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)

[Castellen]

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.

Not sure what PostScript support is like under MOS/AROS/OS4, but at least under OS3.9 I have no problems using an HP2550 colour laser.  I bought it new a few years ago, though I see HP have now discontinued the model.  I suspect not many of the budget/consumer grade printers offer PostScript support, hence the need for special print drivers.

I mainly print via the PostScript output from PageStream and FW97.  You can use the same PS output to convert to PDF using GhostScript or ps2pdf.com, which works fine with IBrowse. For applications without PS support, TurboPrint has LaserJet support, but I think it's black and white only.  OS3.9 includes PS drivers too, though I've not used those.

[Matt_H]

Indeed, PostScript is the only viable option on the Amiga. If your Amiga needs to print, you need a PostScript printer or need to be willing to do the PostScript to PDF conversion to print on another machine. TurboPrint makes this process slightly easier.

Traditionally, a lot of LaserJets used the same or very similar drivers. I'm not sure if that's still the case, or when it might have stopped being the case. Give a different LaserJet driver a try - you might get lucky.

[Iggy]

I don't know about AROS or OS4, but MorphOS has very good Postscript support.
But since I have three different ink jets that are also supported, I don't always use Postscript.

[desiv]

On my 1200 OS 3.1, I just use postscript and print TCPIP to a linux box that does postscript to my printers (as neither of my printers have postscript built in) and that works fine...

Or so I think.. ;-)

desiv

[Rob]

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.

[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:

[amigakit]

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.

[klx300r]

you're not the only amigan thinking about this issue mate.  Our best hope so far is terminills and gutenprint.  

'small' thread to browse http://www.amigans.net/modules/xforum/viewtopic.php?start=0&topic_id=3273&viewmode=&order=ASC&type=&mode=0

[Rob]

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:

I never actually tried Turbo Print on OS4 I should have the disk around somewhere but no way to transfer it now so I could try.  I guess it's only useful for printers supported by the package.  I originally bought it to work with my Deskjet 400c and it worked very well.

It would be great if there could be an updated version supporting 68k and NG Amiga but I guess it's unlikely that an arrangement with Irsee soft is going to happen.

[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?

[mechy]

I use a network printer with netprinter.device .. most printers supporting postscript/pcl work fine. i have used a xerox 6130n color laser.. many eons ago i used a old hp5l via parallel and it worked for many years fine.
turbo print is a nice addition.  I use all this under os3.9 but i seem to think i had netprinter.device working fine under os4.x on my A4000 csppc.

[Duce]

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.

[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)

[danbeaver]

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.