[SOLVED] What Printer?

[leadwt]

Hi,

Long time since I have been here - which proves the resilience of 'Kubuntu'!

However it is time to bin my HP Deskjet F380 as it is giving up and I wonder if anyone can recommend another HP Deskjet or similar (no lasers please)?

My requirements are for mainly black and white with some photo/colour work and I am not in the mass output situation.

Any happy HP 'printers' out there?

Thanks for your time -

[jlittle]

Any happy HP 'printers' out there?

I run an Officejet 6500 for the family and I'm happy. The printer cost was not subsidised by the ink cartridges, so was more expensive than other brands, but the ink is cheaper and one comes out ahead after moderate use.

Regards, John Little

[leadwt]

Thanks John,

I have been chatting to HP (amongst others) and an Officejet is what I am going for. Not quite sure which model yet (is it not typical I suddenly have a load of letters to knock out?) and my original choice is 'sold out' with a two week delay!

Anyway thanks for the Officejet tip that made up my mind on what range to go for.

Regards, Paul.

[Goeroeboeroe]

I have a HP Officejet Pro 8600, and I'm very happy with it. I've had a Canon for years and years, but never again. This HP just works on Linux, including things like cleaning printheads. It's not the cheapest printer, but as jittle wrote: it was not subsidised by expensive ink. Four cartridges, so you don't have to by four new colors when only one is empty.
edit: What I forget: you can install it wireless, but I didn't do that, so I don't know if that's working all right on Linux. There's a scanner in it too, and that works well.

[leadwt]

Thanks Goeroeboeroe,

I have The Officejet Pro 8610 e 'all-in-one' arriving Monday. Agree about the ink cartridges as I have found the multicolour cartridges expensive on my previous machine (now defunct).

The good news is that I can get £40 cash-back on this printer so the ink/paper pack I bought as well is more or less free!

(I may actually lend the £40 to Cameron to help pay the EC's latest invoice! )

Thanks for your post,

Regards Paul.

[jlittle]

... so the ink/paper pack I bought as well is more or less free!

I can't remember with my printer, but the ink cartridges you get with the printer may not have much ink. Note also that in my town Officejet cartridges are not sold in ordinary stationery and electronics retail shops; that's ok, my favourite computer store is cheaper and does web orders.

Regards, John Little

[leadwt]

Yes quite right the supplied ink cartrifdges are just 'starters' hence my purchase of the 'pack'.

[oshunluvr]

LOVE my HP 8600 Pro Deluxe. Works great, uses ink sparingly and SUPER quiet.

Comes in three models: Base unit, unit with duplexer, unit with duplexer and multiple paper trays.

I got the middle unit because I want two-sided printing. It will scan two-sided also.

[leadwt]

Hi oshunluvr,

Long time since we have spoken.

Yah - like this printer. Just done 300 (two sided) leaflets on just the 'start-up' black cartridge which bodes well for a full one! As you say quiet and also very fast.

One thing though was sorting out the Duplex printing. Found out on the web that Libreoffice apparently (well on my system anyway) has a bug which greys out (nulifies) duplex so the work around that I have is exporting as a PDF and then printing (in duplex mode) via Okular. Always a way with Linux!

[oshunluvr]

Hi - yes, been awhile.

That problem has been resolved for me. Try checking to be sure the duplexer is shown as installed in LO settings.

[Goeroeboeroe]

I had the opposite problem. LibreOffice suddenly started printing duplex. After a lot of searching I found an - in my opinion - rather obscure hidden setting: File -> Printer settings -> Properties -> Doublesided. One way or another that was put on.
Maybe that's unchecked in your system?
I've a Dutch system, so the actual names of the tabs etc. may be a bit different.

[leadwt]

Hi,

In LO settings I do not have the 'Doublesided' option. I can 'install' Duplex (under Device) but Duplex itself only offers 'off' or 'ignore'. Duplex also shows as installed if I go via setup in CUPS but again actual options to use duplex either do not display or are greyed out. I will perservere with the web but as I said previously some users seem to think this is actually a bug within LO and it does work fine via Okular so not too much of a problem. Certainly not enough to run screaming back to windoze!

[oshunluvr]

Maybe a version difference?

@here
HPLIP = 3.14.3
LO = Version: 4.2.6.3, Build ID: 420m0(Build:3)

IMO, if cups isn't showing it, LO can't either.

Is the printer connected via USB or LAN? I had this issue in the past but I can't remember when or what resolved it. Currently, I'm connected via my LAN.

[oshunluvr]

Also I installed and use the HP-toolbox.

[oshunluvr]

Just found this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1352316

There's a modified PPD that supposedly fixes it.