Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 06:05:59 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Mark Felder <feld@freebsd.org> Cc: "O. Hartmann" <ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de>, FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: CUPS and Epson Epson WF-3540 on FreeBSD 9.2/11.0-CURRENT Message-ID: <20131106060559.5dcad829.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <1383669454.21378.43329325.475E1FD0@webmail.messagingengine.com> References: <20131102115534.71afaa03@thor.walstatt.dyndns.org> <1383669454.21378.43329325.475E1FD0@webmail.messagingengine.com>
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On Tue, 05 Nov 2013 10:37:34 -0600, Mark Felder wrote: > On Sat, Nov 2, 2013, at 4:55, O. Hartmann wrote: > > > > I'm about to purchase the Epson WF-3540DTWF and need to know whether > > this printer is also capacle of being run on FreeBSD. > > > > [...] > > I don't think it's likely you'll find this working. I'd suggest you find > a printer that can natively speak postscript and works with SANE without > a proprietary driver. It's getting hard to find printers that can do > this, though. Sadly, your summary seems to be correct. Regarding printers: It's good if they speak _any_ of the established standard printer languages. CUPS offers access to a lot of means to get printers working. If the printer manufacturer offers a PPD file, you're usually good. Other possibilities are printers that speak PCL, PS (as you mentioned) or, for newer models, they should use PDF. All those formats can be easily used with CUPS, and if required, without CUPS. Interestingly, it's still possible to find inkpee printers that seem to satisfy that kind of requirement. Regarding scanners: Many scanners use a kind of "standard SCSI-derived data protocol". I've been successfully using a no-brand SCSI scanner without any drivers (!), just with bare SANE, which detected everything automatically. My dying HP ScanJet also works. But I've seen more than enough scanners that won't work, or where specific "in-between models" won't work; if I remember correctly, Canon LideScan 20 and 40 worked, but the 35 I was presented didn't have any support (totoally different proprietary protocol). It's still not impossible to get a usable scanner that is fully supported. But the _combination_ of scanner and printer... I'm currently struggling with the same problem. For a specific use case, I need to find such a MFP (multi-function printer, haha) where I can print in color with the inkpee machanism by using CUPS _and_ use the scanner on top with SANE with maybe interfaces to LibreOffice and Gimp (because xscanimage is too professional for some users). It doesn't even matter if the printer needs to be locally connected via USB, instead of offering network connection (wired preferred, wireless _maybe_ acceptable) as all normal printers do. If this thread should come up with a printer model that satisfies those requirements, that would be great. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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