Seeking advice on HP printer

satimis · #1 22nd February 2005, 12:45 PM

Hi folks,

FedoraCore2

I'm going to acquire a HP Deskjet printer to print document, photo only occssionally, and having 2 options in my mind;

HP Photosmart 7450 - 16 MB memory, 6 colours, 18/14 pages/min, having buil slot for camera memory stick

HP Deskjet 5740 - 16 MB memory, 4 colour, 23/16 pages/min
(6 colour cartridge - optional)

Their basic price is more less the same.

Please give me some advice which of them will be better suit my purpose.

Is there any problem in running them on FC2 box. Whether their driver for linux is available?

TIA

B.R.
satimis

jtang613 · #2 22nd February 2005, 01:34 PM

In FC3, there exists drivers for the HP DeskJet 5670 & 5850, so it's safe to assume that the 5740 will work using the hpijs driver family.

As well, the Photosmart 7350 & 7550 both have drivers, so your 7450 will also work using the hpijs drivers.

I have an HP DeskJet 810C and HP DeskJet 812C and both work very well. However, you might want to do a google search of the models you are interested in to see if there are any Linux-related issues.

Brilwing · #3 22nd February 2005, 03:05 PM

HP printers are always a good choice on linux. I have an OfficeJet 6110 and all works fine.
For details which HP printers are supported see:
http://hpinkjet.sourceforge.net/productssupported.php

satimis · #4 22nd February 2005, 05:11 PM

Hi folks,

Tks for your advice.

I found DeskJet 5740 on
http://hpinkjet.sourceforge.net/productssupported.php

Code:

DeskJet 5740  HPLIP  DJGenericVIP  DJGenericVIP  NO  YES  Full  NO  NO  NO

It works on both para port and USB port

But I could not find Photosmart 7350 & 7550 there.

B.R.
satimis

kevin tough · #5 19th January 2007, 02:10 AM

I read a lot about the Hp printers in the forum being good with Linux. I have a Photosmart 7350 and so far with Fedora a headache.
I have followed the thread "Using Hp's Linux drivers to get your HP printer flying (HPLIP). My printer is a dead duck. It does however work with Open Office almost correctly (not 100% centered).

In system-config-printer are offered 3 drivers:

foomatic:HP-Photosmart_7350 Foomatic / gimp-print-ijs
-prints a test page, not correctly centered, color wheel pie shapes have a very coarse fade from white outside to black inside, gimp does not seem to be able to directly use the 7350 (offers Photosmart 1000 and 1100), gThumb and Inkscape print but without contrast (light red is dark red in Inkscape and a screenshot comes out black)
foomatic:HP-Photosmart_7350-hpijs-rss.ppd
- will not print a test page on one page, instead maybe ten pages in parts. This driver shares the same problems with above mentioned driver as well.
foomatic:HP-Photosmart_7350-hpijs.ppd(recommended)
- will not print a test page on one page, instead maybe ten pages in parts. This driver shares the same problems with above mentioned driver as well.

Please, someone tell me if I am driving my head into a wall here or not. The hplib package is supported by Fedoras normal repository and Fedoras update system. I don't believe the Photosmart 7350 is a uncommon printer.

Namaste,
Kevin Tough

kevin tough · #6 20th July 2007, 03:34 AM

I am still fighting with my Hp Photosmart 7350. It does not print centered and the standard pdf program in Fedora prints poorly (not centered and chopped off). Other some other distros work well. If I found the PPD files and copied them from another distro into the correct directory in Fedora would that work?
Printing is a basic need for a computer user and these problems shed a dark light on my Fedora use, especially when others get it right!

Namaste,
Kevin Tough

satimis · #7 20th July 2007, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevin tough

I am still fighting with my Hp Photosmart 7350. It does not print centered and the standard pdf program in Fedora prints poorly (not centered and chopped off). Other some other distros work well. If I found the PPD files and copied them from another distro into the correct directory in Fedora would that work?
Printing is a basic need for a computer user and these problems shed a dark light on my Fedora use, especially when others get it right!

Namaste,
Kevin Tough

Hi Kevin Tough,

This is a very old thread. I'm now running F-7 on an AMD Athlon 64 box. There is no problem on printing. I'm still using HP DeskJet 5740.

If I'm only running Linux as workstation, I would prefer Ubuntu Desktop 7.04. Recently I installed Ubuntu Desktop 7.04 on an old PC, P-III with 384M RAM and PCI-ATA Controller. It is fantastic. I got everything there as desktop immediately, printing, flash, movie-player, music player, browser, openoffice, etc. I didn't need taking further care. F-7 can't detect the ATA-Controller. I can't get F-7 installed without taking some extra steps. Ubuntu Desktop detected it immediately. Installation went through like a breeze.

That is my personal opinion for your consideration.

B.R.
satimis

kevin tough · #8 20th July 2007, 02:05 PM

Yes, I have had better luck with Ubuntu out of the box as well. I don't know why I still hang on to Fedora. I read somewhere in a comparison that Fedora is more like a "thoroughbred" distro. Is there stuff it does much better than others or should I consider dumping it? I mean printing is a major for a desktop user but I will be trying to learn C++ programming in the near future and if Fedora supports that better I might stay with the search to fix my printer problems.
I know what your saying with flash and so. I am running a 64bit version and the updater said it updated flash to version 9. Ja, where? With 64 bit browsers I don"t believe an update will work yet.

Thanks,
Kevin Tough

kevin tough · #9 20th July 2007, 02:11 PM

What do you think Satimis? Should I open a new thread if I decide to stay with Fedora longer. I searched the existing threads and did not find much about this issue or PPD"s. I have noticed that the documentation in Ubuntu seems more user friendly and up-to-date.

Namaste,
Kevin Tough

satimis · #10 20th July 2007, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevin tough

What do you think Satimis? Should I open a new thread if I decide to stay with Fedora longer. I searched the existing threads and did not find much about this issue or PPD"s.

Hi kevin tough,

Yes, start a new thread to see whether other folks can help.

Quote:

I have noticed that the documentation in Ubuntu seems more user friendly and up-to-date.

If you only need a workstation for daily work avoiding injecting extensive effort on configuring it, try Ubuntu desktop. If you need a rigid Linux OS for building servers try CentOS or Slack. If you need a rigid Unix OS for servers try OpenBSD/DragflyBSD, if allows you to install packages from source. However the best Linux/Unix OS is to be built by yourself, LFS/HLFS and FreeBSD built from components.

B.R.
satimis