About this time last year, I finally called time on the inkjet printing thing, and moved solely to laser. To be exact the Samsung ML-1440, which has done us proud for it’s 8,850 pages. In fact, if it were possible to get parts for it still, I probably wouldn’t have changed it..
But change it I did – to a super special offer on a Xerox Phaser 6125, which is a lurvely colour laser printer. Sure, images don’t match up to an Inkjet on photo paper – but pictures are still jolly impressive, are a fraction of the cost, and (best of all), if you don’t print for several weeks the thing still works!
The only small fly in the ointment is the lack of Linux drivers, which meant I had to use the rapidly dying Samsung to print from Linux. But I need fret no more – thanks to those lovely people at OpenPrinting, I know how to get it up and running from Linux over the Ethernet.
For those who want to play along, the page is
http://www.openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Xerox-Phaser_6125
which in turn links to http://www.fujixerox.com.au/support/downloaddriver?productId=307&operatingSystemCode=Linux
which in turn has a lovely ZIP file to download containing the drivers bundled up in a RPM, and a fairly idiot proof PDF which leads you gently by the hand though the process of installing it…
I’ve added it twice – once as “phaser” and once as “phaserbw”, with the latter being the default printer on my system, which outputs in black and white and lower quality (b/w being significantly cheaper than colour, even on a laser).
Enjoy!
PS – When I need to print photos? That’s what photobox is for!