Printer Driver for Epson Stylus 1520

[capezio]

Not sure where to post this, however, here goes.

I have an Epson stylus 1520 colour printer which is in perfect working order which was given to me a couple of years ago. It has a parallel port connection which I connected with a belkin cable to the usb on my IMAC g3 (which has now just been written off) running OS9.2 and downloaded the appropriate epson driver. I have a new powerbook G4 running OSX 10.4.7. I have tried to download a driver from epson but apparently they don't have one because the printer is old and no call for the driver for OSX 10.4.7.

Epson support suggested I might find another driver elsewhere but made no suggestion as to where. My question is:
Has any one any idea where I may be able to download said driver or do I just scrap the printer.(It does take up quite a lot of space lol)

[MD]

Make your own driver
http://www.weirdkid.com/printerhack.html

Open Source Print Drivers:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060731164725916

iProof Systems' PowerRIP X is a PostScript Level 3-compatible printer driver for many models of Epson inkjet printers. If you used this product under OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), you must update to the latest version to use it under Panther.
http://www.iproofsystems.com/download/powerrip_x.htm#downloads

[capezio]

Thanks for that, I must confess I find it all rather confusing. I have spent a good few hours looking and reading.... I then remembered a thread on here about clearing out printer files and the fact that Mac had lots of files already installed. So I looked and plugged the printer in and it was recognised and it works ....Kind of.. Print quality is not too good. I then set about changing print settings page set up and resolution output etc and now It thinks for a long time tells me printer is not responding so I cancel and then re-start and the printer bursts into life. Quality still not great though.

I also tried to print out of Quark in Classic environment and it just told me it couldn't connect to the network... dunno what that means.

I'm on the verge of giving up, I have no one in the real world to consult with either

[Ned]

This printer is very old (as far as printers go - printers now go obsolete twice as fast than computers, which are already obsolete by the time you get them), and the print quality will never be good - it's not the driver's fault. That is one of the early color Stylus printers. I had one very similiar to it, also with a Parallel Connection (big tip-off on the extreme age of the printer).

It was "the graphic designer's dream" (according to one online article) in its time, but I would not suggest using it for anything to do with design work anymore. My suggestion would be, as long as you can still have ink - or can get it (Epson doesn't produce cartridges for these old printers), I would hook it up as your primary document printer, and get a new printer for printing design proofs, etc. on. These old printers last forever on a cartridge of ink, and will save you a fortune in printing large documents, but can't produce any quality prints to today's home computer standards.

[capezio]

Thanks for that Ned you have confirmed what I've been thinking. so my next question is "what is a good printer"? I have to say I like the Epson, I have an A4 C64 which uses ink like there is no tomorrow but of course the size is limited, so A3 would be good. I don't think finances will stretch to an A2. (Unless I get clients beating a path to my front door).
Also living in Cornwall means that access to stores to actually see a good range of printers is impossible <groan> the best selection is in PC World and they have a terrible reputation amongst Mac users lol

[Ned]

Epson has a lot of good 6 or 8-color A3 InkJet printers, if that's what you're looking for. The Epson Stylus R2400 Inkjet Printer is very nice. Though personally, I prefer Canon's Bubblejet technology, like the i9950 with 8-color high-durability ink.