printer network recommendations

[jhogeterp]

In setting up my new office I have discovered that I want to be able to hook 3 or possibly 4 different printers and print them from a wireless network. I will be mainly printing from a macbook pro, but other macs (or pcs) could also need the ability to print from these 3 or four printers.

I need to buy everything but the macbook pro including printers and wireless router. Anyone have any recommendations on what to buy to make everything work together nicely?

I do need to use a laser printer (probably HP LaserJet 1320n), a label (probably Zebra LP 2844l) printer, and a usb inkjet (old hp photosmart). Should I also be buying a print server? Should I buy a wireless router with extra ports for the printers? I am definitely new to this printer networking so any advice would be very helpful. THanks!

[gsahli]

Using a print server requires using the CUPS comm protocols included in OS X. This brings with it driver problems:

Network printing/Windows printing only works with a driver that was meant for network printing. To use the OS X built-in CUPS network choices, you need a CUPS driver. For postscript printers, it's not an issue, because postscript is the native output of OS X, and can easily be routed to the various choices in Printer Setup.
Non-postscript printers are Very Different. Except for Brother, no manufacturer has provided CUPS drivers. Instead, what you get is Carbonized, OS9 legacy drivers, that have the comm protocol written into the driver (mostly USB). They can only print via local connection.
**Exception - when printing via an Airport/Bonjour enabled print server, where the software does a port redirection, USB output from the Mac gets routed to the USB port on Airport Express/Extreme.

Sharing Mac-to-Mac is something like the Bonjour case - the USB-only drivers work with sharing that way.

You'll have none of these problems printing from Windows XP.

Hope I've given you some ideas - without scaring you off -- I have three printers on print servers: two non-postscript (Epson and Brother) and a postscript (Laserjet).

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by jhogeterp

In setting up my new office I have discovered that I want to be able to hook 3 or possibly 4 different printers and print them from a wireless network. I will be mainly printing from a macbook pro, but other macs (or pcs) could also need the ability to print from these 3 or four printers.

....

gsahli started off on the right track, but veered into the weeds. For many printers, you need a CUPS driver. For PostScript and PostScript-clone printers, you do not. For your HP LaserJet 1320, you are set. Apple bundles the PPD file for this and many other HP printers with MacOS X.
As for the Zebra label printer, there is some interest in developing a CUPS driver for it.

It is convenient if the vendor provides a CUPS driver for your printer. However, this is not necessary. The opensource community developed CUPS support for numerous printers via Gutenprint. Download and install it on all of your Macs. CUPS drivers for printers not supported by Gutenprint may possibly be found at LinuxPrinting.org.

[jhogeterp]

THanks for the replies. If I understand this correctly...I do need a print server (such as the hp print server) and I cannot get away with just having the printers hooked directly to a switch or hub. Also, that I may not even be able to use the Zebra label printer on a network at all (yet). Is this correct?