In the face of the unsatisfactory situation regarding printing on the Amiga platform (classic & NG), I'm dreaming of an update for TurboPrint with support for at least some of the latest printer models.
TurboPrint for Linux is still being actively developed and currently at version 2.40-1. It's printer driver page was last amended on May 26th, 2016, and provides lots of drivers for Brother, Canon, Epson and HP printers.
Given the great amount of Linux (or Unix) software titles that have been ported to the Amiga in the course of the recent years, I really ask myself why noone so far has tried to get the latest "TurboPrint for Linux" printer drivers ported to the Amiga TurboPrint version?
And even if the Linux printer drivers should not be usable for the Amiga version of TurboPrint - why has noone tried to obtain a permission from IrseeSoft to port the latest Linux version incl. drivers to Amiga OS (classic & NG)?
Ciao, Dandy ----------------------------------------------------------- If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him. He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him! (...
I really ask myself why noone so far has tried to get the latest "TurboPrint for Linux" printer drivers ported to the Amiga TurboPrint version?
I assuming TurboPrint stopped producing Amiga versions because they didn't sell well enough (not enough interest). What reason can you give TurboPrint that they should take a risk & try again?
Quote:
why has noone tried to obtain a permission from IrseeSoft to port the latest Linux version incl. drivers to Amiga OS (classic & NG)?
Because it would cost money?
P.S. Personally I think we need an (Libre) Office Suite port, before it's even worth thinking about new printer drivers. A modern office suite might give people a reason to spend money & buy new printer drivers...
it's not that hard. you start a CUPS server on the rpi, set it up for the printer connected, note the IP address of the rpi, and use the postscript workbench driver in conjunction with ipp.device and voila!
-- eliyahu
"Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. When the laws do not operate, there is no reality. All of this is unreal."
I emailed the Turboprint linux developers, this was their reply. (Point of note is, I didn't ask for the source, I suggested offering an AOS4.x developer the chance to work under an NDA.
Dear Allan,
thank you for your feedback!
The development of TurboPrint/Amiga has ended and we don't actively support AmigaOS 4.x. According to reports from customers it should be possible to use TurboPrint on Amiga OS 4.1 but I am not sure about installation & hardware requirements.
I'm sorry but we cannot provide TurboPrint/Amiga source code because of non-disclosure agreements with printer manufacturers.
I assuming TurboPrint stopped producing Amiga versions because they didn't sell well enough (not enough interest). What reason can you give TurboPrint that they should take a risk & try again?
I did not mean to persuade THEM to resume TurboPrint development. Chiefly I meant to find out if the new drivers for Linux TurboPrint can somehow be used with the Amiga TurboPrint version. Or what would be necessary to make them work with Amiga TurboPrint.
Quote:
Original by ChrisH:
Because it would cost money?
They charge money just for answering some questions???
Ciao, Dandy ----------------------------------------------------------- If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him. He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him! (...
Buy a Raspberry Pi, £25, and print via it using the PostScript driver. Ta-da! No more printer driver problems ever.
Is having to buy another computer the standard method nowadays to be able to print from an Amiga? I have a weak remembrance that all I needed to do was to select the correct printer driver for my printer in TurboPrint...
Ciao, Dandy ----------------------------------------------------------- If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him. He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him! (...
to print pdf or text file I use the eprint function of my printer..
I'm not sure if I know what the "eprint function" is or if my printer has it. And how do you print graphics and photos?
Ciao, Dandy ----------------------------------------------------------- If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him. He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him! (...
@eliyahu Unfortunately, for the average user, what you wrote will look something like this: Quote:
it's not that hard. you start a MANGLED TEACUP on the defibrillating equation, set it up for the printer connected, note the ANGLED inflater of the defibrillating equation, and use the regular pulse generator in conjunction with overdrive setting and voila!
P.S. That's not a criticism of you, but rather of the complexity of what needs doing. Never mind that you left out the whole "install & set-up Linux" on the Pi, which is probably a page of techno babble itself.
@Dandy Quote:
They charge money just for answering some questions???
No, it's costs money to get a contract (aka "permission") to port commercial software.
it's not that hard. you start a CUPS server on the rpi, set it up for the printer connected, note the IP address of the rpi, and use the postscript workbench driver in conjunction with ipp.device and voila!
To buy a new computer and to learn Linux from the scratch to be able to download all required components and install them on the new device is not "that hard"?
For me it is too hard and time consuming to be acceptable.
I once tried to download the required Linux components to run Linux APUS on my CSPPC and gave up this idea very quickly after getting lost among all those different bootstraps and God-knows-what else...
Nah - THAT cannot be the solution for my printing needs on my Amiga! That is not acceptable! I'd rather send my good old Epson Stylus Color 600 to the Epson service and get it repaired so I can easily use it again as network printer to print with TurboPrint from my Miggie...
