June 29, 2015 @ 08:15 EDT

Ongoing Dyesub Photo Printer Developments

Gutenprint 5.2.11-pre1 was released this weekend. It contains the usual support for a pile of new printers, and improvements for many previously-supported models. I'll only speak about stuff I had a hand in:

First, the newly-supported models that are reported to be working quite well:

  • Canon SELPHY CP820 and CP910
  • Citizen CW-01 / Olmec OP900
  • DNP DS620/DS620A
  • Mitsubishi CP-3800DW

Next, new models that were added but have received no testing:

  • Sony UP-CR10L (aka DNP SL10)
  • Shinko S1245 [1]

Models that have much-improved support:

  • DNP DS40/DS80/RX1 [4]
  • Citizen CX/CX-W/CY [4]
  • Canon SELPHY CP900
  • Kodak 605, 6800, and 6850 [3]
  • Mitsubishi CP9550 family (including the CP9550DW-S!)
  • Sony UP-DR200

Finally, models that are improved or added, but will require muh more work before they are considerd useful:

  • Mitsubishi CP-D70/D707/K60/D80 [2]
  • Ciaat Brava 21 [2]
  • Kodak 305 [2]
  • Kodak 8810
  • Shinko S6145 [2]
  • Shinko S6245

Some notes:

[1] The Shinko S1245 is notable in that I've already completed a full-featured backend that just needs testing with a real printer.

[2] These models are all related, and use an unknown color scaling/dithering algorithm that must be reverse-engineered before the printers become usable.

[3] The Kodak 68x0 family in particular is consirerably more robust in the face of errors, media mismatches, and status reporting.

[4] The DNP/Citizen backend was greatly improved, and is far, far more robust than it used to be. Error detection and recovery, general buffer management, handling media/printjob mismatches, and even general status queries were all improved.


Oh, just to forestall the question, all printers with multicut modes (eg 2x6 strips) have full support, but will require a minor patch to be applied to Gutenprint before compiling.

I'll end this with my usual request for testers, especially ones with access to the Shinko S1245, Sony UP-CR10L, and DNP SL10 models since the work is already completed. As for what's next, the Shinko S6245 is the most promising candidate.

Thanks go out to everyone who has helped -- be it testing or providing USB dumps; sending over documentation (Yay, Shinko!), or actual printers (Yay, LiveLink!). There are others I would like to acknowledge but they have asked to remain anonymous. Thank you, all.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Free Software