Re: How to Find a Printer Driver?
On Mon, 10 May 2010 14:16:21 -0500, Kent West wrote:
> Something I've never figured out with Debian is how to know which
> package to install to get a certain printer driver.
Uh? Openprinting should be the first step to check :-)
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
> I know I've printed to this HP Color Laserjet CM3530 from a Debian box
> before, but I have no idea what package I had installed to do so, nor
> what driver I chose (since I can't find the CM3530 listed in my
> web-based CUPS setup (localhost:631)).
If you cannot locate the PPD for your printer, download the tarball of
HPLIP from HP site and extract the PPD for your concrete printer model.
Then you can add a new printer in the standard way with CUPS. Being a
Postsript printer, this should be straightforward.
> I'm unsure if I don't have the right package installed, or if I used a
> different driver in the past. Google and the Debian search engines are
> not helping me one whit.
If you have a multifunction device, you can also install HPLIP package,
for using the scanner and fax facilities.
> I've never really understood the relationship between printer drivers
> for general use and printer drivers for gutenprint (whatever that is),
> or the relationship between those and/or cup-driver-gutenprint and/or
> cupsys-driver-gutenprint (and the descriptions are less than helpful),
> so any help would be appreciated.
Gutenprint-footomatic is a set of drivers that work for some printer
models (not all). In fact, you can have as many printer instances
installed in CUPS as you like, for example, one instance being associated
with a different driver, whether available. Every driver has its own
advantages and/or glitches, so some provide high quality printings (but
are very slow) and other are faster (but you get a stantard or poor
quality output, suitable for drafts).
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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