Printer recommendations

[Richard Torrens (News)]

We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.

Maybe also with scanner.

Does anyone have any recommendatios?

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[John]

In article <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>, Richard Torrens

(News) <News+...@Torrens.org> wrote:

> We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.

> Maybe also with scanner.

> Does anyone have any recommendatios?

A couple of years ago, I bought a Brother DCP-L3550CDW from
PC World. It has proved an excellent choice from my point
of view. They currently have it at at about £290 which is
more than what I paid (as far as I can remember).

It does all that you ask above. It also has a 50 sheet
automatic document feeder for scanning.

The only downside for me is that, try as I might, I can't
use the scanner feature from Linux or RISC OS.

Windows? Yes, print and scan. RISC OS? Print but no scan.
Linux? Print but no scan.

Someone clever than me might well be able to resolve the
scanning issues.

John

--
John
new...@blueyonder.co.uk
j dot mccartney atte blueyonder dot co dot uk

[Richard Darby (news)]

In article <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>,
Richard Torrens (News) <News+...@Torrens.org> wrote:

> We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.

> Maybe also with scanner.

> Does anyone have any recommendatios?

Hi Richard,

I am a strong supporter of Brother Printers. I have had a mono printer
copier scanner (duplex) which is now 18 years old, has printed 46,000
pages and still works.

A few years ago I purchased a Brother DCP-8020 CDW colour duplex laser
printer copier scanner. This has now printed 6,000 pages and is working
well.

The current equivalent model is DCP-L3550 CDW and can be had for less than
£300. It has both PostScript (BR-Script3) and PCL6 emulation so can be
driven directly from RISC OS either by USB, Ethernet or WiFi.

Running costs are an important factor. Compatible toner cartridges can
lower running costs. TN247 series cartridges are available from my
preferred supplier (Internet Ink) at £32.99 compared with about £55 for an
original cartridge.

If you want to lower running costs even more you can refill these Brother
cartridges for £16.50 per colour from URefillToner.co.uk using their melt
and pour method. In fact I am now using the original Brother cartridges
in my printer refilled with U Refill Toner. The colours are an almost
exact match to the Brother originals.

The great advantage of Laser printers is that the colours don't dry out as
they are already dry. One possible down side is that the printers are
large and heavy (23kg) but this is inevitable as they contain 4 colours
and printing drums.

Regards,

Richard Darby.

--

Richard Darby.
website: http://www.rjdarby.co.uk
Do not reply to this address all mail is deleted.
Reply to: <my first name> at <my domain>

[Theo]

"Richard Darby (news)" <ne...@rjdarby.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>,
> Richard Torrens (News) <News+...@Torrens.org> wrote:
> > We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.
>
> > Maybe also with scanner.
>
> > Does anyone have any recommendatios?
>
> Hi Richard,
>
> I am a strong supporter of Brother Printers. I have had a mono printer
> copier scanner (duplex) which is now 18 years old, has printed 46,000
> pages and still works.

+1 to that. I was about to say almost exactly the same - in my case it's an
HL-L8260CDW, which I bought on cashback working out at about £100.
(cashbacks are still sometimes available)

In its case the TN423 toners are about £35 for a set of four clone
cartridges from ebay - at that price I don't bother refilling.

It's done 10K pages with no hitches - I go through a set of cartridges about
once a year.

I'm not printing from RISC OS, but as mentioned the BR-Script3 is just
Postscript in disguise so should be fine.

You can get a version with a scanner but mine doesn't have it - I looked at
that model, but it made it even taller than it already was (and at the time
I had a height limit where it needed to go). I have a separate sheet fed
scanner which is much more practical for bulk scanning.

Theo

[Matthew Phillips]

In message <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>

on 28 Dec 2021 Richard Torrens (News) wrote:

> We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.
>
> Maybe also with scanner.
>
> Does anyone have any recommendatios?

We have a Xerox Phaser 6600 which has been going a few years, so it may well
not be made any more -- not sure how much use that is as a recommendation!

It's a laser printer, A4 duplex. Fairly bulky. 500 page paper tray. Works
well with the PS3 printer drivers and the duplex settings can be controlled
from the iconbar if you set it up properly with Richard Darby's printer
definition files.

We have it plugged into our home ethernet. All the machines, from the Risc
PC to the ARM X6 and Raspberry Pis, can print fine using RemotePrinterFS.
Andrew Rawnsley does an equivalent network connection which is easier to set
up. Any Windows and Linux machines in the house can also print across the
WiFi.

The colour is not brilliant from RISC OS: probably needs some gamma
adjustment as it's all a bit dark.

