I was about to throw it in the recycling/trash, but I just couldn't accept that a perfectly fine hardware was crippled because the software was not updated to work on the latest macOS versions. Perplexity pointed me to Gutenprint and it worked wonderfully! The only thing that doesn't work is the scanner functionality.
that was after the win16 to win32 transition when every single cutting edge tech Sony product I owned, many of them quite expensive (and designed for win98/winME because that was cutting edge), stopped working. I've never bought anything Sony since, and no regrets.
Some time later, Sony Pictures wanted something from me and I said, "I boycott Sony" and they said "we're a different company" and I said "change your trademark then, that's the whole point of trademark, reputation"
Do you mean a LLM to write printer drivers? For that I think any of the coding LLMs should be able to help
Or do you mean using an LLM to do the raster -> FGL format translation? While I’m sure it might be possible, feels like an awful waste of resources, and when it comes to printers, you kinda want the guarantee that what comes out is the same that comes in.
Since this is a printer, I interpret those the same way as "you're not allowed to use third-party ink": I don't care.
Take a look at EPSON printer driver, which prohibits you from:
1. Sharing the printer you own with anyone else unless they agree to the license of the driver (incl. business setup)
2. Sharing the printer over the internet unconditionally, because this allows to use the driver for people who did not agree to the license
3. Incorporating the driver in any "revenue generating product or service"
https://download.ebz.epson.net/la/linux/inkjet_for_linux.htm...
1. Grant of License.
[…] provided that the Software is used (i) only in a single location (e.g., a home or office or place of business), or in the case of a mobile device, on a Device owned or otherwise controlled by you, and (ii) only in connection with Epson Hardware owned by you. You may allow other users of the Epson Hardware connected to your network to use the Software, provided that you shall ensure that such users use the Software only in accordance with this Agreement. You agree to be responsible for and indemnify Epson for liabilities incurred as a consequence of use by such users.
3. Other Rights and Limitations.
[…] Further, you agree not to place the Software onto or into a shared environment accessible via a public network such as the Internet or otherwise accessible by others outside the single location referred to in Section 1 above.
You may not rent, lease, distribute, lend the Software to third parties or incorporate the Software into a revenue generating product or service.
That being said, it would be an interesting thing to see what people would decide to send to a random printer on the internet
CUPS can send black-and-white 1 bit data, dithered. It's just a matter of proper option in a PPD file. It could also handle rotation by itself.
Other than that, pretty good and accurate article! I bet you can write the driver (filter) even in <50 lines of Python code :P
Until now I thought CUPS drivers had to be written in C in order to link against its internal APIs.
Most inexpensive Chinese thermal printers ship with blatantly GPL violating drivers and they are precompiled binaries. Which means half the time they won't work in your situation, assuming you trust their probable malware in the first place.
If you absolutely must - use a European supplier - both are banned there for thermal paper.
Such a shame, thermal printers are the only printing device I don't suspect of being a plot by Satan to tempt us into wrathful thinking. Thermal printers are insanely reliable, I've worked IT for several businesses with shipping departments and thermal label printers are less troublesome than even keyboards, I struggle to think of a class of equipment that generated less issues. I guess I should have suspected there was something devious about them, they are printers after all and all other printers I've had to support have always just been constant sources of annoying issues.
[0] https://www.pca.state.mn.us/business-with-us/bpa-and-bps-in-...
These days, we don't use this any more. First, because we now use primarily original Boca printers and are allowed to use the official drivers, and second, because we do 99% of printing from Android devices, where we also handle the protocol conversion ourselves, but it's a lot simpler without CUPS. Still, was a fun ride doing this back then!
roywashere•11mo ago