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Almost every printer sold in the last decade supports IPP Everywhere, which has robust support on Windows, macOS, Linux, *BSD, ChromeOS, Android, and anything t

Almost every printer sold in the last decade supports IPP Everywhere, which has robust support on Windows, macOS, Linux, *BSD, ChromeOS, Android, and anything that can run CUPS. It's completely driverless, too.

kristopolous 4y ago
And oh man does it have issues. Oftentimes you have to do SNMP. Take scanning for instance, many devices will just give you compressed JPEGs over their HTTP interface without any option for choosing otherwise Now they'll claim you can specify it a variety of ways such as picking the document type, but they'll just ignore you. I forget all the permutations but I tried them all. I've had to reverse engineer their windows program from pcap files to get the real protocol I've spent a good deal of time in cups supporting these systems. Reminds me that I'll need to convince cups to take my fixes somehow (which first requires me to convince them this is real; not as easy as you think because there's lots of hardware variance - you can't just reproduce random printer X and then I have to convince them that the XML documentation of claimed support is either incorrect or useless; then I'll have to convince them that SNMP is the way to go, then and only then, if I walk that tightrope can I put forth my solution ; gotta love the ceremony).
- darkwater 4y ago
  > And oh man does it have issues. Oftentimes you have to do SNMP. Take scanning for instance, many devices will just give you compressed JPEGs over their HTTP interface without any option for choosing otherwise Just one data point (mine) but I have one of the cheapest HP Deskjet you can buy with scanner included, it works smoothly, no actions needed via wifi with Linux, I can set the DPI, save it as PNG or PDF, it's wonderful.
  - kristopolous 4y ago
    Brother is one of the biggest offenders here I've found. I've also found an HP with an issue as well but I haven't diagnosed it. I'm typing this from my bed on a phone so sorry I don't have the references on me What's your model?
    - baq 4y ago
      Interesting since past printer threads highlighted Brother as a reliable brand. Anecdotally I've got a ~10 year old Brother laser printer+scanner and it still works great, but needs a Brother app to print from Apple devices since it doesn't support the new standard protocol.
      - kristopolous 4y ago
        Reliability and compatibility are separate dimensions. if the driverless tool and avahi tools can't find your printer then yes, you're living in hell and have dreams of a USB serial printer you can simply cat PDFs to. We'll probably get flying cars before we get another interface as reasonable as a line printer from 50 years ago
    - darkwater 4y ago
      > What's your model? HP DeskJet 2630, it's like 4 years old.
oynqr 4y ago
They might support it, but few actually run the validation suite for IPP Everywhere. My Epson printer ignores specified orientations and shits itself when you specify print quality. Another certified HP printer of mine does just fine.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  I've been using cheap Brother and HP printers exclusively because my printing needs are simple, and I've been pleasantly surprised how well supported they are on computers and phones. This might be a Bluetooth-esque tragedy of poor vendor/driver/client/server/etc implementations ruining a good thing for some users.

kristopolous 4y ago

And oh man does it have issues. Oftentimes you have to do SNMP. Take scanning for instance, many devices will just give you compressed JPEGs over their HTTP interface without any option for choosing otherwise Now they'll claim you can specify it a variety of ways such as picking the document type, but they'll just ignore you. I forget all the permutations but I tried them all. I've had to reverse engineer their windows program from pcap files to get the real protocol I've spent a good deal of time in cups supporting these systems. Reminds me that I'll need to convince cups to take my fixes somehow (which first requires me to convince them this is real; not as easy as you think because there's lots of hardware variance - you can't just reproduce random printer X and then I have to convince them that the XML documentation of claimed support is either incorrect or useless; then I'll have to convince them that SNMP is the way to go, then and only then, if I walk that tightrope can I put forth my solution ; gotta love the ceremony).

darkwater 4y ago
> And oh man does it have issues. Oftentimes you have to do SNMP. Take scanning for instance, many devices will just give you compressed JPEGs over their HTTP interface without any option for choosing otherwise Just one data point (mine) but I have one of the cheapest HP Deskjet you can buy with scanner included, it works smoothly, no actions needed via wifi with Linux, I can set the DPI, save it as PNG or PDF, it's wonderful.
- kristopolous 4y ago
  Brother is one of the biggest offenders here I've found. I've also found an HP with an issue as well but I haven't diagnosed it. I'm typing this from my bed on a phone so sorry I don't have the references on me What's your model?
  - baq 4y ago
    Interesting since past printer threads highlighted Brother as a reliable brand. Anecdotally I've got a ~10 year old Brother laser printer+scanner and it still works great, but needs a Brother app to print from Apple devices since it doesn't support the new standard protocol.
    - kristopolous 4y ago
      Reliability and compatibility are separate dimensions. if the driverless tool and avahi tools can't find your printer then yes, you're living in hell and have dreams of a USB serial printer you can simply cat PDFs to. We'll probably get flying cars before we get another interface as reasonable as a line printer from 50 years ago
  - darkwater 4y ago
    > What's your model? HP DeskJet 2630, it's like 4 years old.

oynqr 4y ago

They might support it, but few actually run the validation suite for IPP Everywhere. My Epson printer ignores specified orientations and shits itself when you specify print quality. Another certified HP printer of mine does just fine.

heavyset_go 4y ago
I've been using cheap Brother and HP printers exclusively because my printing needs are simple, and I've been pleasantly surprised how well supported they are on computers and phones. This might be a Bluetooth-esque tragedy of poor vendor/driver/client/server/etc implementations ruining a good thing for some users.