Can I get the full range of printer features on Canon MP190

[MasonF]

I have Mint 17 MATE installed on my newer computer (Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM). Up to now everything seems to be working properly. Then, yesterday, I tried (for the first time) to print using Mint 17. The printer I want to use first is a Canon MP190, a basic All-in-One printer/copier/scanner. The Canon Windows driver offers the user scanning and copying options that don't appear to be available with this driver. Canon Europe provides a Debian driver for the MP190, while Canon USA says there are no Linux drivers for this printer. (What's going on there?)

The first thing I did (after reading about installing printer drivers in Linux), was go to Administration > Printers to see if Mint had detected the printer -- it had. Mint offered to print a test sheet, so I said "Yes." The test sheet failed initially, but after some fiddling with settings, I'm not quite sure what made the difference, I got the printer to print out a test page. So, I have a basic printer. That's good, but I'd like more (naturally).

The current driver offered a lot more control over print quality than I realized at first -- the default printer info window size is small and there are quite a few settings that are initially out of sight. However, I couldn't find anything that offered scanning ability. It would be useful if I could scan (and copy) with this printer while in Mint. I can always access the full option set using Windows, but that seems like an admission that Mint is still not a full-featured operating system that can replace Windows. My hope is to eventually use Linux as my primary operating system and not a novelty to relieve the boredom of decades of Windows.

Specific Questions:

Is there a way to add scanning ability to what I already have?

Will the Canon (Europe) Debian (Linux) Driver offer the full range of features the Windows driver offers and, if so, how do I go about replacing the current driver with the Canon driver?

[PatH57]

Hi,

Is there a way to add scanning ability to what I already have?

try simple-scan (package manager) if the scanner is detected you can probably use it after in more sophisticated software.

[MasonF]

PatH57, Thanks for the tip about Simple Scan, which is already installed in Mint 17 MATE.

I tried using Simple Scan and I was able to successfully scan a page (both color and B&W). I now have basic printer/scanner functionality, which is a significant step.

I'm still not sure about the use of the Canon Debian Linux driver. Does anyone have experience using that driver?

If so, does it work and give a full range of printing and scanning features? And, if it does work, how do I get from the default Mint driver to installing the Canon driver?

[PatH57]

Hi,

do you have the link to the driver? I could check it and see if it is a canon driver or just the standard open source linux one.