 5 driver.

Yes, just like softmodems, nothing new. So you actually say if I bay 1100 or above, it will work out of box, with ages old HPLP 5 driver?

[vox]

Never had many problems with my SAM and my networked HP printers (HP OfficeJet 8500 a909g and a couple random HP Laserjet's at the shop).  That being said, as someone stated before, the 1010's are just really Windows heavy functionality wise when it comes to being really dependent on Windows drivers for full functionality.

OK, I have Wi Fi and LAN, how to network em so I can share the printer and override still killin lack of printer driver no one seems to be working on, and Trevor even joke about it (which is tragic-comedy)

[vox]

The HP 1010 Laserjet is an entry level Host Based printer which means that the computer must handle the composition of the output; while there is a Linux engine available for Debian (I don't know if it compiled for PPC), there requires the building of one specific for OS4 -- thus each "host based" printer would require its own OS4 printing engine.  

The other "standard" HP laser printers, both monochrome and color, work well for the Amiga using PageStream and FinalWriter with OS4 having GhostScript readily available for PDF files and such.  The HP InkJets are well represented too.  Networked printers work very well (I have a Dell 5130cdn, Samsung mono, and HP InkJet selectable with just a quick click on an IconX script).

These days even a color PostScript enabled laser printer can be had for not very much money and perhaps it is a good time to move up.

Its not 1010 that is that bad, its standard entry printer, like 4L used to be back in 90s, we have CPU power to crash the needed job.

CUPS exists for PPC, and good idea, I will try it.

Which modern "standard" printer does reliably work? With what driver?

Well, colour LJs are down in price, but check the price of print, no thanks. I do live in poor country by European standards.

P.S.
Will CUPS be ported to MorphOS, once again overruning OS4 in certain areas?
http://bounties.morphzone.info/bounties/show/12

[vox]

The LJ1010 is not a good choice of printer at all.

A HP LJ1100 is a much better choice- it works with the Turboprint HP Laserjet 5 driver and third party toner is around 10 EUR.  You will need a parallel port for it though, we have got it to work on a Classic Amiga with Poseidon, Turboprint and USB to parallel converter.

HP 1010 is economic, fast and takes very little space, so its a very good choice.

Other thing is that 1010 can be used on Amiga.

Now, what about printer sharing via LAN or Internet?

[vox]

I was not aware that there was any Amiga driver for it.

My bad cant be used.

There are no official AmigaOS drivers since HP LJ 5 and that is something Trevor and Hyperion should care about, instead of joking about it. Dont you agree that is ridiculous as much as waiting months for Linux password, Linux retail CD, charging Linux, selling game without warning it doesnt work with OS4 at all, selling bare card that cannot stand in slot (Xena) and other smart moves I have been through alone.

http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1812

[vox]

My guess is that there is no use arguing these points.  "All a hammer sees is nails."

And these are nails in curfew. Point is not to buy new hardware - that is easy recommendation but to make through with what you have.

US prices don`t work for rest of the world.

Don`t blame me for unupdated OS. I am happy to report it works great under Linux on same hardware, as expected so its not Windows centric printer at all. :juggler:

[vox]

Why on earth would Hyperion waste time coding drivers for a years old, $30 printer when a guy can just use a postscript printer?

Tell you what, if you manage to talk them (or the MOS folks) into that, tell them I'd also like full support for my Newton MessagePad and my Palm Pilot.

HP 1020 (my bad, seen the mark) is PostScript driver to best of my ability. Does the print to file old school magic and then using some sw to make it print to PCL works?

I am blacklisted within Hyperion with no ability to post messages at all (waiting for approval that almost never comes) so any of you is free to try to. There is MOS bounty assigned to do the CUPS, so I bet on them. With Hyperion - not even promised X1000 onboard driver isnt given months away from Amiwest.

[vox]

If the printer is indeed PostScript capable, then you're good to go because AmigaOS has good support for PostScript.  As others have said, it may not be PS compatible however.  I've just generated a couple of PS test pages in PageStream.  To test your printer, just copy the PS file to the printer, e.g. copy PS_test_colour.ps >PAR:

If it's PS capable, then you'll get a print of the test page.  If not, you'll get nothing, or garbage.


While I usually avoid these borderline political type discussions....

As others have said, it may be unreasonable for Hyperion and the MOS folks to spend the thousands of man-hours necessary writing dozens of custom print drivers to support various printers that use their own proprietary language when they could instead continue to focus on core OS functionality.  Obviously they have a finite resource in terms of software developers and of course they are wanting to use this wisely.  Printing via the PostScript standard is supported fine at present, hence it makes sense to use a PostScript compatible printer.

If anything, you could argue that printer manufacturers are at fault for not using the standard printer control languages which readily exist.  Or you could blame consumers for encouraging manufacturers to do such things by purchasing such non-conforming products.  PostScript was developed in the late 1970s to form a common language to talk to any printer, which is a brilliant idea and in theory eliminates the need for many combersome proprietary drivers, which seems to be the case with most low-end consumer grade printers.  You could hardly use the excuse that PostScript is too new on the block or not commonly known.  It's hardly the fault of Hyperion and MOS that printer manufactures decide to deviate from such standards.  The entire point of such standards is so that different bits of hardware can correctly communicate.  PostScript does exactly that as far as printers are concerned.

Blame Canada.

Huh, OS with no real printing support in modern terms of it, is faulty OS.

I don`t have a PS, but since I need that kind of software, next $100 there you go ...

Expectation that manufacturer will do the drivers for such minor OS with no agreement, partenrship ...

Man that doesnt happen even for Linux. Nor Varisys and Acube do all their drivers for OS4.
Or ATI (AMD) does Radeon drivers for both.

[vox]

There is modern printer support on the amiga as many have stated, you seem to just ignore the solutions given.
Whining about the hardware and os you bought doesn't do much good.
printing via network works fine, i have been doing it for many years on the amiga under os3.9 as well as 4.x. Before that i used a old hp5l for many years i picked up used for $39.
color lasers are dirt cheap now,and there are many new in the box ebay deals to be had even.
You can't cry that you bought a unsupported cut down windows printer. The logical thing to do would of been check what drivers were available before you bought that printer.
Amiga has always been a niche market compared to linux and windows and always will be.
printer models change as much as you change underwear(at i hope you do)and it is unrealistic to expect all of them to be supported.
You could always learn to write your own printer driver.

Blah blah blah. I have bought an economic printer as I always do, since I dont have higher printing needs. Colour LaserJets still have high price of printer per page, while my one perfectly suits my needs and budget.

It would be best to support most wider choices, and yes 1010/1020 is widely sold printer.

Surely, so many Amiga users have so far wrote their own drivers, I would be just another among bunch. As well as OS and HP documentation is easily and widely avail.

[vox]

The is "economic" and there is "cheap;" many folks confuse the two.

1020 beats both, even more expensive b/w models have even lower per page price, but they are for real offices. At my home user level, that is both.