It seems to me that the biggest weakness of Morphos is printing, because that is very important. I have two printers, a brother bjc265w and an hp deskjet3520. Neither can be used as the printer drivers do not exist for them on Morphos. So the best I can do is to save the files to a usb stick and use another computer (which does have those printer drivers) to print them out. This issue needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency in Morphos upgrades.

If you want to use a printer with MorphOS, the most supported printers are those that have a PostScript printing option, as the Printing device (USBPAR:) by Zukow, is supposed to be part of the next MOS update release, and the Beta Printing system can be downloaded and installed on any MorphOS system, and a suitable .ppd file for the printer from its installation CD be transferred over to the necessary place on MorphOS for easy printing at the maximum capabilities of the printer.

I use a HP 2500 Colour LaserJet USB & Centronics port printer (Postscript, and Network capable) which works well with MorphOS.

MorphOS is a niche OS, and I don't believe it is that likely that many inkjet printers, that don't have a commonly supported Printer Language will get supported in the future. I believe HP PCL5 is supported, and you can always print to Ghostscript, once installed, and print to PS: via TurboPrint, but even then your printers may not be compatible with those options.

I usually transfer other files that I would normally print out as PDFs which OWB can save webpages as, and PageStream can also save documents as PDFs, but I use my PostScript capable printer to print directly whatever/whenever required.

I know this doesn't solve your problem for now, but should you consider any future investment in a printer then I would suggest a PostScript capable one as being the one to choose to enable it to be used quite simply with virtually anything you want to print out via MorphOS, and I hope this is of some use to you, in the longterm.

I also use an Epson 1640SU (SCSI+USB) scanner which works really well with SCANdal

Personally, I use an HP Laser printer for both my MorphOS systems and my various household Windows systems.
It was cheap, the toner savings alone (over ink costs) has been fabulous, and the print quality is (in my opinion) better than an inkjet.

That's another reason I use a Colour Laser printer - no ink drying out - the toner is always available, and it doesn't matter if the paper gets a bit wet at any time afterwards as the 'ink', as the toner is plastic, doesn't get 'smudged', and it doesn't fade with age or if left out in the sun generally, at least not anything like as quickly as inkjets ink does.

I haven't used an inkjet for about 15 years, or more.

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I print so infrequently these days, I really need to sell my Inkjet printers and buy a laser printer, or just take/send my files to a printing shop for actual print outs. It is crazy to pay $25 to $40 for ink cartridges and only get 15 printed pages out of them before they dry out from non-use.

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Yeah, I have one inkjet that I use as a scanner (and several other sitting around unused), but the price of ink cartridges just doesn't seem justifiable.
Toner doesn't dry out, the cartridges for my printer cost no more than ink, and they last SO much longer.

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What I would really like to get is a large format laser printer/plotter, something that could do at least 36" x 24", or larger, so I could print out my own construction plan proof sets, in full size. Currently I have a very old inkjet that can do 17" x 22", which only works for printing half the size I would like to use. Printing to a PDF file, then having a print shop create construction plans for me has been problematic, but that is probably mostly due to the cheap CAD program I use.

Edit: And I refuse to buy and learn AutoCAD, no matter what "Light" version is offered. It's interface is just so strange to what I am used to.

[ Edited by amigadave 30.03.2017 - 14:18 ]

PageStream has options to create 'posters' by allowing it to save a document to print to A4 or A3 paper, or whatever size your printer can handle and then it pieces them together, overlaying the adjacent piece(s) so you can line it up to the next piece, so you can create one massive 'page' / 'poster' from the many pages required to print it all out.

So, if you saved the document in your CAD program as a PDF and then opened the file in VPDF and then chose the option of 'Export to Bitmap' you could then import that large bitmap into PageStream to fit on whatever size of page you needed to create it, and print it out as a 'poster' that might well work.

I know this function of 'poster' functionality via Master Page Size option works as I printed out a 81cm x 61cm sized 'FOR SALE' house sign a few years ago, and it worked a treat on my HP 2500 Colour LaserJet PostScript Printer - via MorphOS.

I'd have attached a copy/image of the screenshot - showing the dimensions of the page, but the attachments feature of this site is not working as it seems it should.

Is my suggestion of any use to you?

When I need to create really large documents (which is very infrequently), I save the files and take them somewhere to be printed.
Why buy a really expensive printer when most of my printing is in more conventional sizes?

In 2017 printing on amiga os 3.x amiga os 4.x mos is no problem.
Every cheap hp printer has ePrint.
hp deskjet3520 has also ePrint.
PageStream has export to pdf, so You can print without problems - export to pdf,
then send pdf to printer.
Other software - print to ps, then convert to pdf with Ghostscript,
then send pdf to printer.

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The printing system in MorphOS should be aware of ePrint capable printers and handle the process automatically...