Ciao, Dandy ----------------------------------------------------------- If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him. He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him! (...
To buy a new computer and to learn Linux from the scratch to be able to download all required components and install them on the new device is not "that hard"?
For me it is too hard and time consuming to be acceptable.
I once tried to download the required Linux components to run Linux APUS on my CSPPC and gave up this idea very quickly after getting lost among all those different bootstraps and God-knows-what else...
It'll be much much easier than that.
Image an SD card with Raspbian sudo apt-get cups {think there's some config which needs changing to connect to CUPS remotely} plug your printer in You'll probably want to set a static IP address too
On the Amiga side, install ipp.device Open Printer Prefs Select ipp.device and the Postscript driver
That's pretty much it. There are detailed guides to setting up a Pi as a dedicated print server which are easy to follow even if you know nothing about Linux.
I'm not saying it's the best solution, but it is the easiest and most compatible way to print from OS4 at this point in time.
The alternative is to buy a network-enabled printer which supports PS. You should be able to use the native Postscript driver without the Pi in the middle.
Image an SD card with Raspbian sudo apt-get cups {think there's some config which needs changing to connect to CUPS remotely} plug your printer in You'll probably want to set a static IP address too
On the Amiga side, install ipp.device Open Printer Prefs Select ipp.device and the Postscript driver
That's pretty much it. There are detailed guides to setting up a Pi as a dedicated print server which are easy to follow even if you know nothing about Linux.
I'm not saying it's the best solution, but it is the easiest and most compatible way to print from OS4 at this point in time.
Well, that's not exactly what I'd call easy. To plug in the printer and to select the proper driver in TP - THAT's what I'd call easy.
Quote:
Original by Chris:
The alternative is to buy a network-enabled printer which supports PS. You should be able to use the native Postscript driver without the Pi in the middle.
For me the best alternative seems to be to send my defunct Stylus Color 600 to the Epson service and get it repaired, as it actually IS network-enabled and can be connected to my router and can also be used from WinPCs and my A4kPPC with TurboPrint.
If I would buy a new printer I would need TurboPrint drivers for it. On the Linux side TP actuslly HAS those drivers, so the idea came up in me it might possibly, perhaps, with a little bit of luck, be possible to "persuade" those Linux-TP drivers to work with Amiga TP.
I doubt that PostScript offers the same functionality as TurboPrint. Does it e.g. support printing posters? Or does it have a brilliant color management like TP? Or does it have a kind of "snpping tool" like TP?
I own a registered copy of the last Amiga version of TP and I'd like to benefit from TP tools like "Graphic Publisher" further on!
And of course I'm mainly talking about using TP with OS 3.9, but OS 4.x could also benefit from TP. As far as I read it also runs with OS 4.x ... there's "just" the lack of drivers for new printers on the Amiga side.
Ciao, Dandy ----------------------------------------------------------- If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him. He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him! (...
Hi, TurboPrint 7.60 has a PCL driver, which means it will work with modern printers that can use it, in TP prefs I selected HP_DeskJet5550 as it uses the PCL driver and has hi-resolution settings (4800dpi).
I've used this with an HP2575 all-in-one (now faulty), but am currently using a HP OfficeJet Pro 8615, though I wish I'd bought something smaller, in TP prefs/config I found that a paper type has to be selected as "auto" crashed things.
Both of these were/are network connected using lpr.device, so things aren't quite as bad as they appear. Draby
Sometimes using a printer over CUPS like that isn't really doable, for example I need my non-Postscript printer connected to my Windows machine in order to use the carefully controlled colour management workflow I have set up. I guess I could unplug it and reconnect it every time I want to print something from the Amiga but it's hardly convenient. Under XP I could set up a virtual PostScript printer under Windows and share that for the Amiga to use, but that same method doesn't work under Windows 7.
Besides, when I did have it working under XP, it was only of limited use since Wordworth wouldn't print to it without substituting all the fonts for terrible ones, and printing raw text would cut characters off, regardless of the margin settings.
I'm sure some people have managed to get a working setup along the lines of what I'm trying to do, but the time and effort I've already poured into it means it's not worth bothering with. Perhaps some day we'll have a refresh of our printing system, but until then all my printing has to happen under Windows or Linux.
I don´t think that anybody here wants to hinder you trying to get the TP-Linux drivers working with TP-Amiga. I rather think that you won´t have any success with it.
It´s a pity that Irsee won´t do us the favour to update TP-Amiga to the level of TP-Linux. Maybe enough money would change this, so if you would be so kind to spend them several 100000 €...
I doubt if most users have the time or inclination to mess about with a Raspberry Pi, unless it was made almost plug'n'play: What's really needed is a pre-configured Linux image that has a simple Wizard which asks you the few questions needed to configure CUPS for your printer & network...
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