[plug] plug membership / printer query

[Christian]

On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, David J Dartnall wrote:

> I've received about four months' worth of  information, (some of which
> has been related to linux!), since subscribing to plug.. - it's probably
> about time a membership fee was paid. Please let me know

I don't believe we have actually established a membership fee as yet...
there was some discussion at one stage but I'm not sure if anything
definite was decided... anyone?
 
> Perhaps someone could advise the whether drivers are available for an
> Epson 740 inkjet which I'm thinking of buying. Epson Australia say that
> they don't supply drivers for other than Windows, NT or Mac. They say,
> however that it will run under dos (not a Windows-only printer).
> I'm running SuSE 5.3 and currently have a Brother HJ400 printer and am
> having difficulty integrating
> this - it will accept "cp <text.file> /dev/lp0"  but produces garbage
> otherwise. Hence before laying out cash on a more expensive printer, I
> need to be sure it'll work.
> Setting up printers for Linux seems to be an obscure art? Most of the
> books and manuals I've bought avoid the issue, and the HOWTO series
> appear to be out of date - I guess with the large range of printers on
> the market it's pretty difficult to keep up.

I think you're right... I've avoided setting up my printer in Linux for
over a year now however it's reaching the point where I really need it up
and running.  However the documentation related to printers hasn't really
been very helpful so far, especially not in relation to my printer (Canon
LBP-III laser printer).  I've found a filter which converts HP LaserJet
data to CaPSL (language for the Canon laser printers) and since the HP
printers are well support, theoretically this sounds like it would work. 
However running it through two filters like this makes me a little nervous
since there feels like there's plenty of opportunity for errors.  Has
anyone had any experience with this or any comments/suggestions to make? 

TIA,

Christian.

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