Revision of Setup a Printer from Mon, 01/03/2011 - 08:59

Checking for Compatibility

Look up your printer manufacturer and model at http://www.openprinting.org/printers and see which drivers your printer requires and how it performs. Be careful, because some of the printers in this database require proprietary software to run.

Setup

1. Install the driver for your printer. Some common drivers like HPLIP and Ghostscript are already in Trisquel's default installation. Open the default printing manager in the Menu Bar (System → Administration → Printing).
2. Connect your printer to your computer.
3. The printer should be detected and show up momentarily.

Configuration

1. Open the Printer Properties menu by right-clicking on the printer you have connected and clicking "Properties".

1. In the "Policies" section, check the "Enabled" and "Accepting Jobs" checkboxes, and "Shared" if you want to share the printer over a network.
2. In the "Access Control" section, you can allow or deny access to other users.
3. In the "Printer Options" section, the default settings are probably best, but if you want to conserve ink, you can change the default printout mode from "Normal" (color or grayscale) to "Draft".
4. The "Job Options" section lets you change how your printer handles print jobs. It is generally best to keep the default settings.
5. Finally, click the "Print Test Page" button under the "Settings" section to get a test page.

Getting Your Cartridge Levels

You will likely want to be able to check your remaining ink/toner levels. There are several easy ways to do this. The easiest method is to use the "Ink/Toner Levels" section of the Printer Properties, but not all printers will report their ink levels correctly (if at all). Another alternative is a graphical tool called Inkblot.

1. Go to this website and check if your printer model (it must be a Canon, Epson, or HP printer, currently) is supported by libinklevel, the library used by Inkblot. This library is quite sophisticated, so chances are good that as long as your printer is not on the "unsupported" list, your ink levels will be correctly reported anyway.
2. Install Inkblot with the Add/Remove Applications tool, or by simply typing sudo apt-get install inkblot in the terminal.
3. Open the program, located in your Menu Bar (System Tools → Inkblot). It will show up in your panel.
4. Double-click the icon. Your black and color cartridge levels will be displayed.