More printing opinions: It might be worth setting up a NetBSD box as a 
print server instead of buying a printer that has its own ethernet
port.

FWIW I have an HP Laserjet II with PacificPage II/XL Postscript
cartridge and memory upgrade, and it seems to work fine although the
postscript rendering engine can really take its time on complicated
stuff -- outputs instantly otherwise. I also have an Epson Stylus
Color Pro XL, which works very well under Ghostscript. 

Once everything's set up it's fairly easy to set your machine up as a
printserver for a network. Depending on your needs it might be cheaper
to configure a minimal machine out of spare parts and use it as a
print server. I set both my printers up as shared printers using Samba
for other computers on my local network. As far as they all knew there
was a color postscript printer and a monochrome postscript printer on
the net. 

You should get good results with any printer supported by Ghostscript,
or any printer that understands Postscript. I haven't tried this one,
but I noticed that the Epson Stylus color 740 is available on the net
(buy.com) for $158. That's a really nice printer and would probably be
my first choice if I were looking for a general purpose printer right
now. Its quality is comparable to that of more expensive laser
printers for text, it is excellent for photographic output (for a
4-color printer), and it has serial, parallel, and usb ports.  

For an office that prints hundreds of pages a day, you're, of course,
better off with a nice speedy laser printer.

-Zach Fine
czyz@serv.net

>>>>> "fission" == fission  <fission@mb.sympatico.ca> writes:

    fission> I really like HP.  I have a great laser at work, the
    fission> 4000N.  Has only jammed once, very fast, PostScript,
    fission> PCL5, and PCL6.  As it has PostScript, plug it into your
    fission> printer port and you're ready to rock...you don't have to
    fission> screw with ghostscript.  At home, I have a DeskJet 660C
    fission> that never jams, and hasn't screwed up more than a few
    fission> times in the 3 or so years I've had it.  It works pretty
    fission> alright with ghostscript's "cdj550".
 
    >> g) (Last question for now; (^&.)  Ether-based printers seem to
    >> be more expensive, although with some it is a not-too-expensive
    >> option.  Probably I cannot justify/afford such a printer, but
    >> if I should (or just for curiosity's sake): How does such a
    >> printer attach to a NetBSD system?  Well, YES, by Ethernet, of
    >> course.  That's not what I meant.  I mean, is there a special
    >> node-type to create in /dev?  Do you have to dedicate an
    >> Ethernet card/interface just to the printer?  Or does the
    >> printer run a network operating system (and perhaps manage its
    >> own print queues)?

    fission> For the HP4000N I have, it has JetDirect software for
    fission> Windows, but it also has a control panel on the front
    fission> that you can set printer options up.  I think its just a
    fission> matter of giving it some information (a name, an IP
    fission> address, etc) and setting up the printcap on your local
    fission> computer.

    fission> --fission