Re: Laser Printer recommendation...

[Celejar <celejar@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 4 Jul 2017 12:03:45 +0100
Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:

> On Mon 03 Jul 2017 at 19:15:19 -0400, Celejar wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 3 Jul 2017 14:46:08 -0400
> > Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> > 
> > ...
> > 
> > > A Brother with all of:
> > > 
> > > - ethernet networking
> > > - duplex
> > > - BR/Script3 (Their PostScript clone, which I think is actually
> > >   GhostScript)
> > > 
> > > will not need a driver.
> > > 
> > > Current examples: HL-L5100N ($170), HL-L6200DW ($250)
> > 
> > Very interesting, thanks. Is this documented / explained anywhere? I
> > think I understand why 1 and 3 might be relevant to the need for
> > drivers, but 2?
> > 
> > FWIW, my HL-2280DW meets 1 and 2, but not (apparently) 3, and indeed
> > does seem to require a driver.
> 
> I do not see why 1 and 2 are in any way necessary to use a printer
> without a proprietary driver. PostScript or PCL6 emulation is, however,
> a pre-condition. The HL-2280DW has PCL6 emulation.

Very interesting, thanks. I (re)dipped my toes into the mysteries of
printer setup, and (eventually) configured another version of my
HL-2280 using CUPS settings of "Generic / Generic PCL Laser Printer".
The CUPS test page printed out correctly, although I see that many
options exposed by the Brother proprietary drivers do not seem to be
exposed by the generic one, which makes sense, I suppose. I do like
those options, though (e.g., duplexing and "toner save" / quality
options).

I'll have to do more testing to see whether the core printing
funnctionality, at least, is on par with the proprietary driver's.

Thanks again,

Celejar