Brother HL-4150CDN Driver

Open-source CUPS driver for the Brother HL-4150CDN color laser printer. Pure Python, runs anywhere CUPS does — including ARM (Raspberry Pi).

Status

Drop-in for the printer's Normal mode (600 dpi). Output matches the manufacturer's CUPS filter byte-for-byte for default settings and for single-axis brightness/contrast/saturation/RGB-key adjustments. Three combined-setting cases (saturation = −20, contrast = −20, and BRColorMatching = Vivid) differ by a handful of dither bits in the compressed payload — visually indistinguishable, but not byte-equal.

Fine mode (1200 dpi) emits valid framing; the compressed band data is not yet byte-identical. Correctness is established by byte-level comparison against captures from the manufacturer's filter.

Requirements

• Python 3.13+ and uv
• Ghostscript (the CUPS pipeline rasterizes PostScript to PPM)
• CUPS
• A copy of the official Brother HL-4150CDN LPR driver .deb (scripts/extract_blobs.sh downloads and verifies it; the printer's calibration tables are extracted into src/lut/ and src/color_data/ and are not redistributed)

Install

git clone https://github.com/cl445/brother-hl4150cdn-driver.git
cd brother-hl4150cdn-driver

uv sync --all-extras
./scripts/extract_blobs.sh
sudo cups/install.sh                                            # filter + PPD
sudo cups/install.sh --add-printer socket://<printer-ip>:9100   # network, optional

Pick the device URI that matches how the printer is attached:

Connection	URI	Discover
Ethernet / Wi-Fi	socket://<printer-ip>:9100	manufacturer's web UI / nmap -p9100
USB	usb://Brother/HL-4150CDN?serial=<serial>	lpinfo --include-schemes usb -l -v

Without --add-printer, register the queue manually:

sudo lpadmin -p Brother_HL-4150CDN -E \
  -v <device-uri> \
  -P /usr/share/cups/model/brhl4150cdn.ppd

sudo cups/uninstall.sh --remove-printer cleans up.

Settings

All options are PPD-driven and surfaced in the standard print dialog. Pass them as -o key=value to lp / lpr for scripting.

Option	Values	Notes
PageSize	A4, Letter, Legal, Executive, A5, JISB5, Postcard, DL, C5, Com-10, Monarch
MediaType	Plain, Thin, Thick, Thicker, Bond, Envelope, Recycled, Label, Glossy, …	10 entries
BRResolution	Normal, Fine	Fine mode is incomplete (see Status)
BRMonoColor	Auto, FullColor, Mono
Duplex	None, DuplexTumble, DuplexNoTumble	Tumble = short edge
BRColorMatching	Normal, Vivid, None	Vivid not byte-identical yet
TonerSaveMode	OFF, ON	Uses the toner-save dither tables
BRSkipBlank	OFF, ON
BRReverse	OFF, ON	Reverse page order
Brightness	−20 … +20
Contrast	−20 … +20
Saturation	−20 … +20
RedKey, GreenKey, BlueKey	−20 … +20	Per-channel input shift
Copies, Collate	int, OFF/ON

CLI without CUPS

# PPM in, XL2HB raw stream out
cat page.ppm | uv run python src/brfilter.py \
    --paper Letter --duplex long --toner-save \
  > page.xl2hb

# Send straight to the printer (network)
cat page.ppm | uv run python src/brfilter.py | nc <printer-ip> 9100

# …or via USB
cat page.ppm | uv run python src/brfilter.py > /dev/usb/lp0

Development

uv sync --all-extras
uv run nox --list

# common sessions
uv run nox -s lint            # ruff
uv run nox -s format_check    # ruff format --check
uv run nox -s typecheck       # pyrefly
uv run nox -s tests           # pytest (826 tests, needs extracted blobs)

The test fixtures in tests/fixtures/ are zstd-compressed XL2HB captures from the manufacturer's filter — pytest decompresses them on demand. Adding a new capture-based test is two steps: drop a fresh capture into tests/fixtures/<name>.xl2hb.zst and reference it from a parametrized test (tests/test_full_pipeline.py has the existing pattern).

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. The PPD in cups/ is derived from Brother's GPL-2.0-or-later HL-4150CDN PPD; see the file header for attribution. The Brother calibration tables that extract_blobs.sh pulls in remain under their own licence and never enter this repository.

Trademarks

Brother and HL-4150CDN are trademarks of Brother Industries, Ltd. This project is an independent, community-driven driver and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Brother Industries, Ltd.