theYinYeti Posted September 12, 2007 Report Share Posted September 12, 2007 Although I have to admit my former Epson Stylus Color 900 was excellent on the technical side, it brought way too much trouble: - At first, it wasn't compatible with Linux (that was in 1999); now it is, but in early days I had to compile ghostscript, and the then-new gimp-print project. - I don't print enough. As a result, half my ink went into head cleaning, as the heads got cluttered (English for "bouchées"?). - In its last years of service, even head-cleaning wasn't enough, and I got yellow, or magenta, or cyan, prints... When one color was clear at last, another disappeared. - Finally, now nothing ever comes out of the heads, save draft-like black and an occasional dot of color... My wife and I decided to never again live such an experience, and long for the day when all will be as simple as it used to be with my former Canon BJ10e. So we're looking for: - A Linux-compatible color printer. - With prints heads included on the cartridges, so that they get changed alongside the ink. (as it was on the BJ10e) The first item is easy, thanks to OpenPrinting. I have trouble with the second item. Some (relatives, commercial, or from the web) say to me that "all Canon" are like this; some others say that "all HP" are like this; some say "all Lexmark" are such printers... A good amount of search on Google gave me no definitive answers, except that such broad statements are simply false. Looking only at recent models, all manufacturers sell color printers where the heads are separate from the ink cartridges. Now an important "detail": I wish I could find my printer among those with one cartridge per color, not two cartridges only (BW and colors). So do you know of good resources showing me what cartridges have the heads included, or what printers use such cartridges? If need be, I much prefer to only have two cartridges, than having once again the heads separated from the ink cartridges. Thanks for your attention, and hopefully for any information you'll be able to provide. Yves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted September 12, 2007 Report Share Posted September 12, 2007 Funny you mention the BJ10e, I've still got a working one in the garage. Every HP inkjet i've seen has the print heads on the cartridge. That's a range from recent PhotoSmarts and Deskjets, all the way back to the first deskjet. Their cartridges keep well too. My printer is generally left for months at a time unused, then prints perfectly when I eventually do decide to print something. This one is a Deskjet 5550, a few years old now, but still working like new. I wouldnt be surprised if I pulled our 14 year old Deskjet 660C out of the garage and it still printed clearly despite being unused for many years (cartridges still available for it too afaik). Their linux support is brilliant. HP has sponsored open source linux drivers for *years*, which is something to be admired. Their drivers are standard fare in any distro now. http://hplip.sourceforge.net/ James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYinYeti Posted September 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 Thank you iphitus ! I value your advice a lot, and so I'll now be looking for an HP :) Yves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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