Re: Contemplating new MFC color laser printer purchase
On 04/02/2016 09:42 PM, Gary Dale wrote:
In general, laser is the way to go. However inkjet still rules for
printing photos and printing directly onto discs. There are also
specialty printing, such as large formats, where you would have a
tough time finding lasers.
I tend to stay away from Brother myself for the same reason you found.
I like Epson, HP and Samsung in general but found that my Epson XP-820
doesn't have Linux support for printing directly to discs. To make
matters worse, it doesn't recognize jpegs created with The GIMP so I
can't even use the front panel controls to do the printing.
However every other aspect of it works great with Linux, including
scanning.
I think I remember that you can use some kind of file manipulator in
GIMP to save in another format, but
I think you're right, GIMP itself only saves in one format, that you
have to convert. However, there are other programs that will copy files
and/or pictures in other formats. Many Linux graphics programs can save
in a
variety of formats, and most word-processing programs can save in the
more common Microsoft formats--
the .doc 1997~2003 file format can be read by just about any other
program on any machine. I suppose
someone who knew BASH programming could write a little script to
automate these conversions.
I can't comment on printing directly to disks--all my printers require
paper that is rolled around a roller
in the machine! I have a nice Epson WP4530 what makes really nice color
photos, but it won't print on
photo paper because it can't wrap the paper around the roller! And the
"feed from the top" routine
doesn't work either. I use LightScribe disks and the LightScribe
program (available in 3 RPMs, I don't know
if it's available in .deb). If you don't have a LightScribe drive, get
one quick--they are not being made anymore.
I think that may be true of the disks also--I have stockpiled both CD
and DVD types.
--doug
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