Yet another find a printer question
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I would like help for an all in one printer and scanner that works with free software.
It must be color, inject and preferable to have only usb connection and without lcd screen. The less "smart" features the better.
So far I have found Hp Smart Tank 500. Is there anyone by change who has experience with this model?
I would say h-node is your friend in this case.
IIRC, hp has several working models, but I'm a bit outdated in that regard.
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I have searched for a large number of printers/scanners in h-node and could not find any to buy. Perhaps because printer/scanner manufacturers tend to change models extremely rapidly.
I came across:
- printing: https://openprinting.github.io/printers/
- scanning: http://sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html
Would things listed as "driverless printers" work with Trisquel?
Would scanner models listed by Sane work?
I can highly recommend the Epson Eco Tank series.
I bought a 10€ second-hand HP Deskjet 2050A some years ago. It is printing, scanning and copying fine, USB only.
Trisquel sees it as "Deskjet-2050-J510-series" as a printer and Simple Scan calls it "HP Deskjet_2050_J510_series".
HP LaserJet Pro M15a, works with free software. Small, fast, simple, few things, and doesn't need to change chips.
A lot of (dumb) printers nowadays are just plug and play because of the Gutenprint free driver library. I have a Canon MG2550S which has everything you're looking for and it's plug & play on any system that has Gutenprint installed, although it can consume a lot of ink, but so do most ink printers.
Check this list, everything not listed under "EXPERIMENTAL" should work just fine: http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php
Check this list, everything not listed under "EXPERIMENTAL" should work just fine
Yet, that list describes the Canon MG2550S as experimental:
"Canon PIXMA MG2550S bjc-PIXMA-MG2550S EXPERIMENTAL; Only supports plain, photo paper gloss gold, photo paper gloss, and envelope; unconfirmed whether other media will work".
Yes, when i first got that printer i didn't had in mind multi-platform/free driver support, i was just lucky enough the driver from Gutenprint was functional to print and scan documents or pictures, i've sent the list in case there could be better choices than mine and I'm sure there are.
"EXPERIMENTAL" drivers also include drivers that do have basic support but do not cover yet every single feature the printer may have, in this case both printer and scanner work as intended.
No idea if it is officially supported because I never looked, but I have an HP DeskJet 3755 which works out of the box with Trisquel. I use it on the network, since my partner needs to use it as well, but it can be used with usb. Scanning works fine with the document scanner that comes with Trisquel.
I am a translator!
I have recently purchased a combi-printer. It's a scanner, printer and fax machine, works with my Trisquel 100% so far (scanning and printing, color and b/w). It works much better with Trisquel than with Lamedows 10 (my work laptop forces that on me). I have not yet tested it's fax capabilities.
This printer can also copy documents w/o turning your computer on, just use it like a normal copier. It's connected per WiFi, so it's usable everywhere in the house, as long as you can get the WiFi signal. Could not be happier with this printer so far (please understand, I did not consider the costs of printing high volumes because it's not a usecase for me, I also made it easier for myself and not considered if it has invisible watermarks. Usually that's a problem with laser devices, not inkjet printers).
This totally endorsed by me (so far) printer is the HP OfficeJet Pro 7720.
One unorthodox way of looking for printers that some of you might have missed:
Try adding a printer (for me it's System settings -> Printer -> Add printer, not sure how it works in MATE). Select internet printing protocol for example and type in a fantasy IP address. Click next. Now you can see on the left a list of ALL printers that your distribution has a driver for. Now open a website where you can browse printers available at your favorite shop, double check before buying the printer is in the list. Foolproof! This way you make sure there will be SOME functionality, guaranteed. I had good luck with stuff from HP by just buying blindly.
Thank you Cyberhawk!
I followed your advise to discover printers for Trisquel.
I'm using Mate desktop. I chose System-> Administration-> Printers ->Add printer and then chosing cups-brf:/ ...There I entered an imagine URL...an appeared all printers that works (as you say with SOME funcionality guaranted) in Trisquel.
I am a translator!
As mentioned above, you can usually just buy anything from HP. Look at the list of supported HP devices, it does look very, very complete.
If you are looking for anything else than HP, use the described method to check if a device is supported or not :-)
Nowadays, I feel looking for a printer with a GNU/Linux distro is a non-issue. It just works, no driver installation needed.
this of course does not fit the description, but I have a matrix printer LX-350, it works well
Mine is Canon MP160, it works plug-and-play with Trisquel 8 for
printing and scanning. It is recognized automatically without any
additional program installation. H-Node has an entry for this printer
too.