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HP DeskJet 842C
 
Color inkjet printer, max. 600x1200 dpi, works Perfectly
Recommended Driver: hplip (Home page)
Generic Instructions: CUPS, no spooler
 

Miscellaneous

Printer supports direct text printing with the 'us-ascii' charset.

Comments

For basic printing functionality use the HPIJS driver . For advanced functionality such as printer status and maintenance features, use the HPLIP driver (which includes HPIJS).

Ed: HP provides the HPLIP driver, which drives this printer perfectly for colour/photo jobs. See that driver entry for more information. For grayscale probably Gimp-Print is the best choice.

As for use with other drivers:

This is the same printer as the DeskJet 840C; see that entry for more info. HP's web site lists the same software documentation for the 810, 830, and 840 series printers, so any drivers that work with one will probably work with the others as well.

The black print resolutions are 300x300, 600x300, and 600x600. The color print resolution is 300x300 normally, but can theoretically go up to 600x1200 via "PhotoREt II" (C-REt II).

This printer does not work with the "cdj850" driver, but it works with the "cdj880" driver.

Consumables/Refills: HP #15 black, HP #17 color, ~$25 each

Drivers

The following driver(s) are known to drive this printer:

Recommended driver:

 
hplip  (driver home page)
 
HP's driver suite for printers and multi-function devices
Supplier: Hewlett-Packard (this printer's manufacturer)
License: MIT/BSD/GPL (free software)
User support:HPLIP support and bug tracking system (voluntary)
Max. rendering resolution: 600x600dpi   Color output   Type: CUPS Raster
Text:||||||||||  100Graphics:||||||||||  100System Load:Unknown
Line Art:||||||||||  100Photo:||||||||||  100Speed:||||||||||  70
 

Other drivers:

 
cdj550  (driver home page)
 
The cdj550 works well. It produces acceptable text and photos, although the text is inferior to the hpdj driver and the photos are inferior to the cdj880 driver.
This driver is free software.
Type: Ghostscript built-in
Download:PPD file: View PPD, directly download PPD
 

 
cdj670  (driver home page)
 
This driver is obsolete. Recommended replacement driver: hplip
The german magazine c't (21/2000) recommends this driver for text.
This driver is free software.
Type: Ghostscript built-in
Download:PPD file: View PPD, directly download PPD
 

 
cdj880  (driver home page)
 
This driver is obsolete. Recommended replacement driver: hplip
The color is off, and there are not enough adjustments possible with this driver to fix it. This driver is apparently awful for text.
This driver is free software.
Type: Ghostscript built-in
Download:PPD file: View PPD, directly download PPD
 

 
cdj970  (driver home page)
 
This driver is obsolete. Recommended replacement driver: hplip
Excellent results for image/photo printing.
This driver is free software.
Type: Ghostscript built-in
Download:PPD file: View PPD, directly download PPD
 

 
gimp-print  (driver home page)
 
This driver is obsolete. Recommended replacement driver: gutenprint
This driver is free software.
Type: CUPS Raster
 

 
gutenprint  (driver home page)
 
Top Quality Printer Drivers for inkjets, dye sublimation printers, and PCL lasers
Supplier: Gutenprint project
License: GPL (free software)
User support:Gutenprint mailing list at SourceForge (voluntary)
Color output   Type: CUPS Raster
Text:||||||||||  90Graphics:||||||||||  100System Load:Unknown
Line Art:||||||||||  90Photo:||||||||||  100Speed:||||||||||  60
Download:Driver packages: x86 32 bit: 5.2.7 (RPM for LSB 3.2) (Signed), 5.2.7 (DEB for LSB 3.2) (Signed), 5.0.1 (RPM for LSB 3.1) (Signed), 5.0.1 (DEB for LSB 3.1) (Signed), x86 64 bit: 5.2.7 (RPM for LSB 3.2) (Signed), 5.2.7 (DEB for LSB 3.2) (Signed), 5.0.1 (RPM for LSB 3.1) (Signed), 5.0.1 (DEB for LSB 3.1) (Signed) (How to install)
 

 
hpdj  (driver home page)
 
This driver is obsolete. Recommended replacement driver: pcl3
This driver produces the best text output, bar none.
This driver is free software.
Type: Ghostscript built-in
Download:PPD file: View PPD, directly download PPD
 

 
pcl3  (driver home page)
 
This driver is free software.
Type: Ghostscript built-in
Download:PPD file: View PPD, directly download PPD