[edit] Suggested Printers for Free Software Users

Here are a few printers which we have singled out as being well suited for use with free software (ie GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, etc), as well as being good products in general. The recommendations do not necessarily mean that these printers will be automatically recognized and configured by your distribution, merely that the printer can be made to work well with Free Software.

Before picking a printer from this list, first:

Understand your printing needs and your budget. If you will print mostly text, a laser will give much better quality and cost per page. If you need low volume color, laboratory-like photos, or large paper formats, you'll want an inkjet. Mostly text and some color is best served by having both a laser and an inkjet. If you want high volume color, a colour laser may be the best choice. If you are short on real estate for your printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine, you should consider a multi-function device.
Read the HOWTO's How to buy a printer section, which provides a quick list of printer selection criteria.
Understand what you are buying. Read the printer's information here in the database, and on the vendor's website, before you buy.
Check printer manufactures' support for Linux and free software.

[edit] Color Inkjets

There are two brands worth considering for use with free software:

Epson: The Epson Stylus line, as driven by the Gimp-Print driver, is a good choice for color inkjets. The driver provides excellent quality and extensive tunability both of the quality/speed tradeoff and color rendition. The new 5.x generation of this driver, now named Gutenprint to stress the case that it is not only for the GIMP, is shortly before its first stable release and it is available at the same place as Gimp-Print. The new driver is much more optimized, supports advanced color models as the CMYKRB (with red and blue ink) of the Epson R1800 printers, supports 16 bit per color, and has many more user-adjustable options (which can be set to default/automatic for getting quick results). Epson also provides drivers, the Photo Image Print System (PIPS), but these drivers are not totally free (they contain a binary-only module and the source may not build on all systems). Epson's PIPS lite from the same site is completely free/open source, but suppoirts only a few models.
Epson has several series of Styli: a Color series, sporting a four color CMYK process; the newer C series, most of which sport pigment based fade-proof inks; and a Photo series, sporting a six color CMYKcm process. The free driver produces output of very good quality on all three types. For a bit more detail, see this forum posting by the Gimp-Print project leader.
Note that some older Epson models have a problem with fading cyan dye (aka "orange shift") in high ozone environments; for more information on this see Epson's website.
Hewlett-Packard: Most of the HP inkjet line is supported using a driver provided by HP. Most newer HP models produce very good photo and text output. Duplex printing on paper sizes up to A3 are also supported. The main limitation of the driver is that you do not have any adjustments to fine-tune the output, but the colour reproduction is already very good out-of-the-box; certainly for most consumer and business use it is quite suitable.
HP's HPLIP/HPIJS drivers are provided under a free license; like the Gimp-Print driver for Epsons, it is included in many modern Linux distributions. With the HPLIP low-level driver and the HP Toolbox many advanced functions of HP's printers get accessible, as ink/toner level monitoring, nozzle cleaning, and real full-bleed printing on all paper sizes and without necessity of a tear-off tab on the lower edge. HPLIP also supports the extra functionality of multi-function devices, as scanning and memory card reading, so it replaces the former HPOJ completely.
Other Brands: For Canon and Brother you find drivers on the manufacturer's web sites, but they are closed-source and do not necessarily work with all distributions (For Brother go here, for Canon, go to their european, australian, or japanese web site to driver download and choose Linux as operating system). Canon is looking into switching to distribution-independent LSB-based driver packages. Alternatively, you can get your Canon inkjet working with the third-party proprietary driver Turboprint, but this driver costs around 30 EUR. The latest Gutenprint also supports several newer Canon printers. Lexmark supports only a few models with closed-source drivers, and these are not easy to install on most recent distributions.

[edit] Which to buy?

