10. Printing
10.1 Which Printer to Use
First check to see if your printer is supported by Linux. Most Epson,
HP, and Canon printers will be supported, though there are
some cheap printers which have less hardware hence need special software
to simulate the hardware. This special software isn't generally available for
Linux, so you cannot use these printers. But I would not
recommend you buy these types of printer anyway since their performance is
less than normal printers.
You can find the list of printers that are supported by GNU/linux at
linuxprinting.org.
I have used RH 7.3 and a HP 810c Printer here as an
example.
10.2 Connecting the Printer to the Computer
After choosing the printer, check how it connects to the computer; that is
which interface it uses, eg.USB (universal serial bus) or parallel
port. Most printers use parallel port, but modern printers
generally have both options. My printer (HP 810c) can be connected to the computer by
parallel port or USB - I chose the parallel port interface. After
connecting the printer comes the software part.
10.3 Installing Printer
A standard installation of Red Hat (any version from 6.1) will contain
the required software for installing the printer, but old versions of the
software can be difficult to configure. Here I will focus on RH 7.1 to Rh
7.3 using KDE, though it can also be done from GNOME.
10.3.1 Configuration Program
Now to install printer do the following:
-
In KDE click the `kontrol panel' on the desktop and then click
`Printer Configuration'.
-
Click `New' and a printer configuration wizard will appear (In RH
7.1 and 7.2 a wizard will not appear but a new window will appear, however
the procedure is almost the same).
-
Next you have to specify the kind of printer that you want to add, that is
`Network Printer' or `local Printer'. Choose local printer
since the printer is attached to the machine from where you are
configuring it. You have to also specify a name to identify the
printer. A name must only have alphabet characters, numbers, "_" (i.e underscore
) and "-"(i.e hyphen). Now click `New'.
-
If it is a normal printer the interface it uses will be automatically
detected. If not, specify it. For example if it is on the first parallel
port it will be
/dev/lp0, if it is in the second parallel port it
will be /dev/lp1 and so on. Now click `Next'.
-
Next choose the driver for your printer from the given list, you will find
drivers for most normal printers. Different brands of printers (like HP, Canon,
Epson, etc) are listed; choose the appropriate brand and then expand it by clicking the
`arrow' at the left side of the brand name or double clicking the
brand name.
-
Choose your printer from the list and expand it to find the
driver. Now, you may find more than one driver has been created for your printer
by different people. Generally choose the driver supported by
your brand, eg. the driver named "hpijs" is supported by HP and although other
drivers also work "hpijs" works better.
-
Next click `Finish' and you will be back to the main window. Now
click `Apply' and then choose `Save Changes' from File in
the main menu. ( i.e `File>Save Changes').
-
Now choose `Restart lpd' from File in the main menu (i.e `File
>Restart lpd'). It will restart the printer daemon or process and
your system will be ready for printing.
-
You can test if the installation of printer was successful by selecting
`test' in the main menu.
If you have trouble setting up the printer, you can use
The Linux Printing HOWTO for help
in troubleshooting.
This document was generated
on March, 5 2003
using texi2html