@stevelieber

My main concern is drivers for different OS platforms.

I would also want ad hoc wifi connection to smartphones and tablets.

I still find laser printers SO much more maintenance free if black on white is what you need, even if the manufacturer lock ins were not there. Inkjet heads clog if unused.

@Chancerubbage @stevelieber as you might expect for being based on a Pi, it states it's hosting a CUPS server, so you don't really need drivers.

Internet Printing Protocol is already the ‘native’ print language of macOS and Linux, and Windows has had support since at least XP (I think is now the ‘preferred’ system even?). If your system can print it can probably already print to it driverlessly.

@purple @stevelieber

Thanks for the info.

I never have been sure of progress in the personal printer space since I haven’t really seriously wrestled with them in 25 years, except for the occasional frustration of preplanned obsolescence amongst Hp and Epson since

I wish they had a mode where they would print a test page just often enough to keep the print heads from drying out. As it was for my once or twice a year ‘needs’ I had to buy carts EVERYTIME I PRINTED .

It scarred me.

@purple @stevelieber

25 years ago drivers and fonts were still an issue, especially if you were not using Wintel.

@Chancerubbage @stevelieber yeah, and to be fair they still kinda can be for some complicated do everything machines, but for regular printing it's remarkably close to a solved problem (y'know, as much as printing ever can be).

OS X was the big motivator really, the break from classic MacOS: Apple didn't want to make/port their own drivers for things, and manufacturers found themselves with this userbase they couldn't entirely ignore that they didn't particularly want to spend money on, and so CUPS and IPP kinda worked out for everyone, especially when CUPS was already used on UNIX workstations (and of course Linux).

Initially it was a matter of translation layers, then printers just did IPP directly. That's also why your average printer switched to connecting over ethernet or WiFi: it's all TCP/IP traffic anyway, why get USB involved.

@purple @stevelieber

Mildly related : Cricut, a paper and materials cutting and folding tool, pretty much can no longer be used without a subscription to their template website.

There are alternatives. But alternatives don’t get retail accounts.