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My macmini is g4 and has no wifi, so I have to go via usb. Yes I can connect to the hp deskjet 3280 that way via usbparallel. I tried printing a pdf to that printer (not via eprint) and failed. I think my best bet is to connect to an old reliable bjc4000 vis usb (through an apprpriate adapter cable) since the driver for that is supported in Morphos. I have yet to receive the cable and will report after I have tried it out.

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I thought that all MacMini's came with wifi as standard equipment?

There was a period between January-July 2005 when WiFi was optional in Mac Mini, but after July 26 the AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth were provided as standard (but the modem was dropped).

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I think Newsense was replying to me, and my occasional need to print construction drawings/plans, for submission to clients or the building department for plan check approval. I need 36" wide by 24" high often, and rarely even larger sizes. I don't make enough money doing plans to justify the purchase of a new large format printer/plotter, but if I could get a used one at a low price, I would do it.

As for printing out many sheets to make one large print, I have actually tried to do that on a couple of occasions, but getting the print lined up, and printed to the exact scale I need, is sometimes a problem, which is why I usually just print to a file now, put all the pages of the plans on a USB stick, and take it to any print shop that has large format printer/plotters available.

I wish there were a really good CAD program for MorphOS3.9, or AmigaOS4.1FE, as I would enjoy working from an AmigaNG system much more than working from Windows. If I had the programming skills, I would create a new CAD program for MorphOS that mimicked the behavior and interface of TurboCAD, which is my CAD program of choice (mostly due to cheap price, and ease of use, because I have learned how to use it over many years). I used CycasCAD for a while on the Amiga, but when support for it stopped, it had not yet reached full functionality and ease of use to match my TurboCAD, so I stopped using it.

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Good info, thanks for enlightening me about that. I think I ruined the wifi antennae in my G4 MacMini when I removed the case to upgrade the RAM, or maybe it was for some other modification that I can't remember exactly what I was doing. I don't use my G4 MacMini any more, and should probably sell it. It is the 1.5GHz 64mb video RAM model.

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If you aren't using it, I can probably repair the antenna, and with a MorphOS key it would make a good item for the next AmiWest.

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Just buy cheap wifi rj45 dongle, and connect Your mm to it.

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eprint is key technology. It allows printing without drivers.

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No, No and Noooo!

ePrint is exactly what you don´t want. ePrint is what HP wants. NSA probably congratulates each new ePrint user and you probably get a gift card for sending all your document willingly and for free direkt to them.

The only proper solution is AirPrint which is basically using several open standards combined to locate and communicate with the printer *directly*!

No cloud required, no server required, no internet connection required, no driver required required (beside the one airprint driver).

As a bonus you can convert any printer into an airprint compatible device. Even the fancy old LayerJet4 dusting in your basement by using some low power linux system like raspberry pi. In fact you only need one pi to create a printer farm with all your printers in storage.

There is no AirPrint driver for MorphOS yet, as I did not find and time to look into it. Basically it is just asking the local network for printers and specs and then sending some packet with pdf content.

Even real printer preferences are obsolete with AirPrint. You take your phone or computer, hook it up to the available network and you are able to print to any printer available.

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I was confused above, AirPrint is what I meant all along!

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AirPrint is basically IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) combined with discovery via mDNS (Bonjour) or DNS-SD.
So basically those AirPrint enabled printers host an IPP server and announce some service (the printer) via mDNS.

Client side (MorphOS) it would only require an IPP client. I'm not sure whether there is an IPP client available other than which CUPS provides.
I've created one in Java. It's not that complicated actually. Basically it's just some IPP headers and you send a Print-Job command with attached PS or PDF data (depending on what the printer understands natively) to the printer on port 631. That's it. No driver required.
Pretty much any printer can be made AirPrint enabled, as Geit already said. Linux usually comes with CUPS and then Avahi can be used to announce the printer service. iOS can then pick it up.


Manfred

I solved my printing problem by buying a second hand hp 950c printer for which there is a very good driver in morphos. No need for ps interpretation.
The only curiosity is that I cannot print directly from YAM. I seem to have to save my message to ram: say and then load it on scribble and print it from there. Has anyone else encountered that problem?
Thanks to all for your comments.

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Don't all of the plotters (at least HP and I think Tek) use HPGL as the printer control language? Does MorphOS (or any Amiga-ish OS) have support for HPGL?

> Does MorphOS (or any Amiga-ish OS) have support for HPGL?

No. And there's just a handful of m68k programs on Aminet related to HPGL:

MetaView (MorphZone thread)
http://aminet.net/search?path%5B%5D=gfx&path%5B%5D=text&path%5B%5D=util&desc=hpgl

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Just saw this added on Aminet. Sounds like it's a dos driver for HPGL.

http://aminet.net/package/text/print/Plot-Handler