Roll On The Paperless Office?
The “Paperless Office” was a prediction from back in the 1970s or so that, with the increasing use of electronic automation for business data processing, the need for paper documents would diminish over time and eventually go away. Then with the increasing popularity of PCs came the demand for printers to print the documents created with them, and it seemed the trend was the opposite--electronic automation was producing even more paper documents than ever, rather than less. Well, maybe we have seen “peak paper”, according to <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/13/wall_street_analyst_slashes_hp_inc_share_rating_amid_mounting_worries_over_the_printer_declines/>: The company is currently trying to dig itself out a hole of its own making: it mis-forecast toner cartridge revenues in EMEA for FY'19 that started in October last year, not factoring in the burgeoning demand for cloned or remanufactured alternatives or - seemingly - that businesses are printing less than they used to.
Maybe the "actual" decline in revenue for HP in printers and supplies is that they didn't factor in the Japanese printer manufacturers: Sharp, Canon, Toshiba, Kyocera, Brother, OKI, Epson, Ricoh, FujiXerox, Konica Minolta, etc. For customers, a favourable aspect of some of these Japanese companies, is that they have retail and service outlets in small, out-of-the-way cities, ...like Hamilton. cheers, Ian.
On Sat, 14 Sep 2019 05:36:00 +0000, Ian Stewart wrote:
Maybe the "actual" decline in revenue for HP in printers and supplies is that they didn't factor in the Japanese printer manufacturers: Sharp, Canon, Toshiba, Kyocera, Brother, OKI, Epson, Ricoh, FujiXerox, Konica Minolta, etc.
Hmm, I don’t know. All those vendors have been there right from the early days, along with HP. What would have changed lately?
For customers, a favourable aspect of some of these Japanese companies, is that they have retail and service outlets in small, out-of-the-way cities, ...like Hamilton.
As someone who has suffered his second printer breakdown in five years, what would you recommend? Given that it has to be Linux-compatible. I used to have an Epson before that, which lasted a good long time (from before my switch to Linux!) before giving up the ghost. Then I went HP, because they have good Linux support with the open-source HPLIP drivers. That failed within the extended-warranty period, so Harvey Norman gave me a full credit on the purchase price (sans extended warranty charge, of course). I used that to get an Epson from them, which lasted nearly two years before it, too, gave trouble. They’re looking at it now. What next? I’ve been sticking with inkjets because my printing volume needs are low. Is this a sensible policy? Any suggestions? (Of course, if they manage to fix the Epson, I’ll just continue with that for now.)
As someone who has suffered his second printer breakdown in five years, what would you recommend? Given that it has to be Linux-compatible.
Here's my two cents... My printing needs are not high and some weeks I don't print anything, but I've found that Brother printers seem to work OK with Linux. The Brother website provides Linux drivers. I download a "Driver Install Tool" which is a .gz file that contains one bash file. I run this bash file on my Ubuntu 18.04.3 and it downloads whatever other files it needs and installs a printer driver and a scanner driver for my Brother DCP-7065DN 3-in-1 mono laser. If I install a new Ubuntu 18.04.3 Mate version on a PC, then Ubuntu's GUI "Add Printer" works fine. It finds the Brother printer on my ethernet, and the printer prints OK. However the printers scanner is not automatically installed by Ubuntu. I need the Brother / Driver Install Tool / bash script for getting the scanner to work with "Simple Scan" (which is included as a part of the Ubuntu Mate install). There seem to be counters on my model of Brother printer which come up with "suggestions" on when to change your toner or drum. Normally through the front panel I can over-ride these settings and continue printing. The toner cartridges have a mechanical "cog / switch" which determines when a new toner cartridge has been installed. Using a screwdriver to remove an end-panel on the toner cartridge I can reset this switch. Thus I can refill a cartridge and install it, and it will "appear" as new. With the Brother printer I have, its design is such that the drum and the toner cartridges are separate consumable items. In theory this should reduce the cost of my replacement toner cartridges from the vendors that include a drum that's built in with their replacement cartridge. ===
What next? I’ve been sticking with inkjets because my printing volume needs are low. Is this a sensible policy? Any suggestions?
