Bad printers have USB or something. I don't know about them.

When using USB printers on Debian the particular kernel creates a device file which one can use to directly communicate with the printer. I have an Epson R1800 on one of my machines. The device file for it is /dev/usb/lp0, Note: the kernel only creates this when the printer is connected,this is used so I can read the ink levels as there appears to be no other way. Try sending the file this way. Lindsay