If there’s one universal constant, it’s that printers are a pain in the ass.

@maddy and the people that make them that way have names and addresses.

We need something like an OpenGL or Vulkan that works with all printers ‘cause we can’t trust any of these bastard OEMs to keep it consistent.

Oh, you bought a consumer-grade model? Guess your page description language (how your computer talks to the printer) is proprietary and only applies to this series of printer, and you’re stuck with garbage drivers.

Now, I realize there are a lot of printers that can speak PostScript (PS), but I’ve seen many that require an absurdly expensive add-on module just to enable it, and besides, fuck Adobe

Printers and their software stack are awful and cursed.

@maddy postscript is that.
printer manufacturers are just stupid

@solonovamax Postscript is great, but there’s obviously some licensing nonsense going on that makes it a paid option on many models. Ideally, I would love for there to be a universal language that’s open, but that’s clearly not in any of the major OEM’s interests.

@maddy oh! I just found that by accident the other day. It exists. It’s called IPP Everywhere.

No idea what it stands for.

@maddy @solonovamax they could just use ghostscript but they're probably just afraid of the AGPL

@bearmine I’ve run into issues with that where the paper size is set correctly, but the print won’t scale to the page properly, and the printer doesn’t report (or the computer doesn’t see) features the device is capable of properly.

@maddy I believe that. Feels like the kind of thing where the basics are all supported but there’s so much shit that it just doesn’t support everything

@bearmine I lean toward the belief that the shitass OEM is too lazy to implement it right, and would rather have the user install their bloat that usually tries to extract further funds out of them with offers of automatic ink refill, etc

Especially easy to believe with regards to HP, whom I’ve had this exact IPP experience with, on models that are supposed to ‘properly’ support it.

@maddy *why not both meme*

@bearmine [sigh] Yeah…

@maddy in this close 🤏 to never buying a printer again and just going to the library or FedEx to print things

@nico Honestly, if it’s super occasional and not high-priority, that’s what I’d recommend anyone should do.

Imo, exponentially less hassle than dealing with the devices yourself.

Getting a monochrome laser by Brother being the next best thing (if you don’t need colour prints).

@maddy I have an old Brother laser and it’s starting to jam, so the fence I’m on is “get a new drum” or whatever or just chuck it and go without