Is it necessary to add an HP printer to CUPS using the hplip URI?

Question

I recently setup a CUPS print server (Ubuntu server 12.04) and I having trouble with performance of a HP Color LaserJet Printer CP3505n. The printer pauses for about a second between printing each page, which is annoying when there is a lot of printing to be done. This doesn't happen when the printer is installed directly to a Windows client.

In an attempt to fix this I have setup the printer a couple different ways. I decided not to do a Samba share since this wiki said IPP is preferred.

First Method

• Added to HP LaserJet to CUPS as a Discovered Network Printer, and selected HP Color LaserJet cp3505 hpijs pcl3, 3.12.2 (en) driver. I did not use a hplip URI.

Second Method (hplip URI)

• I thought adding hplip to the mix might improve the performance, so I added the printer like this:

  • Ran hp-setup -m 192.168.2.60,

  • prompted to select driver

    Selected HP Color LaserJet cp3505 hpijs pcl3, 3.12.2 (en)

  • Used hplip to generate a URI: hp-makeuri 192.168.2.60

  • Then added the printer to CUPS as a Local Printer: HP Printer (HPLIP), and entered: hp:/net/HP_Color_LaserJet_CP3505?ip=192.168.2.60.

Either method I use I am able to share the printer on the network by adding a printer as http://192.168.2.2:631/printers/HP_LASER-TERRAC.

• Does it make a difference which way the printer is added cups?

  If so, and I install the printer with the hp URI, can I still change the driver using the CUPS web interface? I have been trying out different drivers to try and improve performance, and the cups interface is the easiest way to change them.

  Thanks in advance.

Solution

As far as I know hpijs will be deprecated, so I would not recommend using it. For some reason hplip software tries to use the deprecated package by default in some installs. Check this bug report in launchpad.

You can try to dowload manually the hp driver from their website, extract the package and select the PID file manually from the extracted folder.

Comments

[jpetersen]

Thanks, can you recommend some alternative drivers?