Warning about Canon PIXMA iP3000/iP4000 series printers
 

We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the
first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off
quite so much on ink. The whole printer ink jet market, until now,
has been a scam, making you spend an average of $40-$60 buy new print
heads and cartridges for all three colors because one color runs out.
That is like having to replace your gas tank, fuel pump, radiator,
water pump, windshield washer tank and wiper motors, because you ran
out of gas or got too low on radiator fluid. Oh, and by the way,
there are no gauges, or transparent tanks, and no way to check the
fluid levels. Just one idiot light that says you are low on one of
your fluids. Time to replace all of the above to make sure you get
the right one.

The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate
transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level
in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head.

However, Canon is trying to make sure you pay royalties to Apple or
pay Microsoft to run on an insecure system full of spyware in order to
use their printers. There is no printer control language (PCL)
documentation or PPD files available. I called Canon's tech support
at 1-800-828-4040 and they refused to provide any technical
documentation to run their printers. Charlie, the supervisor I spoke
with, said that they did not have that information, and that to have it
would be of no use to them. I said, "Having the PCL documentation to
provide to people in the open source community so that they can write
drivers and open the market of millions of potential customers for
your printers from the NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux communities
is of no use to you?" For the most part, he kept evading questions
about his statement. He also said they write their own drivers even
though he kept claiming that they did not have the specifications to
write drivers. He said the printers are made in Japan and they are
the only ones who have the driver documentation. Yet he also claimed
to have no email address or phone number to contact the branch in
Japan.

In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and
trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in
order to use their printers.


--
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Read how Network Solutions (NSI) was involved in stealing our domain name.
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On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:44:15 -0500, Vincent wrote:

We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the
first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off
quite so much on ink. The whole printer ink jet market, until now,
has been a scam, making you spend an average of $40-$60 buy new print
heads and cartridges for all three colors because one color runs out.
That is like having to replace your gas tank, fuel pump, radiator,
water pump, windshield washer tank and wiper motors, because you ran
out of gas or got too low on radiator fluid. Oh, and by the way,
there are no gauges, or transparent tanks, and no way to check the
fluid levels. Just one idiot light that says you are low on one of
your fluids. Time to replace all of the above to make sure you get
the right one.

The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate
transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level
in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head.

I recently bought an Epson Photo R320 - it has six individual ink tanks,
and there is a utility 'mtink' which shows ink levels on the computer.
Canon is well known in the Linux community for making boat anchors.

If you do your research before you buy, you will find out exactly which
operating systems are supported.
--
Cari (MS-MVP)
Printing & Imaging



"Vincent" wrote in message
news:lcrpe.25872$DC2.6751@okepread01...
We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the
first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off
quite so much on ink. The whole printer ink jet market, until now,
has been a scam, making you spend an average of $40-$60 buy new print
heads and cartridges for all three colors because one color runs out.
That is like having to replace your gas tank, fuel pump, radiator,
water pump, windshield washer tank and wiper motors, because you ran
out of gas or got too low on radiator fluid. Oh, and by the way,
there are no gauges, or transparent tanks, and no way to check the
fluid levels. Just one idiot light that says you are low on one of
your fluids. Time to replace all of the above to make sure you get
the right one.

The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate
transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level
in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head.

However, Canon is trying to make sure you pay royalties to Apple or
pay Microsoft to run on an insecure system full of spyware in order to
use their printers. There is no printer control language (PCL)
documentation or PPD files available. I called Canon's tech support
at 1-800-828-4040 and they refused to provide any technical
documentation to run their printers. Charlie, the supervisor I spoke
with, said that they did not have that information, and that to have it
would be of no use to them. I said, "Having the PCL documentation to
provide to people in the open source community so that they can write
drivers and open the market of millions of potential customers for
your printers from the NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux communities
is of no use to you?" For the most part, he kept evading questions
about his statement. He also said they write their own drivers even
though he kept claiming that they did not have the specifications to
write drivers. He said the printers are made in Japan and they are
the only ones who have the driver documentation. Yet he also claimed
to have no email address or phone number to contact the branch in
Japan.

In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and
trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in
order to use their printers.


--
Avoid the VeriSign/Network Solutions domain registration trap!
Read how Network Solutions (NSI) was involved in stealing our domain name.
http://inetaddresses.net/about_NSI.html

On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:44:15 -0500, Vincent
wrote:

However, Canon is trying to make sure you pay royalties to Apple or
pay Microsoft to run on an insecure system full of spyware in order to
use their printers

Install Zone Alarm (free firewall) and you can have it block all
outgoing traffic from those spyware. As far as the spyware's
concerned you have a lousy internet connection and can't transmit
anything at all.
--
When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already
too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

Vincent wrote:

We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 .....

The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate
transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level
in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head.

There were earlier models that had such tanks.

In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and
trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in
order to use their printers.

Canon is, but others aren't. I discovered Turboprint has drivers for most of
the Canon models; they list the Pixma i3000, et al., as supported.

Check http://www.turboprint.de/printers.html for further information.

Al Preston

In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and
trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in
order to use their printers.

Boycotting the open source community? Me thinks you are barking up the
wrong tree.

ftp://download.canon.jp/pub/driver/bj/linux/

I see the Pixus 4100 and 3100, which are the US Pixma 4000 and 3000
respectivly. These are binary only, not open source, but they are they
do have linux drivers. I'm told they even work with the 4000R, but
I've not tested this personaly as I'm a cheap ******* and only own the
iP3000 and mP760.

BSD couldn't tell ya, but but Linux drives exist. They won't help you
install them, or at least that's what they told me, but if your running
linux/bsd you should expect this.

I also read somewhere that old mac systems require something about
installing in classic mode? I don't know what that means, but could be
worth looking into. It might mean your cruddy pos old BJ drivers might
print on it.

Even if these drivers didn't exist you could always use TurboPrint.
Sure it's not open source, sure it costs about USD$39. But it is an
option.

Vincent wrote:
We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the
first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off
quite so much on ink.

But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper.
Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free
lunch.

But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper.
Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers?
There is no free lunch.

Why not Ilford? Will Ilford not last? I have many friends who used
the S520 with Ilford paper which IIRC uses the same ink.

So it's 64c a sheet. Ilford's Galerie fetches about 60c a sheet at
the local camera shop. Costco's Kirland paper made by a *cough*
unnamed Swiss maker for 15c a sheet.

On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 14:52:56 +1200, Frederick
wrote:

But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper.
Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free
lunch.

9 out of 10 times a cheap photo paper will work. Just hang them
behind glass to prevent fading due to sunlight exposure.
--
When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already
too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net

Impmon wrote:
On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 14:52:56 +1200, Frederick
wrote:


But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper.
Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free
lunch.


9 out of 10 times a cheap photo paper will work. Just hang them
behind glass to prevent fading due to sunlight exposure.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...61,pg,3,00.asp

Not up to date with the latest printers, but you still might find it
interesting.
I think your 9 out of 10 may be optimistic, but that of course depends
on what "will work" means.