What makes a printer linux compatible?

I'm using cups/samba. In cups the printers are setup as a raw printer. Every so often we purchase a new HP printer that will not work properly. If I do a standard lpr print job that works with every other printer iee... "lpr -Pprinter /etc/hosts" for example.. This printer has activity seems to take the job but never print it then goes back to idle.

So my question is, what specifications do I need to abide by when purchasing printers to work on my network?

Printer support is about the connection type (e.g. USB) and tje postscript to printer language filter. Anything else is probably CUPS (or lpr-ng or lpd) misconfiguration.

Check linuxprinting.org from the Linux Foundation for support information.

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These days, printers boil down to (essentially) three modes. Raw (line printers/dot matrix and the like), PCL (HP's Printer Control Language...has several versions), and Postscript (again, several versions). If you want BASIC printing, like you describe, you'll need to figure out which standard your printer supports. While a printer may RECEIVE data, it won't render a page until you give it the command/page end/stroke needed to do it, hence the different standards. How it physically connects is (almost) immaterial. A WiFi connected printer is still a NETWORK printer. 99.9% of the time, it'll print to the de-facto standard port of 9100, set by HP years ago with their JetDirect product line. USB/serial/parallel port connections will be easily detected by most Linux distros. Most importantly, check the vendors website to see if they have Linux drivers/PPD files already available. For example, many of the Canon and Ricoh multifunction copiers have PPD driver files. These drivers let you pick the paper tray/output bin/staple/collate/etc....any function you can access via the front panel of the device.

Most HP printers are supported via the HPLIP project, and feature device options that are similar. Some support scanning, faxing, etc. Check http://www.linuxfoundation.org/colla...s/openprinting for details.
Sorry, but that's wrong. Support is for the printer itself...bins/output/features. How it connects hardly matters at all, and not all printers support Postscript. CUPS is a METHOD of setting up printers, no matter if they're postscript, PCL, or raw.

This site: Linux printers might help with your printer search by providing reviews. Openprinting.org is OK but it tends to be out-of-date and many of the printers are no longer available for purchase.

Nothing about the printer itself will guarantee compatibility, only the presence of a native Linux driver like HPLIP or drivers from the Canon, Epson, or Brother websites for example. Also many laser printers are well-supported because they use simple communication protocols.

Hope this helps.

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