By way of comparison, the Gutenprint Epson driver uses better dithering techniques and produces very good color quality on printers for which it has mature support. Basic color tuning adjustments are fairly flexible in Gimp-Print, and an improved color model with full-blown profile support is being planned. HP's driver offers less advanced dithering techniques and fewer adjustments, but with fairly uniform color quality across all the printers it supports.
HP devices generally use integrated ink-and-printhead cartridges; these are a clear plus if you print in clog-inducing ways (ie very infrequently, or in dusty environments). OTOH, if you do clog, with the HPs you had to use awkward button presses to run a clean or test cycle, currently you can initiate the cleaning cycles by simple mouse clicks in the HP Toolbox of HPLIP. On HP's multi-function devices with alpha-numeric display you can also use front panel menues to clean and check the nozzles.
Epson printers has permanent piezo nozzles. As you cannot change them the printer will get unusable if it is so heavily clogged that the printer-internal cleaning mechanisms do not work any more. To initiate the nozzle cleaning Gimp-Print includes command-line-based cleaning/loading/testing software and an alternative software with graphical user interface is available: MTink. Furthermore, for many Epsons alternative special-purpose inks are available (archival, greyscale, altered gamuts, etc), as well as more options for refilling and continuous-feed systems. In most cases, the Epson arrangement is better; at the cost of some simple regular maintenance you get a more flexible and capable device.
Epson devices generally produce better photo output; this is especially true when using the Gimp-Print driver. HP devices are generally held to produce better text output, although with the latest models, Epson has caught up to HP's text abilities.

[edit] Inkjet Recommendations

Low cost: Please note that we strongly suggest skipping the "low cost" bracket entirely in favour of one of the "good" options. These cheap printers are generally slow, flimsy, and expensive to operate.
Epson's Stylus C4x series are tolerable low-cost devices. The Stylus C6x series is a somewhat better device for a little more.
HP's low-end 33xx-, 34xx-, 36xx-, and 37xx-series inkjets work poorly and are not recommended, so if you like to have a cheap HP inkjet you should at least take one of the 38xx series.
Good: Epson's best inkjet for general Linux use is Epson's Stylus C8x series. This is a fast CMYK printer capable of quite good photo output as well as exceptional text and plain paper output. It uses pigment inks and is not subject to the fading dye problems of previous Epson models.
Several of HP's DeskJets are also good choices: 5740, 6540, or 6840.
For a six-color photo-oriented device, try the Stylus Photo R200/R300, and for best results the CMYKRB (with red and blue ink) Stylus Photo R800 (A4/Letter)/R1800 (A3). Note that you need at least Gutenprint 5.x for the CMYKRB models. Gutenprint also supports direct CD printing on the Epsons.
Or have a look at HP's Photosmart 7xxx, or 8xxx models. They support up to A3-sized border-less (with HPLIP) printing, up to 8 inks (CMYcmKkk, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, light cyan, light magenta, blacK, light black, extra light black), access to memory cards, direct printing from memory cards (DPOF) and USB cameras (PictBridge) and sometimes even duplex. Alternatively, some of the regular DeskJets support an optional photo cartridge for six color printing; the results should be the same (at least as the 6-ink mode of the PhotoSmarts) as many modern HP's have in principle the same printing engine but with different extra features (photo card reader, scanner, duplex, ...) around it.
Multifunction: Multifunctions are generally a combination of scanner and printer, sometimes with a fax modem; they work as a copier, printer, fax machine, and scanner.
For a working multifunction device, consider the Epson Stylus CX (4-ink) and RX (6-ink photo) series which simply work as separate USB printers and scanners (Gimp-Print/Gutenprint or PIPS plus SANE backend "epson" or Epson's (not completely free) IScan, kernel 2.4.21 or newer needed); or one of the HP OfficeJet or PSC devices supported by HPLIP (or the older HPOJ if your distro does not have HPLIP yet) such as the PSC 2xxx series with flatbed scanner, the PhotoSmart 26xx/27xx series with flatbed scanner and card reader/PictBridge, or the OfficeJet 6xxx/7xxx/9xxx series with fax, scanner with automatic document feeder (ADF) or combined flatbed/ADF scanner.
The free software support for other brands is very bad, for several devices you get only the printing part working, as it is compatible to a print-only-device for which a driver is available. The built-in scanner works only in very rare cases, as for example for the Lexmark X70 and X73. Some manufacturers offer proprietary drivers which also cover scanning, like Brother.
Big: Most of the wide format Epson Styli, including the Stylus Photo R1800 (the 13x19 format version of the R800, need Gutenprint 5.x), and the Stylus Colors 1520 and 3000 (both 17x22 CMYK printers) are supported well.
Most of Epson's large format printers are supported by the current releases of the Gimp-Print driver. The Epson Stylus Pro 7000, 7500, and 7600 (A1, 24 inches wide) work well; Till tested these himself. Their A0/36-inch equivalents should work as well. The other models are also supported by Gimp-Print/Gutenprint but perhaps need some tuning. We need to hear from people with access to these printers for tesing.
HP's current inkjet printers up to A3 size are all supported by HPLIP/HPIJS, examples are the DeskJet 9800 (6-ink photo) and the Business Inkjet 2600 and 2800 series (4-ink, 4 separately changeable cartridges).
HP's DesignJets are not well supported by free software. A few are reputed to work, but we have too few reports to recommend them. Probably here it is better to look for models with built-in PostScript interpreter.

