MFC-8440 Works Using MFC-8860DN at 600dpi (1200dpi has problems)

[the-burrito-triangle]

The MFC-8440 prints fine at 600dpi using the MFC-8860DN PPD / brlaser cups filter. However, using 1200dpi produces artifacts along the left-hand-side gutter (randomly shifted lines/blocks of content) and prints too large (looks like it just scales things larger rather than increasing the print DPI). Also, the default gutter size in the MFC-8860DN PPD is a bit extreme: 8 dots. While this region is printable (having lower toner density on the LHS gutter with my printer), it is outside the default 18, 12 dots (horizontal and vertical gutter) of the stock Brother PPD provided by the Brother OEM driver.

It would be nice to get away from the ancient 32bit Brother print driver for Linux. I think the brlaser CUPS filter just needs to add quirks for 1200dpi printing on older laser printers and it can likely support all Brother laser printers with slightly modified PPDs for allowed gutter widths.

% sudo lpinfo --include-schemes usb -l -v

Device: uri = usb://Brother/MFC-8440?serial=000A5J443873
class = direct
info = Brother MFC-8440
make-and-model = Brother MFC-8440
device-id = MFG:Brother;CMD:HBP,PJL,PCL,PCLXL;MDL:MFC-8440;CLS:PRINTER;
location =

[QORTEC]

Thank you for your report, your printer has been added to my pull request.

[the-burrito-triangle]

Thanks, QORTEC.

If it helps, the MFC-8440 uses the "1200HQ" mode (2400x600 DPI). Maybe this is why setting 1200DPI didn't work (MCF-8860DN might use the 1200x1200 mode)? If that could be fixed, I'd be a happy dude.

Owl-Maintain#19

Also, from past research, I believe the following models should all work under the same print settings (1200HQ, etc.):
MFC-8440
MFC-8640D
MFC-8840D
MFC-8840DN

[QORTEC]

Thanks for the information. I've made a note to look into this resolution issue.

Can you please scan, or take a picture of the page so that I can see what your talking about?

Do you know if you are using the upstream pdewacht or the Owl-Maintain fork of brlaser?

If you are using the Owl-Maintain fork, there was a bug regarding duplex & tumble code, which caused errors when printing. But it sounds like issue you are having is different.

[the-burrito-triangle]

I was using the brlaser package provided by Fedora 39, which looks to be from the Owl-Maintain fork:

$ dnf info printer-driver-brlaser.x86_64
Name         : printer-driver-brlaser
Version      : 6.2.6
Release      : 1.fc39
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 38 k
Source       : printer-driver-brlaser-6.2.6-1.fc39.src.rpm
Repository   : fedora
Summary      : Brother laser printer driver
URL          : https://github.com/Owl-Maintain/brlaser
License      : GPL-2.0-or-later
Description  : brlaser is a CUPS driver for Brother laser printers.
             : 
             : Although most Brother printers support a standard printer language
             : such as PCL or PostScript, not all do. If you have a monochrome
             : Brother laser printer (or multi-function device) and the other open
             : source drivers don't work, this one might help.
             : 
             : For a detailed list of supported printers, please refer to
             : https://github.com/Owl-Maintain/brlaser

I've since switched to using the hpcups driver with LaserJet 4300 emulation over the LAN (http://192.168.xxx.xxx:631/ipp/port1?version=1.0), due to issues with manually adjusting the print margins with brlaser (I forget exactly, but it seemed that either the left or right margin wouldn't adjust correctly). But I can try printing again with brlaser at 1200dpi and scan in the result. I've been meaning to upgrade to Fedora 40 or 41 (with associated newer brlaser packages), but GNOME 46 and up have issues with client side cursor scaling and I've not gotten around to seeing if they've fixed it yet. Maybe with Fedora 42 they'll have it fixed... Who knows.