CUPs and hpijs printing quality

rcxAsh · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:04 pm Post subject: CUPs and hpijs printing quality

I have my HP DeskJet 930c printer set up nicely with CUPs and the hpijs drivers (followed one of the howtos on the Gentoo docs page.. I can't find it anymore?)

Anyways. So my issue is that the printing quality is not as high as the Windows print quality. When I print in Linux, everything is at a much lower resolution.

I read that:

c0bblers · Guru Joined: 28 Mar 2003 Posts: 403

Hi,

Have you tried fiddling with the printer's setup in the CUPS web interface? Point your web browser at http://localhost:631/printers and then click on "configure printer". With the HP printer I use I can then set the resolution under "printout mode".

Cheers,
James

i92guboj · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject:

I dont know if there is a way to get a better printout, but, anyway, the hpijs drivers are not so good and are good known for its laggy quality. I've had two hp printer under my linux box at home: one 690c and another 3325c. Both were deskjets, and both gave me the same sucking quality: level 0.

The drivers can be configured thru cups, for example here: http://localhost:631 , but I think that, the few configuration parameters you can change does almost nothing. There is no working tools to measure the ink levels, nor to change or align the printer heads, so the quality of the printing cannot be the same as you get in win.

If you want a home printer for linux my opinion is very clear: epson has the best drivers, more, even epson provides their own drivers in www.epkowa.com (you have to search a little but they are there). Anyway, now I own a stylus cx3650 and it works way better than any hp I have ever tried under linux, and I can see my ink levels, align heads, clean heads and all that stuff. The cups gimp-print drivers for this printer are a marvel, and has much more options than the hpijs ones, and the output is just perfect, even the margins, that in the hp were just a pain.

rcxAsh · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:21 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the reply...

I believe that I have already tried your suggestion.

But for good measure, I set the "printout mode" to "High Quality" and the "Resolution, Quality, Ink Type, Media Type" to "1200 dpi, Photo, Black + Color Cartr., Photo Paper" (These are the highest settings available)

Printed out a picture of Tux in FireFox.. and... it's still as grainy as the other 6 or 7 pictures of Tux I've printed out over the last half hour or so lol. I don't get it!

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rcxAsh

jdgill0 · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:21 pm Post subject:

rcxAsh · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:24 pm Post subject:

i92guboj · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:39 pm Post subject:

jdgill0 · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 2:18 pm Post subject:

6thpink,

Thanks for the update, the extra information, and the offer to help should I run into problems. It may be a little while yet before I get a new printer, but when I do, if I run into problems you may hear from me.

Thanks.
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jstead1 · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:47 pm Post subject:

You could try the turboprint third party drivers.
(Put turboprint into google, it'll be one of the first hits)

It is NOT open source. They do have a slightly crippled free (as in you don't pay for it) version you can try.
I think the crippled part is that the turboprint logo is included in the highest res printouts.
So you can try and buy if you like.

I used the free version for a few things that the hp drivers couldn't do (I forget what)
I can't remember any problem I had, so they must be pretty easy to use.
_________________
jim

Theophile · Apprentice Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 285

I've been using HP DeskJets with CUPS for some time and have always been very impressed with the quality. I had been using a 932c and am now using the 3520. I used the same driver for both printers. If it helps, here's the .ppd:

Doogman · Apprentice Joined: 24 Sep 2004 Posts: 244

I'm using a HP5550 and it works great in Linux via USB and the hpijs CUPS driver. The printer is smart enough to figure out what kind of paper is inserted and it autoadjusts the resolution and ink density for that paper. This is a great feature for Linux where even a local printer is treated like it's remote.

I use the printer for quick hard copies, the occasional important text document and printing out "funny pictures" for work. For pictures from the digital camera that I want to keep, I usually farm that work out to Wal-Mart's photo service. Nevertheless, I can't say I could tell a difference between the Windows and Linux printing quality. Yes, in Linux you don't have the ink level display, but that is not a big loss because that feature isn't very accurate.

Perhaps the difference is that this printer sets it's own resolution?

i92guboj · Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 3:00 pm Post subject:

Doogman · Apprentice Joined: 24 Sep 2004 Posts: 244

i92guboj · Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 11:42 pm Post subject:

Yes, I know that hp offers some support for many products, but, the bad thing is that only offers that support for the most expensive products. The cheaper ones dont have any kind of support on the hp hands. I have no problem at all compiling stuff by hand, the only problem is to find that stuff, I havent tried that model, but for 3325 and 690, that i tried, i have not been able to find it.

Of course, i can be completely wrong, but I really tried to get that working with no luck.

BTW for the cleaning I just had to remove some screws, take off the heads and summerge them in alcohol. Not a funny thing to do, that models had no such feature like the one you described that i knew of (I can also be wrong in this, but, at least, it was not in the manual, i looked again, since the manuals are still in my bookcase).

NightMonkey · Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:16 pm Post subject:

i92guboj · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:16 pm Post subject:

Yes, I know about that. They worked nice with my 690c, but not with my 3325 nor my new epson cx3650.

NightMonkey · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject:

i92guboj · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:25 pm Post subject:

Sorry, I got rid of that printer time ago, when I tried maybe the thing was different, I did not bother really looking out because I was changing my printer soon. Anyway thanks for the advice, if I can try I will try one that one friend of mine owns, just out of curiosity.

-Regards.

MickKi · Veteran Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 1179

I'm getting confused!

Since a couple of months ago after an update of cups/foomatic/hpijs my HP930C output became grainy and the margins are out of kilter. The hpijs emerge log tells me:

extragedy · n00b Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 10

Just put this line in /etc/portage/package.keywords : =net-print/hplip-0.9.3 ~x86 This will unmask this specific version of the package. After that, just do emerge -a hplip and it should do the trick...

MickKi · Veteran Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 1179

Thank you. The point I am making above is: how can the hpijs driver be deprecated while its replacement is still masked?
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Regards,
Mick

MickKi · Veteran Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 1179

I fixed it still using hpijs by recreating three links which had gone wrong: