madebyalex.org

The Epson DX3800 is a small multi-function ink jet printer and it’s cheap.
One problem: it says that it’s windows only. Although if you follow these instructions you can get it to work in OS-X.
Since having got this to work on OS-X, I thoght it would only be fair to post it here.
For instructions on how to use this printer on OS-X click read more.

Printing
The printer is nowhere to be seen in the gutenprint (formerly gimp-print) list (at least in the main set-up) but I stumbled upon this news release which states that it does work in the beta.

1. Download Gutenprint from sourceforge, and install it. (It might seem to hang for 2 minutes- that’s OK)
2. Accept that you are using beta quality software- and I’m not responsible if it doesn’t work.
3. Click the add printer button on any print dialouge.
   
4. Option- click on more printers.
   
   
5. Select Advanced.
6. Then ‘other’.
7. Now pick out the printer PPP file.
8. 
   This file is HD/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/stp-escp2-dx3800.5.0.ppd.gx. The easiest way to find it is by going to en.lproj and then entering dx3800 into the search bar.
9. Click choose.
10. Click add.
11. Click add.
12. Print this page, it’s finished- and you’ll need it for the scanning section.

Scanning

Scanning on the DX3800 is supported by SANE, for the purposes of this tutorial we will install TWAIN-SANE and it’s SANE bundle- but I will not go into detail about TWAIN-SANE as I had problems with it so I will use an applescript to run the scan.

1. First download pretty much all the packages from twain-sane’s website and install the ones you need. Except for iconv if you are running Panther or Tiger (10.3 or 10.4) Also make sure to download the files marked as binarys- not SDKs.
2. Install in this order:
   1. libusb libusb.pkg.tar.gz
   2. gettext gettext.pkg.tar.gz
   3. SANE backends SANE-backends.pkg.tar.gz
   4. SANE preference pane SANE-Preference-Pane.pkg.tar.gz
   5. twain-sane TWAIN-SANE-Interface.pkg.tar.gz

   Click on them to decompress and then click on the .pkg to install.

3. Open terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal).
4. Put something in the scanner.
5. Copy this into terminal:

   scanimage --format tiff > test.tiff
   

6. Wait until the scanner is quiet.
7. Open your home directory and look for a file called test.tiff, prepare for rubbish quality.
8. If it is there open it after a few seconds, if the basic essense of the scan is in the image the it’s OK- if an error was spewed out then follow the troubleshooting instructions.
9. Open image capture and perform a few colour scans at 150 and 300dpi to test, if it works the good for you :).
10. If not (like me) then you will need to run scanimage to scan each time, or write an applescript to do it.
11. 
    The applescript source; you can use this to build your own version with custom settings.
12. 

13. The compilled application. Just run this (or the script) and choose a filename, then after a while the file will be in your home directory all ready to use, in full resolution. It would be possible for me to make a preview and select thing, but that’s for another day.

14. The files don’t want to play so copy this into script editor and save it, and make a copy which is compiled and as an app.

    property theCommand : ""
    repeat while theCommand is ""
    display dialog "Name of scanned file:" default answer
    theCommand
    set theCommand to text returned of result
    end repeat
    try
    do shell script "/usr/local/bin/scanimage --mode color --format
    tiff --resolution 300 > ~/" & quoted form of theCommand & ".tiff"
    end try
    

    Thanks to applescript.net for the applescript.

Hope you enjoyed this and found it informative please post in the comments with any difficulties and successes.

1. Open terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal).
2. Copy this into terminal:

   export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
   sane-find-scanner
   

3. Your screen should look like this:
   
4. Take note of the vendor and product numbers.
5. Open system preferences.
6. Select SANE.
7. Click on the configure button next to epson.
8. 

Update:
This seems to look like its drinking the ink, but only replace it when your printouts are looking off colour. Also those ink head checker things that clean your printer aren’t available so it might be worth borrowing someone’s PC laptop (or use boot-camp if you use an intel mac) to run them.