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I still have working HP LaserJet 4+ which I turned into "4M+" by adding a PostScript card (not cartridge but card) and a network card (I'd also add more RAM to

I still have working HP LaserJet 4+ which I turned into "4M+" by adding a PostScript card (not cartridge but card) and a network card (I'd also add more RAM to these printers). Once done, you can "netcat" a .ps file directly to the printer's IP. There's beauty in that. I mean, you literally send a postscript file over the ethernet wire and the printer starts printing it. No need for any printer driver. Sure, you don't get a spooler and errors can be ugly (as in printing garbage on lots of pages if you're not quick to stop it) but netcat'ing a PostScript file to a native PostScript printer still feels, today, deeply elegant. I've got a few of these: they were fantastic printers (but sadly only 600 DPI). Some of mine have printed more than 300 000 pages and are still going strong. I hadn't done any PostScript programming in a very long time but the other day I made a game for kids at my kid's school: an hexagonal grid with one letter per hexagon and then kids have to find all the kids' names in the grid... I wrote some Clojure code to generate... A .ps file. Because why not. P.S: as a bonus these LaserJet printer can be made to display the famous "PC LOAD LETTER" message.

hakfoo 4y ago
I had a 5 with a comically low page count (probably < 30,000) but switched because it was very slow (although seemingly equipped with a large amount of memory) and a string of problems with the available aftermarket cartridges (ghosting that suggested low-quality or worn-out drums, and I assume they aren't really making NEW ones anymore). I suspect the modern driver ecosystem just rasterizes everything and sends a dumb 92Mb bitmap instead, because even a $19 inkjet printer that can only buffer a single line of inbound data can handle it.