Hi,

I am looking for a decent, reliable & cheap monochrome laser printer. I do not need it to be fast or fancy, just to work well without problems and do a decent job printing text. A used model is fine.

Oh, and of course it needs to work with CUPS (I use Debian).

I realize that there must be many models which meet these criteria but since I am a printer ignoramous some pointers would be helpful.

Many thanks in advance,

VS

Any PostScript printer will work with CUPS, though often they tend to be more expensive than printers that use generic drivers. Instead of needing a driver, all you need is a plain-text ppd (PostScript printer description) file, which tells CUPS your printer's capabilities.

I have a Kyocera FS-1020D (£210 from SavaStore - depends on your definition of cheap), which offers PostScript emulation, and works fine for me (using SuSE 10). It also has built-in duplex printing, and manages 20ppm single-sided, 10ppm double-sided. It claims the lowest toner cost in its category - 7,200 pages per cartridge (£54 from Amazon) at 5% coverage, though I haven't been able to confirm this as most of my printing tends to be much higher coverage - I'm getting about 2,600. Print quality is fine for text and graphics, though flat areas of grey can be a little grainy. Overall, I would recommend it.

It would be worth your while having a look at linuxprinting.org

I have a HP LaserJet 6L that works perfectly if you can find one of them used/surplus I would say go for it. Just checked ebay and it looks like there is bunch of them for under $40 US.

I've got a HP LaserJet 1100 that I dug out of the trash at work. I'd say that qualifys as cheap it's a B&W laser printer and works with cups.

Ditto on HP. I've got an ancient LaserJet 5 but it has run flawlessly for almost 10 years now and completely satisfies my printing needs

I still refurbish HP LJ4s. If you can find one, it will work like the dickens.