The HPIJS driver is the first free, open-source driver issued by HP for their DeskJet and LaserJet printers. For most supported printers, this driver produces output quality equivalent to the proprietary HP drivers. In photo mode, with photo paper, the output quality is very high, especially for the HP DeskJet 990C and later models, which auto-detect the paper type in hardware. Photo printing is fully supported in the newer 6- and 7-ink models.
A major advantage of using this driver over those supplied by HP is the direct interface between HPIJS and the native CUPS spooler, which allows printing from any printer over any available connection such as USB, AppleTalk, TCP/IP (via LPD and IPP), HP JetDirect, and shared windows printers via Samba. Additionally, this driver utilizes the existing Mac OS X USB "backend" and thus does not install any software that might interfere with standard USB Operation.
