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HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

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Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#141

Post by l8rlump »

bayindirh wrote: post #84
broknbottle wrote: post #81

Avoid HP at all cost and stick to Brother, Cannon and Epson. HP is a company that had the privilege of having their logo on a iPod but is a complete turd at the end of the day.

Canon's Linux support is very poor. It has a proprietary printing language which needs a closed source daemon/filter to work, and it's finicky. How finicky? If it doesn't like the version of something it forks itself until it borks your computer. Used HP, Lexmark, Xerox, Samsung & Kyocera. All worked with Linux. Also, none of the HP printers I used created any problems during their lifetimes with me. One of them was…

On Linux I use Postscript with a PPD from https://www.canon.com.au/support/sims-content?pid=e3b6d5519f...

Most Canons also understand PCL6 too. I guess you've checked your own machine though.

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#142

Post by bayindirh »

l8rlump wrote: post #141
bayindirh wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canon's Linux support is very poor. It has a proprietary printing language which needs a closed source daemon/filter to work, and it's finicky. How finicky? If it doesn't like the version of something it forks itself until it borks your computer. Used HP, Lexmark, Xerox, Samsung & Kyocera. All worked with Linux. Also, none of the HP printers I used created any problems during their lifetimes with me. One of them was…

On Linux I use Postscript with a PPD from https://www.canon.com.au/support/sims-content?pid=e3b6d5519f... Most Canons also understand PCL6 too. I guess you've checked your own machine though.

The one I used understood neither PCL nor PDF. It wasn't an entry level device either. It was a networked office-class device.

This was a work endeavor, so I don't have the machine handy, so I can't provide you a model number.

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#143

Post by [deleted] »

neilv wrote: post #135
cookiengineer wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, seing printers like this over the years and everything getting worse and worse makes me feel good about having an old Brother laser printer. It's monochrome, it's now 20 years old, but it's good enough for me. It keeps running and running, and the toner is dirt-cheap on the market. No internet, no spyware and no IoT-secured (tm) app required. Manufacturers like Epson and HP kind of force me into keeping thi…

I already stockpile particular old models of ThinkPad laptops, and now I should pick up 1-2 backup no-nonsense laser printers. As for MS Windows, that's already giving people problems from software like we're talking about avoiding from hardware.

[deleted]

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#144

Post by fomine3 »

hakfoo wrote: post #138
andix wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For laser printers there are always models that support PCL and Postscript. They work with any operating system and can be used with generic drivers. Usually they are a few bucks more expensive, but you will be able to still use them in 30 years, when nobody knows anymore what windows 11 was.

That's what I don't get: why is there still API "innovation" going on for printing? Especially for a bog-standard black-and-white laser, there's nothing that needs to be done now that couldn't be done with PostScript or PCL circa 1995. (Yeah, there's a bazillion stupid ideas for mobile-device connectivity and wireless setup, but those are tangential to "here is an IP address and port, feed it PostScript and pages com…

IPP?

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#145

Post by bayindirh »

l8rlump wrote: post #130
bayindirh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange. mine has an option called "Remove embedded web services", and it transforms to a dumb printer. Then you can re-enable it if you prefer later.

Embedded Web Services / EWS is their name for their web configuration interface. I don't think it has anything to do with GP's concerns. https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_2029438-1929621-16

After my first comment (telling that mail2print is deprecated), I wondered and removed web services from mine.

The printer disassociated from my HP account, its e-mail address is removed, all on-device "printables" functions (which is dropbox, google drive, Scan2Mail, QuickForms at this point) removed too. It completely became a dumb, networked printer with an LCD screen (which you can setup your printer and whatnot).

I'm almost sure that it addresses concerns of the GP, because the device became completely unaware that there's something called an HP account, yet stayed fully functional as a networked inkjet MFP, incl. HP's smart app.

BTW, if your printer is in working order, and discoverable over local network, you can use the smart app without any account. Scanning and printing works, at least.

I re-enabled the services and the functions I mentioned as deprecated started to work again. I think something broke configuration-wise while HP was migrating services.

