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24 October 2008, 16:25

Gutenprint 5.2.1 drivers for Linux and Mac OS X improve printer support

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The Gutenprint project has released version 5.2.1 of its printer driver collection for Linux and Mac OS X. Gutenprint was formerly known as Gimp-Print. The project provides support for a wide range of different manufacturers. According to the rather detailed release notes, the total number of printers supported by Gutenprint 5.2.1 is 1400. This is 655 more devices than the previous 5.1 release, although 468 of those are black and white laser printers which are actually handled by a new PostScript driver. The list also does include printers from around the world, some of which are rare in the UK.

Most desktop users will probably find the support of 175 additional ink jet printers, including 134 Epson devices introduced in the past two years, more relevant. The rather rudimentary support of Canon printers in previous versions has also been considerably improved with an extra 41 devices can supported including printers in Canon's Pixma range. Gutenprint version 5.2.1 is also the first version to support 12 thermal printers by Canon, Compaq, Fujifilm, Lexmark, Kodak, Olympus, Shinko and Sony. Details about the newly supported printers can be found in the "New Printers Supported since Gutenprint 5.0" section of the release notes; the list at the project's web site has not been updated at the time of publication.

Release 5.2 has become the new stable version of Gutenprint, having been the development branch of the previous stable release 5.1 for eighteen months. Over this time, the developers have integrated numerous changes to improve output quality and speed, particularly with Epson inkjet printers which Gutenprint has traditionally supported well. Gutenprint now also recognises more output formats than before and offers borderless printing on a larger number of devices. Some things were removed though; the developers dropped support for Mac OS X 10.2 and Gimp 1.2.

(djwm)

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