On Mon, 2005-10-31 at 11:32 +0000, Stephen Carter wrote:

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Dave Howorth 10/31/05 10:51 AM >>> Hmm. In the specs at: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06a/5043-5047-5051-5051-5063->12096450.html

one line stands out:

Standard Printer Languages Host-based

If I interpret that rightly, it means this printer is probably a 'paperweight' as far as Linux goes. Host-based printing means that the intelligence is in the driver software on the host PC and the same specs mention that it is available on various flavours of Windows and OSX. You should be looking for a printer that says 'PostScript' or PCL5 or somesuch, and is preferably listed in the linuxprinting database with three penguins.

Hope I'm wrong but trying to exchange it seems like the best option.

Dave

I hope you're wrong as well but I doubt it. The printer was bought for our production workstations which are all running WinXP, so was a wise choice for what was needed. I'm on my own with linux as a desktop so I've had to make do with whatever I can, and I was hoping to take advantage of this printer. I have been to date using an old Lexmark Optra R+ but it's just run out of toner and they won't buy any more as they have a new 'n shiny HP CL2600n...

I saw someone is trying to get a linux based project working with these host based HP printers. One can only hope either they will get it working or HP will add some rudimentary support for linux on the desktop at some time.

One other thing I noticed on the HP site was the possibility to add an external print server. That might get around the problem if your budget rules allow them to buy one of those ... Cheers, Dave