[edit] Monochrome Lasers

As with inkjets, many vendors do not offer much support for the use of free software with their printers. Fortunately, many lasers work anyway, since many are sold to businesses and therefore need to offer some degree of compatibility with a wider range of software.
Many vendors have product lines that are well engineered and very compatible with free software. Brother and Lexmark both have built their own Postscript interpreter codebase and thus tend to produce lower cost and higher quality printer firmware than many competitors. Both companies have also shown a willingness to assist free software developers. Brother provided documentation to Ghostscript driver authors for several of its low end, non-PCL/Postscript lasers. Lexmark's Optra division wins the gold star; nearly every printer has extensive technical documentation available from its web page, not to mention a complete GNU/Linux software package for a number of popular distributions.

Low Cost

Worthwhile lasers begin around $200; at that price level you have several choices. For personal use, anything over $450 or so is probably unnecessary. Lasers priced under this level are generally reduced capability PCL devices, or use a proprietary language. Many low cost lasers use bizzarely expensive refills, but even so work out much better per page than inkjets.

Kyocera's entry level model FS-820 works with free software due to its PCL-6 emulation and the FS-1020D already has a PostScript interpreter. Kyocera is in general a good choice, as not only all printers hava a permanent imaging drum and therefore low per-page costs, but most of them understand at least PCL, many PostScript. Unfortunately, there are some host-based printers which do not understand standard languages as for example the FS-720.
Kyocera makes the PPD files for their PostScript printers available as free software. You get them here on OpenPrinting.
Samsung also produces cheap laser printers which work smoothly with free software. Some devices, such as the ML-4500, use proprietary protocols, but work well because Samsung has published a free driver for them. All of their current printers are delivered with Linux printer drivers and graphical configuration utility (BrightQ) for CUPS and LPD/LPRng. There is also a very good free third-party driver for the more recent (SPL2) monchrome and the color (SPLc) laser printers, SpliX.
Most of Brother's laser printers know PCL or PostScript, some use a proprietary protocol, but they usually work with the "hl7x0" GhostScript driver, which was developed with Brother's help. The PCL printers have odd resolutions which need PJL commands to be activated and also some extra features accessible by PJL commands. Some of these features are supported by the "hl1250" Ghostscript driver (included in ESP Ghostscript and GPL Ghostscript 8.60 or newer).
Brother by themselves publish (proprietary) CUPS/LPD drivers and PostScript PPD files on their Linux drivers site. Also SANE drivers for the scanners in the multi-function devices can be found here.
Drum and toner are separately exchangeable on Brother's laser printers.
HP is the king of the laser printer market, although their domination is not really built on low cost devices. Already their cheapest lasers, the LaserJet 1010/1012/1015 understand PCL and work with free software. The incompatibility in the PCL of these printers which often let them crash ("Unsuppported Personality: PCL" problem) was worked around in a simple hack on the "pxlmono" GhostScript driver ("pxl1010") and short time later in HP's HPIJS driver.
The cheap LaserJet 1000/1005/1020 principally work with free software, too, but they need their firmware uploaded from the computer everytime when they are turned on. This makes their setup much more complicated.
The other models understand standard PCL or PostScript and therefore work with usual GhostScript drivers or HP's PPD files, for example the entry level of PostScript printers currently is the LaserJet 1320.
HP makes the PPD files for their PostScript printers available as free software. You get them here on linuxprinting.org.
Note that HP's consumables are combined drum and toner units, which make running an HP laser somewhat more expensive.

