[SWLUG] Photo printer recommendations for Linux?

[Justin Mitchell]

On Sat, 2007-05-12 at 18:37 +0100, Glenn Booth wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> Does anyone have any happy tales to tell about
> photo printers under Linux? 
> 
> Conventional wisdom seems to suggest that the
> choice is pretty much either HP or Epson... are
> there any others that are worth considering? 

I tend to stick to HP printers these days, the quality seems good and
they supply linux drivers for most models via the LIP and older IJS
drivers, many of their printers also support a level of PCL, which is a
guarantee of getting at least some amount of printing out of it.

the standard thing to do is when you spot a printer you like the look of
you check it against the database on linuxprinting.org

experience says never buy the absolutely cheapest model, regardless of
manufacturer, its the most likely to not work, and will end up costing
you in other ways anyway (eg by taking smaller capacity carts than any
other, giving much worse value for money)

one point i must also make these days, is are you sure you really
need/want to do photo printing at home? it can be handy for doing the
occasional print, but it is almost certainly much cheaper and better
quality to use an online photo processing company (eg photobox) as last
time i looked they would print and deliver photos for less than it costs
to buy the ink and paper to do it yourself.