Netprinter.device or printer recommendation
  • Just looking around
    CmdrCain
    Posts: 4 from 2018/7/28
    From: Ohio, USA
    Hi again!

    When installing MorphOS I activated my wireless LAN connection and enabled the netprinter.device on my system, with the correct IP address. I have since been unable to print anything. Well, that's not quite true; I was able to print, but it came out postscript. Which begs the question:

    My printer is an HP OfficeJetPro 6968, and uses PCL3. What am I doing wrong? I just tried to print this current page as I'm typing and found no printer installed. Should I use a USB connection for the printer? Should I get an Amiga-specific printer and hope TurboPrint is compatibe with it?
    Only Amiga makes it possible!!
  • »14.08.18 - 22:40
    Profile
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    NewSense
    Posts: 1513 from 2012/11/10
    From: Manchester, UK/GB
    You have to bear in mind that your printer does not seem to be in the MorphOS Supported Hardware - Scroll down to Printers but it may be supported if it is hardware compatible with a HP or Epson printer in the list, though sadly I doubt that there is a compatible printer option, but I could be mistaken.

    However, if you can, then you'll be able to use TurboPrint to print out document you select/save to print, either using the TurboPrint driver for the printer or using the GS: (GhostScript, i.e. PostScript emulator printing capability of TurboPrint), although there is also a specific version of Ghostscript for MorphOS you can download if you prefer.

    You can also take a look at the MorphOS Library in the Hardware Compatibility - User supplied information

    I don't use Turboprint as I have a PostScript capable colour laser printer (HP2500 CLJ) that I usually use via USB, though I could use the Netprinter.device, but I don't print out as many documents as I used to, so USB suits my needs quite nicely.

    PostScript printing has had improved support recently since v3.10, so if you can acquire a PostScript printer, with a PPD file that you'll need to get it working with MorphOS then you'll be far better off, and generally get better quality printouts than PCL3.

    I hope the information is of some use to you.

    [ Edited by NewSense 15.08.2018 - 04:39 ]
    MacMini 1.5GHz,64MB VRAM, PowerBooks A1138/9 (Model 5,8/9),PowerMac G5 2.3GHz(DP), iMac A1145 2.1GHz 20", all with MorphOS v3.18+,Airport,Bluetooth,A1016 Keyboard,T-RB22 Mouse,DVD-RW-DL,MiniMax,Firewire/USB2 & MacOSX 10.4/5
  • »15.08.18 - 03:39
    Profile
  • MorphOS Developer
    Nadir
    Posts: 162 from 2003/3/17
    Quote:

    NewSense wrote:
    PostScript printing has had improved support recently since v3.10, so if you can acquire a PostScript printer, with a PPD file that you'll need to get it working with MorphOS then you'll be far better off, and generally get better quality printouts than PCL3.


    Yes, postscript printing is a good option when available. Unfortunately there are also quite a few (both older and newer) applications that don't output PS at all. I'm currently adding such support to FlowStudio (which previously only had TP routines) and it requires quite a bit of infrastructure work. The issue is that PS support is something that is completely lacking in the OS with the exceptions of the cairo library which can render to a PS surface.

    This is the reason why e.g. OWB or VPDF can easily spit out PS while it is much more complicated for applications using the normal graphics library functions when rendering. Just dumping some unformated text is not so much of a problem but that's just not good enough at the end of the day.
  • »15.08.18 - 08:36
    Profile
  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    outrun1978
    Posts: 28 from 2018/7/8
    @cmdrcain

    I use a Xerox 3225 Workcentre with my AmigaoneX5000 set up under MorphOS using Netprinter.device and luckily this printer is both PCL3 and Postscript compatible.

    I found the PCL3 emulation a little difficult using most of the HP drivers that came within MorphOS as I had lots of corrupted text from test print outs from web pages and plain text documents, but found much better results using the Postscript driver so I would try to go for that where possible.
  • »15.08.18 - 11:27
    Profile