One feature I like is that it can natively print PDFs. There is a web
interface to configure the printer which works after a fashion with NetSurf,
so you can set the PDF scaling, duplex, number of copies etc. Then I just
drop a pre-prepared PDF on the printer icon on the iconbar and it gets sent
across RemotePrinterFS to the printer. (I can't remember how I set that up.
An Alias$@PrintType I think.) The colours come out a lot better that way.

Even if that doesn't suggest what model to buy, it may give you a few ideas
of what to look for. Network-enabled is definitely a good thing, and
PostScript support makes the RISC OS side much easier.

--
Matthew Phillips
Durham

[Brian Jordan]

In article <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>,
Richard Torrens (News) <News+...@Torrens.org> wrote:

> We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.

> Maybe also with scanner.

> Does anyone have any recommendatios?

I have a Lexmark CX310dn all in one which meets these criteria although I
haven't encouraged it to scan from RISC OS. PostScript 3 printer drivers
from John Tytgat (BASS) and Martin Würthner (MW Software) and printer
definition files from Richard Darby for duplex printing do the hard work
in RISC OS. It is connected to the local network by Ethernet cable so
prints (and scans) when used with my windows PC and my wife's Mac.
B

--
_____________________________________________________________________

Brian Jordan
RISC OS 5.28 (19-Oct-20) on Raspberry Pi
_____________________________________________________________________

[Richard Darby (news)]

Apologies if you have seen this before, but I have not yet seen it return
to me. This may be because of the problems mentioned by others concerning
Plusnet news feed and Giganews.

Richard Darby.

In article <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>,
Richard Torrens (News) <News+...@Torrens.org> wrote:

> We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.

> Maybe also with scanner.

> Does anyone have any recommendatios?

Hi Richard,

I am a strong supporter of Brother Printers. I have had a mono printer
copier scanner (duplex) which is now 18 years old, has printed 46,000
pages and still works.

[Tim Hill]

In article <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>, Richard Torrens (News)
<News+...@Torrens.org> wrote:

> We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.

> Maybe also with scanner.

> Does anyone have any recommendatios?

HP M254dw. A cashback offer made the printer cheaper than its replacement
cartridges so I bought two. Networked & Postscript so can be used from
RISC OS. Not so cheap now. :-(

For a scanner I use the top of an otherwise redundant Canon inkjet
printer that cost about £40. That's USB'd to a PC though. I haven't
scanned into RISC OS since I had a Watford Electronics hand-held scanner
with an Archimedes!

[Paul Sprangers]

In article <91521ba25...@sinenomine.co.uk>,

Matthew Phillips <spam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> We have a Xerox Phaser 6600 which has been going a few years

> [...]

> The colour is not brilliant from RISC OS: probably needs some gamma
> adjustment as it's all a bit dark.

This really surprises me. I have a Xerox Phaser 6510. Printing from RISC OS
always produces noticeably better results than from Windows. I also have a
Ricoh beast (a really heavy and professional one), on which the differences
are smaller, but still in favour of RISC OS. The colours of the RISC OS
prints are always bright and extremely close to the original bitmap on
screen. Are you sure that you print through the PS3 driver?

Kind regards,
Paul Sprangers

--
http://www.riscos.sprie.nl

[Richard Torrens (News)]

In article <91521ba25...@sinenomine.co.uk>,
Matthew Phillips <spam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> In message <59a1ec335bnews*@Torrens.org>
> on 28 Dec 2021 Richard Torrens (News) wrote:

> > We need to buy a new prnter. Laser, colour, duplex.
> >
> > Maybe also with scanner.
> >
> > Does anyone have any recommendatios?

> We have a Xerox Phaser 6600 which has been going a few years, so it may
> well not be made any more -- not sure how much use that is as a
> recommendation!

We also have this printer: it has become unreliable on photo printing. But
the main problem is getting toner for it!

Yes - it hs been an excellent printer: we used it to print all the
instruction manuals for 4qd.co.uk - which we sold in November 2015.

[Richard Torrens (News)]

In article <59a2645...@rjdarby.co.uk>,

Richard Darby (news) <ne...@rjdarby.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi Richard,

> I am a strong supporter of Brother Printers. I have had a mono printer
> copier scanner (duplex) which is now 18 years old, has printed 46,000
> pages and still works.

[Snip]

> The great advantage of Laser printers is that the colours don't dry out
> as they are already dry. One possible down side is that the printers
> are large and heavy (23kg) but this is inevitable as they contain 4
> colours and printing drums.

> Regards,

> Richard Darby.

Thanks - very useful info! Of course I have been using your Printer Driver
for years. http://www.rjdarby.co.uk/riscos/

Yes - we have had several inkjets over the years. And the heads always dry
up! They may have improved but drying is always a problem.