I switched from using inkjet printers to using a Brother mono laser printer about 5 years ago. I don't envisage that I will every switch back to an inkjet printer. If you need colour then your outlay costs will be high if you go for laser. Mono lasers should now be reasonably low. I would suggest when getting a laser printer that you get one with a duplexer so it prints on both sides which saves paper and produces a more professional looking document. You should also check the price of replacement toner kits. Check all variants are available: on-line by courier / at PB-Tech / genuine vendor product / 3rd party product. Also you might want to check out your nearest shop offering colour printing and see what their prices are. I only have a mono printer. If I really need colour, then I e-mail my files to a shop in Hamilton East and then call in later to pick up the colour printouts. For me, this is about once a year. cheers, Ian.
On September 15, 2019 10:01:13 PM GMT+12:00, Ian Stewart <ianstewart56(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
As someone who has suffered his second printer breakdown in five years, what would you recommend? Given that it has to be Linux-compatible.
Here's my two cents...
My printing needs are not high and some weeks I don't print anything, but I've found that Brother printers seem to work OK with Linux.
The Brother website provides Linux drivers. I download a "Driver Install Tool" which is a .gz file that contains one bash file. I run this bash file on my Ubuntu 18.04.3 and it downloads whatever other files it needs and installs a printer driver and a scanner driver for my Brother DCP-7065DN 3-in-1 mono laser.
If I install a new Ubuntu 18.04.3 Mate version on a PC, then Ubuntu's GUI "Add Printer" works fine. It finds the Brother printer on my ethernet, and the printer prints OK. However the printers scanner is not automatically installed by Ubuntu. I need the Brother / Driver Install Tool / bash script for getting the scanner to work with "Simple Scan" (which is included as a part of the Ubuntu Mate install).
There seem to be counters on my model of Brother printer which come up with "suggestions" on when to change your toner or drum. Normally through the front panel I can over-ride these settings and continue printing. The toner cartridges have a mechanical "cog / switch" which determines when a new toner cartridge has been installed. Using a screwdriver to remove an end-panel on the toner cartridge I can reset this switch. Thus I can refill a cartridge and install it, and it will "appear" as new.
With the Brother printer I have, its design is such that the drum and the toner cartridges are separate consumable items. In theory this should reduce the cost of my replacement toner cartridges from the vendors that include a drum that's built in with their replacement cartridge.
===
What next? I’ve been sticking with inkjets because my printing volume needs are low. Is this a sensible policy? Any suggestions?
I switched from using inkjet printers to using a Brother mono laser printer about 5 years ago. I don't envisage that I will every switch back to an inkjet printer.
If you need colour then your outlay costs will be high if you go for laser. Mono lasers should now be reasonably low. I would suggest when getting a laser printer that you get one with a duplexer so it prints on both sides which saves paper and produces a more professional looking document. You should also check the price of replacement toner kits. Check all variants are available: on-line by courier / at PB-Tech / genuine vendor product / 3rd party product.
Also you might want to check out your nearest shop offering colour printing and see what their prices are. I only have a mono printer. If I really need colour, then I e-mail my files to a shop in Hamilton East and then call in later to pick up the colour printouts. For me, this is about once a year.
cheers, Ian.
My 2c as well: have been using Brother printers for years (wireless multi function ones) and works well with the drivers from the Brother homepage. Found that these guys usually have good deals on ink: http://ink-direct.co.nz/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
On Sun, Sep 15, 2019 at 10:01:13AM +0000, Ian Stewart wrote:
As someone who has suffered his second printer breakdown in five years, what would you recommend? Given that it has to be Linux-compatible.
Here's my two cents...
My printing needs are not high and some weeks I don't print anything, but I've found that Brother printers seem to work OK with Linux.
The Brother website provides Linux drivers.
Yeah, an i386 driver which at best is laughable this day and age, and at worst totally useless if you are enlightened and wish to run a low-powered arm64 print server. (Well, I've tried running it under qemu-user but haven't succeeded getting it going yet...) Cheers, Michael
On Sun, 15 Sep 2019 22:09:39 +1200, Michael Cree wrote:
On Sun, Sep 15, 2019 at 10:01:13AM +0000, Ian Stewart wrote:
The Brother website provides Linux drivers.
Yeah, an i386 driver which at best is laughable this day and age, and at worst totally useless if you are enlightened and wish to run a low-powered arm64 print server. (Well, I've tried running it under qemu-user but haven't succeeded getting it going yet...)
Thanks for that info. Perhaps I will avoid Brother.
The Brother website provides Linux drivers.
