Hi Everyone i consider to by a printer that works with Linux, it will be used to print some dokuments and photos, not to expensive, i have never owned a printer so i rely dont know much about them and i heard printers on Linux are problematic . any advice would be great .Regards Mikael
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The brand isn’t a major issue.
I would, however, recommend getting one with an ink tank system rather than a standard inkjet.
I know that Epson, Brother, and HP are well-supported on Linux, as I have used them myself.
In any case, almost all of them now feature Wi-Fi and don’t require drivers on Linux.
If you need to use the scanner, though, you might need drivers; I had to download them for my Epson.
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You may want to consider getting a printer call an all-in-one which includes a scanner. A scanner is handy for coping documents as well as scanning photos that you can store in your PC.
I read here on this forum that a lot of people are happy with Brother printers. I been very happy with my HP (2 of them) ink jets printers that uses a cartridge. I have had them for a long time.
I did read recently that HP printer that use a cartridge will now reject generic cartridges which cost a lot less.
Doing a quick search I saw where an Espson XP-4200 wireless printer was about $60 US dollars and a Canon TR4720 was about US $80.
As @nikk pointed out, you might want to consider cost and/or how the ink in the printer is replaced.
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I don’t do much printing, maybe a couple of pages per week. Inkjet printers kept drying up long before the ink cartridge was empty. I switched to using laser printers, HP to be specific. They are well-supported for Linux.
I avoid color lasers because 1) cost and 2) the colors don’t look very good on ordinary paper.
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Ok thanks, i read just now like Howard and nikk said that brother is good and also HP and Epson is good but then there is the ink which is very expensive many times. what is an ink tank ? is it all colors together and just put it in the printer
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Brother printers work well with aftermarket cartridges or refills, which are a lot cheaper than genuine brand name cartridges. I have used my Brother MFC printer for years with aftermarket ink.
If you want a top quality photo printer, eg some Canon models, you will have to use genuine cartridges because the inkjets are finer and will clog with aftermarket ink.
I dont know about other brands with aftermarket cartridges … someone said HP prohibits it. It depends on the fineness of the inkjet nozzles.
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I use a Brother MFC-L series printer and it works like a charm. I actually bought it because of its reputation for working well with Linux, which I can confirm.
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* TL;DR : Brother, and Laser - my recommendations (30+ years experience):
I have a Brother MFC (MFC-9334CDW) - MFC means it’s a printer, copier, scanner and fax machine (I don’t have an analog phone line so can’t use fax)…
It’s colour laser… Ethernet and WiFi (and I think USB direct - but I’ve never tried it). It does duplex printing… It doesn’t do duplex copying or scanning though…
Bought it 10 years ago now (2016)… Still going…
Had to spend about $200-250 in 2021 or 22 to get it serviced and some paper detection chip replaced - but worth it…
I don’t use the scanning feature from a PC… I scan directly to an FTP share on my NAS…
Consumables aren’t overpriced - and the toner cart models are shared across a bunch of different brother printer models… And have tried aftermarket recycled toner carts too…
It’s my 3rd Brother printer since around 1994 - previous two were monochrome lasers - first one gave up the ghost when my missus decided to use non-photocopier compatible overhead transparencies in it… Can’t remember what happened to the 2nd one…
Tried a Canon inkjet - expensive to run and unreliable, and slow…
I’ve been using printers at home since 1991 (had a Star dot matrix) : gimme laser anyday - less moving parts than inkjets - and cheaper per page than inkjets - in my opinion anyway…
And I did desktop support for 10 or so years - shonky dot matrix and inkjet printers were the bane of my life - I LOATHED THEM!
Tried a shonky Samsung colour laser (2003 or 2004?) - but when the 1/3 filled toner carts ran out - discovered that a replacement set cost DOUBLE the actual price of the printer! Ended up in landfill…
Tried a HP colour laserjet (~2007?) - back then my missus and kids were still using Windows (XP and 7) - and HP didn’t ever publish 64 bit printer drivers for Windows 7 - thanks HP - Hewlett Packard are the kings of enshittification in the printer world… I can’t remember what our work-around was - but we managed somehow to print to it from Windows 7 using the XP 32 bit driver? IT was a bit horrible - I think it would somehow on some print jobs - fill the page with black - which ate the baclk toner cart (good job HP!).
Note : had a few issues with Brother printers on Red Hat and Oracle Linux (CUPS networked printers) for one customer… I’ve tried to replicate this on a VM - and discovered that I could use a similar “numbered” model Brother and get reliable output…
But - since around Ubuntu 16 - the Ubuntu installer “magically” finds my Brother MFC automatically - and it’s there when I look - with the correct page size too… Same happened on Pop!_OS… I did run Fedora for a few weeks - but never got around to seeing if my printer was available.
* TL;DR = Too Long, Didn’t Read
P.S. Brother do “publish” Linux drivers for most of their printers - but - last time I looked - they were i386/i686 (i.e. 32 bit) - for RPM based distros (e.g. RHEL, Oracle, Fedora). This caused issues when attempting to patch a 64 bit headless server - had to remove the i686 libraries - patch - then re-install the i686 packages… I’ve NEVER needed to download their DEB packaged drivers - as Ubuntu has them “out of the box”…
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That is really what most distros need to do. Its only a few MB of disk space to include drivers for every printer.
It gets difficult in distros that are neither deb or rpm. I have unpacked deb files and installed the contents by hand … not recommended.
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Most of HPs and Brothers will work. My 3 printers worked well with CachyOS and openSUSE. So you should first decide the model per your wish; then check for Linux driver. Most probably you’ll end up buying the one you liked.
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One thing I’d consider is how often you’ll actually print photos. If it’s mostly documents with just an occasional picture, a laser printer might be worth looking at, especially if you don’t print very often. But if photo quality matters a lot, I’d lean more toward inkjet. It really depends on which you’ll use more.
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I would concur with @Mrlaura on photos…
Printing photos on 600 dpi on my colour laser? Lacklustre and flat… I wouldn’t use it for that… But I do have a nearly A4 photo of my deceased sister that I printed, framed in our dining room - and it’s not terrible quality…
But I probaly wouldn’t buy an inkjet just for that purpose… If I wanted hi quality prints of digital photos - I’d probably pay a service that does that…
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A printer with ink tanks is best bet as they can be refilled unless you just want black and white then a Lazer works out cheaper over time
Print scan and photocopy 3 in one ideal
On to make and mark
I only ever recommend Epson it’s what I buy and never had an issue same goes for my clients
Others
Brother make great typewriter
Cannon make great camera
HP good computer
All 3 make great door stops when they don’t work before going to the bin !
Everyone on this site will have a different story to tell but bottom line they are all much the same
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