Ink is a command line tool for checking the ink level of your locally connected printer on a system which runs Linux. It makes use of libinklevel. A list of currently supported printers can be found here. You can download the sourcecode here. If you prefer another kind of user interface have a look at the libinklevel homepage for other frontends.
| 28/05/2007 | Release of version 0.4.1. A bug in the ink cartridge naming has been removed. |
| 14/03/2007 | Release of version 0.4.0. This release requires the newest libinklevel (v0.7.0 or higher). Two new parameters have been added: One for querying the version information of ink and libinklevel, and one for directly specifying the usb device the printer is connected to. |
| 09/03/2007 | Release of version 0.3.2rc4. Adaption to changes in current libinklevel. This version requires libinklevel version 0.6.6rc6 or higher. |
| 05/10/2006 | Release of version 0.3.2rc3. Error handling has been improved. This version requires libinklevel version 0.6.6rc5 or higher. |
| 16/09/2006 | Release of version 0.3.2rc2. Ink has been adapted to the changes in libinklevel. This version requires libinklevel version 0.6.6rc4 or higher. |
| 06/09/2006 | Release of version 0.3.2rc1. Ink has been adapted to the new interface of libinklevel. This version requires libinklevel version 0.6.6rc3 or higher. |
| 03/04/2006 | Release of version 0.3.1. A bug which prevented proper operation on PPC systems has been fixed. |
| 26/02/2004 | Project moved to Sourceforge. |
| 03/12/2003 | Release of version 0.3. Requires libinklevel version 0.6 or greater. Error handling has been improved. |
| 07/09/2003 | Release of version 0.2. Now also supports Epson printers. |
| 25/08/2003 | Initial version released and web page set up. |
All printers supported by libinklevel attached via parallel port or usb are supported.

This software is licensed under the GPL version 2. It comes with no warranty.
You need gcc installed. libieee1284 and libinklevel ≥ 0.7.0 are required. You may have to edit the Makefile to suit your needs.
tar xzf ink-0.4.1.tar.gz cd ink-0.4.1 make make install
Run the program as follows:
ink -p <port> [-n <portnumber>]
where port is either "parport" or "usb" and portnumber is the number of the port to which your printer is connected. The portnumber is optional and defaults to 0. Alternatively you can run ink like that:
ink -d /dev/usb/lp0
where /dev/usb/lp0 is the device node your printer is attached to. Note: This works only for usb devices, not for parallel port devices. You can query the version numbers of ink and libinklevel like this:
ink -v
You need read/write permission on the device the printer is connected to. See here for details.
Send comments, suggestions, critics to Markus Heinz.