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#146

Post by bayindirh »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #93
bayindirh wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Requires the HP Smart app download. To be able to scan your documents to your phone directly. > Subscription may be required; subscription may not be available in all countries For some advanced, Prizmo-like scan features and OCR which are probably cloud based. > Get up to 5,000 pages or up to 2 years of pre-filled toner Considering printers at same size provides ~3000 pages, that's good. 2 years is probably printi…

> Considering printers at same size provides ~3000 pages, that's good. They used to sell a 6000 page cartridge as their low end offering in this class of printers. This is what's its like to be a boiled frog.

I have used a Lexmark desktop printer with 6000 page demo toner installed. That thing's toner container (which is just a canister) is almost thrice as big than my Samsung's dispenser-integrated 3000 page toner cartridge.

IIRC, that thing is somewhere around office, and we still use its demo toner. It's a low duty device too, but well.

In other words, these devices are still there, but it's the next bigger class with respect to the Samsung printer I have. Also, Samsung has a very nice econoprint mode which injects tiny dots inside the letters which saves 20%-50% depending on the font and content you print, and there's no day and night difference in terms of the print quality between two modes.

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#147

Post by l8rlump »

bayindirh wrote: post #142
l8rlump wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Linux I use Postscript with a PPD from https://www.canon.com.au/support/sims-content?pid=e3b6d5519f... Most Canons also understand PCL6 too. I guess you've checked your own machine though.

The one I used understood neither PCL nor PDF. It wasn't an entry level device either. It was a networked office-class device. This was a work endeavor, so I don't have the machine handy, so I can't provide you a model number.

Feel free to provide it if/when you can.

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#148

Post by waynesonfire »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #126
ChuckMcM wrote: post #108

Okay wanted to post "hahahahahahahahahahaha!" but that doesn't add much to the discussion. The HP printer product managers really seemed to believe "because HP" was a license to rip off people who bought their printers. I knew they were in trouble when I was forced to replace my completely functional HP inkjet because they refused to provide drivers for Windows 10. Did the research and found an Epson Ecotank printer[…

I purchased an EcoTank ET-2760 at Costco last year. When it prints, it prints pretty good and it seems like we get good economy from the ink. BUT we go through these cycles of printing a lot then nothing for weeks. So after one of the "rest" periods, we usually have to run the cleaning routine multiple times to get a decent print. That and my wife failed to grok how the colors were keyed to the different reservoirs a…

So predictable, I'll never buy inkjet.

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#149

Post by porbelm »

andix wrote: post #109
cookiengineer wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, seing printers like this over the years and everything getting worse and worse makes me feel good about having an old Brother laser printer. It's monochrome, it's now 20 years old, but it's good enough for me. It keeps running and running, and the toner is dirt-cheap on the market. No internet, no spyware and no IoT-secured (tm) app required. Manufacturers like Epson and HP kind of force me into keeping thi…

This is mostly still valid for current brother printers. I bought one last year, and the web interface looks exactly the same on the one I bought 15 years earlier. The only difference: it can do wifi now.

When my boss needed a printer (to print out my contract for signing lol) a year and a half ago, he asked me what to get. The answer was, like always, a cheap b/w Brother -- since the LaserJet IIp is not in production any more.

It's just like the workhorse in the old pub cellar that chugged out ream after ream of paper through the dust and moisture for years without breaking down.

But with AirPrint too!

Re: HP LaserJet Tank – Refillable laser printer

#150

Post by porbelm »

sf_rob wrote: post #63
osrec wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the best Linux support has been from brother. Also, their printers seem more light weight (in a good way), and their compatible ink is cheaper. Good for basic documents etc, but probably not for printing photos.

I love my Brother, but their Mac support is (was?) laughable. Their main support path is to download the Brother app to load a PDF you output to your filesystem and send it to your printer. I'm clueless about the subtleties of printer drivers on Mac's but their solution was so clunky. Works flawlessly on Windows and with some minor tweaks on Linux Mint.

My Brother experience on the Mac half a year ago was "install printer > pick out in list of visible printers > wait 2 seconds > it works"

On the phone it was just discovered by AirPrint and Just Worked™

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