4.3 Gimp-Print

Gimp-Print (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net) is a package of printer drivers for a wide variety of printers that is bundled with Mac OS X Panther. There is a Mac OS X specific GIMP-Print web site located at http://gimp-print. sourceforge .net/MacOSX.php3 (if you are using a version of Mac OS X prior to Panther, you will need to download the drivers from that site). The Gimp-Print drivers support printers from Epson, Canon, Lexmark, HP, and others. In many cases, drivers for these printers are not available from the printer manufacturer themselves . Even if drivers are available, the Gimp-Print drivers are often of better quality than those offered by the manufacturer.

4.3.1 HP InkJet Project (HPIJS)

The Hewlett-Packard InkJet Project (HPIJS) is a collection of drivers from Hewlett-Packard that has been released as open source software. Although HPIJS was originally targeted for Linux, it has been ported to Mac OS X (http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/). HPIJS supports over 200 Hewlett-Packard printer models.

Although Gimp-Print is included with Mac OS X Panther, if you find both a Gimp-Print driver and the HPIJS driver we suggest that you try both and compare the quality. For example, the only Gimp-Print driver we found for the Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet d135 was the HP New DeskJet Series CUPS v1.1 that came with Mac OS X Panther. It supports neither duplex printing nor the higher resolutions that this printer model is capable of. However, the HPIJS OfficeJet D135 driver supports these higher resolutions and duplex printing.