Network Printing recommendations please

[Warren Block]

On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Andy Kendall wrote:

> I've just built my 6v2 box and all is going well so far. I've read the
> manual and understand LPD and directly attached printers. The manual however
> is pretty minimal when it comes to network-based printers, (netprint), and
> only mentions LPRng and CUPS on a single page briefly. I understand this;
> it's probably because they're not direct FreeBSD products but this doesn't
> help a newb-to-FreeBSD like me. I only want to build the foundation system
> once, so, any recommendations please on what to install/configure? (Hope
> this doesn't start a bikeshed).

lpd is in the base system and works fine.  There are numerous filter 
packages that can be used with it, although setting up Ghostscript 
directly isn't too bad either.

> It's a single user system, for my own education (and enjoyment?) so it'll
> almost certainly never print any graphics or host complicated databases,
> etc. It's only got 512Mb RAM and a 10Gb HD so I don't have a huge resource
> available.

The hard drive might be a little tight, but 512M of RAM is plenty.

> The printers I have are a bullet-proof classic/HPLJ4 with internal JetDirect
> card,

This will work fine.  The Handbook shows how to set up Ghostscript so 
you can treat the printer as if it understood PostScript directly.  Many 
Unix applications produce PS output, so this is generally nice.

> and a new HPDeskjet 6980 (colour inkjet).

linuxprinting.org says that should work also.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA