I found this article and forum while searching for tips on a color printer to replace an old Epson inkjet that could no longer print color photos correctly. I promise, I don’t have green skin!
I added a Brother HL-L3280CDW color laser, based on previous experiences with Brother monochrome laser printers. And I’m really pleased!
I (also) have a monochrome HL-L6200DWT - still running strong, just doesn’t support color output. Prior to the HL-L6200DWT, I had a non-networked Brother monochrome laser that worked well in Linux.
My current Brother printers have WiFi connections. Setting up the network is the most difficult part of printer setup, because this can only be done using the printer’s control panel if you’re a Linux-only user. I don’t use WPS - my router doesn’t support it - so I have to manually enter the SSID and password for my WiFi network. Once the network setup is done, the printers are able to get an IP address, and can then be found by the Printers applet in the Linux distros that I use (Fedora 42 and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS).
It’s not necessary to use Brother’s proprietary drivers if your distro has a newer version of CUPS, as the drivers included with CUPS generally work for most printing. That said, the Brother drivers do have some settings - such as a 1200 dpi “high quality” print mode for my monochrome laser - that might help improve print output in a few cases. The CUPS driver loaded for my 3280 color laser was able to print a color photo that was absolutely mangled by that old Epson inkjet.