[druck]

On 29/12/2021 13:20, Paul Sprangers wrote:
> In article <91521ba25...@sinenomine.co.uk>,
> Matthew Phillips <spam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> We have a Xerox Phaser 6600 which has been going a few years
>> [...]
>
>> The colour is not brilliant from RISC OS: probably needs some gamma
>> adjustment as it's all a bit dark.
>
> This really surprises me. I have a Xerox Phaser 6510. Printing from RISC OS
> always produces noticeably better results than from Windows.

Louie's Phase 7500 (A3 with folding and stapling attachment), worked
great from RISC OS. She printed every edition of RISC OS Now magazine on
it after the publishers screwed up the first copy. We had it under the
stairs in the old house for years (the only place it would fit, as it
was a beast), and printed tones of stuff for people, including the local
council. Got a few quid when we sold it, although not much compared to
what she paid for it.

---druck

[Matthew Phillips]

In message <59a26f2...@sprie.nl>

Well, I'm not sure how I can tell, to be honest. It's such a long time since
I set things up.

In the Task Manager "PostScript 3 driver" is running. The "Printer control"
window has the Zeros printer showing a Type of "PostScript Level3 Duplex".

My notes on setup say:

----
On plugging in the printer via USB and running !Printers a pop-up window
appears. To use the PostScript 3 driver I had to drop the correct printer
definition file on the pop-up window. This had not been installed in the
usual place but I have put it at
ADFS::HardDisc4.$.!Boot.Resources.!PrintDefs.Printers.Postscript.PoScript3
You can get to that location using the "Show Definitions" button on the
pop-up window but I did not realise that at the time!

I changed the name of the printer to XeroxUSB, and ticked the Colour setting
in the printer configuration window, and saved the settings.
----

I originally set it up connected via USB. To set up via the network I
used "Install new printer" from !Printers and used the PoScript3 printer
definition file with a file setting of

RemotePrinterFS#proto=LPD;address=xerox;sendfirst=datafile:

(The name xerox is set up in my Hosts file.)

I later installed the duplex definition file (PostScrip 3) from Richard
Darby, but the colours were not brilliant from the outset.

--
Matthew Phillips
Durham

[Paul Sprangers]

In article <8972eba55...@sinenomine.co.uk>,

Matthew Phillips <spam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> On plugging in the printer via USB and running !Printers a pop-up window

> appears. [...]

It seems that your setup differs from mine in every respect. However, I
fail to see how that could influence the print quality. I don't think that
it matters whether you keep your PoScript3 file within <Boot>.Resources or
within <Boot>.Printers. Unless, perhaps, if the printer looks at the wrong
place.

> RemotePrinterFS#proto=LPD;address=xerox;sendfirst=datafile:

Well, mine is quite different as well, but again, I can't imagine how that
affects the print quality. In case you want to compare:
RemotePrinterFS#proto=JetDirect;host=192.168.2.85;port=9100:

> I later installed the duplex definition file (PostScrip 3) from Richard
> Darby, but the colours were not brilliant from the outset.

Duplex definition files shouldn't don't do anything with print quality,
unless they also contain DPI settings. For example, I've created 18
different combinations of duplex, DPI and tray settings for my Ricoh
printer. Choosing one with DPI 600 will certainly result in lesser quality
than one with 1200 DPI. Do Richards files contain DPI settings?

Kind regards,
Paul

--
http://www.riscos.sprie.nl

[Richard Darby (news)]

In article <8972eba55...@sinenomine.co.uk>,

Matthew Phillips <spam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:


> I later installed the duplex definition file (PostScrip 3) from Richard
> Darby, but the colours were not brilliant from the outset.

My PS duplex definition files were developed from Paul Vigay's Xerox PDF
from 2006 which was developed to print Risc OS Now magazine. You can
download it from here: http://www.vigay.com/thirdparty/files/Xerox.zip .
Paul was also working on XeroxUtil http://www.vigay.com/software/xeroxutil.html
but it was never released. I've no idea if his Xerox PDF would improve
colour rendering.

[Richard Darby (news)]

In article <59a5f79...@sprie.nl>,

Paul Sprangers <Pa...@sprie.nl> wrote:

> Duplex definition files shouldn't don't do anything with print quality,
> unless they also contain DPI settings. For example, I've created 18
> different combinations of duplex, DPI and tray settings for my Ricoh
> printer. Choosing one with DPI 600 will certainly result in lesser
> quality than one with 1200 DPI. Do Richards files contain DPI settings?

No they do not alter DPI settings. In an attempt to make the printer
definition files as universal as possible I found that paper tray
allocations varied between manufacturers. However these could be
allocated to 5 families covering 24 manufacturers. Consequently the user
needs to choose one of five options to match the printer manufacturer when
installing.

As far as I can see it would be another complicating factor to include DPI
settings which might also vary between manufacturers and printer models.
Since I don't have access to all possible printers I gave up at that point.

Incidentally when I was developing the Duplex drivers you kindly sent me
your printer definition for your Ricoh printer, for which many thanks.