Mid-range: Mid-range lasers are typically sold for use by "workgroups". From about $700 on the low end to about $3000 on the high end you have a complete spectrum of 1200dpi devices with ever more speed and paper tray capacity. Almost all devices in this market speak fully documented strains of PCL, PJL, and PostScript; thus almost all of them work quite well with free software. HP is the biggest player here; others give more bang for the buck: Lexmark, for example, usually offers slightly faster printers with rather better firmware at each pricepoint. Kyocera printers have permanent drums and reduce per-page expenses this way and Epson and Brother have at least separately changeable drum and toner (avoid the Epson "...L" models here, as their proprietary protocols are not fully supported yet). Religious wars are waged on the topic of who has better mechanisms; no good answer can be given on that question.
The main thing you need to use a printer in this class effectively is a good "PPD" printer description file. Most vendors will include this file somewhere in the drivers they ship; often you can also find it on the vendor website. HP, Kyocera, Epson, OCE, Okidata, Sharp, and Ricoh+Partners (brands Gestetner, Infotec, Lanier, NRG, Ricoh, Savin) even have released their PPDs under free licenses and therefore they are also available here on linuxprinting.org and also in some distributions. CUPS and PPR support PostScript printers with PPD files natively, Foomatic gives full support for these printers with any spooler or even without spooler.

[edit] Color Lasers

The time of color laser printers being only available as expensive high-end enterprise-level devices is over. There are already many devices well under $1000.

Note that most low-end color lasers have proprietary protocols, which are not (Epson AcuLaser 900/1000, works with proprietary Epson driver PIPS) or not perfectly (Minolta/QMS magicolor 2200DL) working with free software. But there is also a series of models for which the manufacturer supplies excellent free drivers, the (Konica) Minolta/QMS magicolor DL series. Get the drivers here

Others offer PostScript also in the cheap range, for example HP's Color LaserJet 2550L and Minolta's magicolor 2450.

Workgroup and high-end color laser printers usually understand PostScript and so they can easily be set up with the manufacturer-supplied PPD file.

[edit] High-End Printers

For high printing volumes of bigger departments and special demands (as stapling, folding, envelope-packing, binding, ...) there are high-end black-and-white and color laser printers which do more than 30 pages per minute, have capacity for more than 2000 sheets and special finishing units. These printers usually have a built-in PostScript interpreter and so they work all "Perfectly" when one uses the PPD file coming with the printer's Windows/Mac drivers, from the manufacturer's web site, or from here on linuxprinting.org. The PPD files can be directly used with CUPS or PPR as spooler or with Foomatic and any other spooler. With these environments you can access to all options (all which you also get offered under proprietary operating systems) of your printer by a graphical interface (e. g. kprinter, XPP or GPR).

Many of these printers are multifunction devices which also copy and scan. Not all of these integrated scanners are supported, but some are perfectly supported because they are operated via a web interface, FTP, or e-mail, and so they are independent of the operating system. You should check this when buying a high-end multifunction device.

For higher colour volumes there are not only lasers, but also dye sublimation, solid ink, thermal transfer and other printer types. The higher end models are usually PostScript printers. Check whether the interpreter is really built into the hardware, otherwise you will have a very expensive "Paperweight".

For paper formats bigger than A3 or 11x17 there are mostly inkjet printers. See the "Colour Inkjets" section. Kyocera produces even some monochrome LED-electrophotographic large format multi-function devices (printer/plotter/scanner/copier), printing will work on the PostScript models, but we have no reports about them.

[edit] Manufactures' Support for Linux and Free Software.

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