Yeah, an i386 driver
To quote from a member of the Debian Printing Team<https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser>: ...most Brother printers support a standard printer language such as PCL or PostScript... Thus the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) should be able to perform printing to most Brother printers without needing to install drivers. I have a Brother model DCP-7065DN 3-in-1 (Copier, Scanner and Printer), which is does not support a standard printer language, and I therefore need to install a driver. The printer driver that Brother provide on their website that you may install with their bash script is an i386/32-bit intel driver from 2011. The scanner driver is provided in both 32 and 64 bit versions and they are from 2019. The install script recognises my Ubuntu as a 64-bit OS and installs the 64-bit scanner driver. In my previous email I stated:
If I install a new Ubuntu 18.04.3 Mate version on a PC, then Ubuntu's GUI "Add Printer" works fine.
This "Add Printer" GUI utility adds a driver supplied and supported by the Debian Printing Team. On my laptop it will install the 64-bit intel driver for the Brother printer. The driver is called "brlaser v4" and was released in 2018. It ships with ubuntu and other popular distros. Should you need this special Brother printer driver then to see if its installed on your computer enter the command: $ dpkg -s printer-driver-brlaser To install it you can enter the command: $ sudo apt install printer-driver-brlaser The ubuntu team build this package<https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brlaser/4-1> for the following platforms: amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x In summary, if you do need to use this special driver for a Brother printer, then there is no need to use a 32 bit driver on a 64 bit intel based Linux. You can use the 64 bit version that is probably included with your OS distro. However both work, and I haven't been able to observe any difference in the printing. Maybe one prints at an of average of 26ppm and the other at 25ppm, but that's not the sort of thing that I am able to detect. === With regard to needing a...
low-powered arm64 print server
I guess a Raspberry Pi model 3B meets the "low-powered arm64" spec. For making the R-Pi3 into a "print server" the Raspbian distro<https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/> could be used. However it is currently only distributed in AArch32 version. An AArch64 distro that is available for R-Pi3 is the "Ubuntu Server<https://ubuntu.com/download/iot/raspberry-pi-2-3>". You can download this arm64 distro image from here<http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/release/ubuntu-18.04.3-preinstalled-server-arm64+raspi3.img.xz>. After booting the R-Pi3, the print server applications are then installed. Plus, in my case with a DCP-7065DN Brother printer, I used apt to install the printer-driver-brlaser (for AArch64). After configuring CUPS from a web-browser on a remote PC, I can then spool print jobs to the R-Pi/arm64 print-server and the printout comes out on my Brother printer looking OK. I notice that next Monday night we have a wlug meeting, so if anyone would like to bring along their printer, then I'll bring my R-Pi3 / arm64 print server and we can see if this print server will support your printer. Please, no printers that only have a parallel port, ...that's pushing the latest technology beyond its limits! cheers, Ian.
On Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:55:07 +0000, Ian Stewart wrote:
This "Add Printer" GUI utility adds a driver supplied and supported by the Debian Printing Team. On my laptop it will install the 64-bit intel driver for the Brother printer. The driver is called "brlaser v4" and was released in 2018. It ships with ubuntu and other popular distros.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. But it seems this specifically applies to lasers only. Interesting that the 4-1 version for Debian 10 <https://packages.debian.org/buster/printer-driver-brlaser> has a rather shorter list of supported printers than the 5-1 version currently in Unstable <https://packages.debian.org/sid/printer-driver-brlaser>.
To quote from a member of the Debian Printing Team<https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser>:
...most Brother printers support a standard printer language such as PCL or PostScript...
Which may be true, but my printing needs tend to be low-volume, maybe averaging a page a day. That’s why I’ve been preferring inkjets.
Interesting that the 4-1 version for Debian 10 ... has a rather shorter list of supported printers than the 5-1 version
Peter De Wachter appears to be the member of the Debian Printing Team that maintains the Brother laser printer driver package. If you go to his github repository and check out his README.md<https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser/blob/master/README.md>, then it includes the statement: Other printers If your printer isn't included in the list above, just try selecting any entry marked 'brlaser' and see if it works. If it does, please create a new issue here in Github and include the output of this command: sudo lpinfo --include-schemes usb -l -v Then I'll be able to add a proper entry for your printer. I suspect that people are doing the above, hence the reason that the list has got longer between releases 4-1 and 5-1. cheers, Ian.
participants (4)
-
Ian Stewart -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Michael Cree -
Peter Reutemann