Lexmark Z52 JetPrinter

The Z52 is a relatively cheap photo-quality inkjet printer from Lexmark. It prints at resolutions up to 2400 by 1200 dpi. It uses four inks (CMYK) in one colour and one black cartridge. Running costs are quite high as the ink cartridges cost up to 30 GPB each. Connection is via bi-directional parallel or USB.

Windows Support
The printer comes with drivers for Windows 98. XP drivers can be downloaded from Lexmark's website. There are two types of driver for XP, System and Custom. I found that the Custom driver gives the best results. The System driver is still useful as it does not pop up windows all over the place when printing. I also found that the USB connection dramatically improved the speed of printing.

Linux Support
The Z52 is supported in RedHat 7.3 and works very well over both USB and parallel. The USB connection uses the usb/printer module and is recognised automatically, showing up as /dev/usb/lp0. One problem is changing print resolution - this is set globally in printtool and all applications use that setting - I will be looking a CUPS and other printer daemons than lpd to see if this can be set more easily.