[Richard Darby (news)]

In article <59a6021...@rjdarby.co.uk>,

Richard Darby (news) <ne...@rjdarby.co.uk> wrote:

> However these could be allocated to 5 families covering 24
> manufacturers. Consequently the user needs to choose one of five
> options to match the printer manufacturer when installing.

Sorry, misremembered - only 20 manufacturers.

[Chris Craig]

I have used an Epson XP-720 with Uniprint & a PC Win 10 64 bit 21H1
connected over network.
For scanning Multi-function Epson printer utility © Ian Hamilton, 2006
connected over USB cable. Excellent quality but then I no long need to
make long print runs.

Chris
--
chris....@btinternet.com
ARMX6 RISC OS 5.29
---

[Dave]

In article <83e60ba8...@btinternet.com>,

Chris Craig <chris....@btinternet.com> wrote:
> I have used an Epson XP-720 with Uniprint & a PC Win 10 64 bit 21H1
> connected over network.
> For scanning Multi-function Epson printer utility © Ian Hamilton, 2006
> connected over USB cable. Excellent quality but then I no long need to
> make long print runs.

> Chris

FWIW.
Here RPCEmu on Win 10, 64 bit fully updated, running RISC OS 5.28 and
Uniprint will print to a LAN connected Epson XP-760 okay.

Dave

As per usual though, UniScan is useless...

--

Dave Triffid

[Chris Craig]

In message <59a816f...@triffid.co.uk>

I should have said from my ARMX6

[Chris Hughes]

In message <59a816f...@triffid.co.uk>
Dave <da...@triffid.co.uk> wrote:

This old hobby horse. :-)

The main problem with Uniscan is it looks for twain drivers for scanners,
but many (maybe all now) scanners especially multi-function ones use WIP,
and these are often use propriety code, I know Alan did add some code to
try and work with the new WIP stuff but had mixed results. My old Kodak
printer/scanner actually scanned but produced nothing at the end.

I think someone did a Epson MFP driver for RISC OS, but can't remember the
details now.



--
Chris Hughes

[Doug Webb]

In message <ed99b0a8...@mytarbis.plus.com>

Chris Hughes <li...@noonehere.co.uk> wrote:


> I think someone did a Epson MFP driver for RISC OS, but can't remember the
> details now.

That would be Ian Hamilton.


--
Experience the future using ARM Technology - ARMBook,BeagleBoard -xM,
PandaBoard,Raspberry Pi,iMX6/ARMX6,IGEPv5 & Titanium powered by RISC OS
5.28.

[Chris Hughes]

In message <e27cb1a859...@btinternet.com>

Doug Webb <doug....@btinternet.com> wrote:

> In message <ed99b0a8...@mytarbis.plus.com>
> Chris Hughes <li...@noonehere.co.uk> wrote:


>> I think someone did a Epson MFP driver for RISC OS, but can't remember the
>> details now.

> That would be Ian Hamilton.

Do you have a link by any chance?
I do have an Epson Multi-function printer so might try it out.


--
Chris Hughes

[charles]

In article <ed99b0a8...@mytarbis.plus.com>, Chris Hughes

I scan using Windows but the output, by default, goes into a folder that
can be read by my ARMX6.

> -

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

[Martin]

In article <a16cb2a8...@mytarbis.plus.com>,

http://www.notme.me.uk/

--
Martin Avison
Note that unfortunately this email address will become invalid
without notice if (when) any spam is received.

[Doug Webb]

In message <59a8b333...@avisoft.f9.co.uk>

Martin <New...@avisoft.f9.co.uk> wrote:


>> Do you have a link by any chance?
>> I do have an Epson Multi-function printer so might try it out.

> http://www.notme.me.uk/

Beat me to it.

It would be good know how you get on with it as it did work when we had a
Epson all in one but not had one for a while now.

Now when IPP printing comes to RISCOS then the Epson may be a better bet
than HP for a cheap all in one unit.

[Chris Hughes]

In message <59a8b333...@avisoft.f9.co.uk>
Martin <New...@avisoft.f9.co.uk> wrote:

> In article <a16cb2a8...@mytarbis.plus.com>,
> Chris Hughes <li...@noonehere.co.uk> wrote:
>> In message <e27cb1a859...@btinternet.com>
>> Doug Webb <doug....@btinternet.com> wrote:

>>> In message <ed99b0a8...@mytarbis.plus.com>
>>> Chris Hughes <li...@noonehere.co.uk> wrote:

>>>> I think someone did a Epson MFP driver for RISC OS, but can't
>>>> remember the details now.

>>> That would be Ian Hamilton.

>> Do you have a link by any chance?
>> I do have an Epson Multi-function printer so might try it out.

> http://www.notme.me.uk/

Cheers for that.


--
Chris Hughes