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One with a built-in Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi interface. In addition to choosing a good language, I would always recommend a network-attached printer. And if the printer maker abandons you, your OS's generic driver will continue working far into the forseeable future.Īdditionally, support for PostScript (and to a lesser extent, PCL) means you can also print from old or unpopular operating systems like (for example), SunOS, BeOS and OS/2 - platforms where no manufacturer will ever develop a driver - because they all include some amount of generic PostScript support. Drivers are generic - either manually configure it for your printers features or download a cross-platform "PPD" file from the manufacturer. If, on the other hand, your printer uses PostScript or PCL, you generally don't have this problem. They often fail to take advantage of all of a printer's features. People with abandoned printers can often install open source Gutenprint drivers, but the quality of those drivers isn't always the best, especially for things like color calibration and photo printing. Even if drivers are available when you buy the printer, what are the odds that support will continue for the entire life of the printer - which may span over a decade and involve many major OS updates? Printers with proprietary languages (which includes most ink jets and some lasers) are always at the mercy of the manufacturer to provide drivers for it.

My recommendation for any printer, whether Linux, MacOS, Windows or any other OS is to use one that has native support for an industry-standard page description language - PostScript or PCL.