printer driver driver

Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.

On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:43:46
+0100, Good Guy wrote:

On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.

That's not what I referred to. I'm talking about one printer driver,
one total (not printer-speciffic or maker-specific, so that only one is
needed) that connects any printer driver written for say, XP, or 98, to
the newer OS. The same driver driver for every XP printer driver. for
example.

The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them.

Wariness would not be an issue, any more than it is for imgburn or any
of the other well-known good freeware, that some people have used and
said it was good. .

They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.

I've never seen what I'm talking about on the web. not even one, let
alone the "some" that you talk about below.

Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.

In message , micky
writes:
[things that let old hardware run under new versions of Windows]
I've never seen what I'm talking about on the web. not even one, let
alone the "some" that you talk about below.
[]
I've seen one for scanners; unfortunately it isn't free, and costs about
the same as a cheap scanner. This is sad, as it's a good product; it's
just made by a small company (Australian, I think) who aren't big enough
to be able to offer it at a lower price. (There is a free "evaluation"
version, but that puts overprinting on the result - it's intended for
you to see if your scanner works with it.)

IIRR, it's called VueScan.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

She's showing her age a little bit. I always say she doesn't have teething
troubles, she has denture troubles! - Timothy West (on their narrowboat!), RT
2014-March

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:26:22
+0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:

In message , micky
writes:
[things that let old hardware run under new versions of Windows]
I've never seen what I'm talking about on the web. not even one, let
alone the "some" that you talk about below.
[]
I've seen one for scanners; unfortunately it isn't free, and costs about
the same as a cheap scanner. This is sad, as it's a good product; it's
just made by a small company (Australian, I think) who aren't big enough
to be able to offer it at a lower price. (There is a free "evaluation"
version, but that puts overprinting on the result - it's intended for
you to see if your scanner works with it.)

IIRR, it's called VueScan.

Yeah, that's it. https://www.hamrick.com/reg.html

30 or 80 dollars. American dollars afaict. For the extra money you
get flim and slide scanning, OCR of text, and unnamed extra features.
I would think some people would have OCR already, even maybe from the
original ... hmm. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, I think. It
says it replaces the software. I don't know i that makes it more
expensive or less.

But still, they seem to have done it for scanners, which I was also
interested in. . There are a lot more printers and there's a a lot
more printing being done. Maybe greater volume would allow a lower
price, although I can see that printing is a lot more complicated than
scanning.

He says 400,000 people use vuescan.

micky wrote:
In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:26:22
+0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:

In message , micky
writes:
[things that let old hardware run under new versions of Windows]
I've never seen what I'm talking about on the web. not even one, let
alone the "some" that you talk about below.
[]
I've seen one for scanners; unfortunately it isn't free, and costs about
the same as a cheap scanner. This is sad, as it's a good product; it's
just made by a small company (Australian, I think) who aren't big enough
to be able to offer it at a lower price. (There is a free "evaluation"
version, but that puts overprinting on the result - it's intended for
you to see if your scanner works with it.)

IIRR, it's called VueScan.

Yeah, that's it. https://www.hamrick.com/reg.html

30 or 80 dollars. American dollars afaict. For the extra money you
get flim and slide scanning, OCR of text, and unnamed extra features.
I would think some people would have OCR already, even maybe from the
original ... hmm. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, I think. It
says it replaces the software. I don't know i that makes it more
expensive or less.

But still, they seem to have done it for scanners, which I was also
interested in. . There are a lot more printers and there's a a lot
more printing being done. Maybe greater volume would allow a lower
price, although I can see that printing is a lot more complicated than
scanning.

He says 400,000 people use vuescan.
There is a "sort" of standard for scanning called TWAIN which if I recall
correctly stands for Technology Without An Interesting Name!
That probably makes it a little easier for applications like Vue Scan although
I don't know if they use TWAIN.
There is nothing similar for printers so far as I know.
Tony

micky writes:

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:26:22
+0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:

In message , micky
writes:
[things that let old hardware run under new versions of Windows]
I've never seen what I'm talking about on the web. not even one, let
alone the "some" that you talk about below.
[]
I've seen one for scanners; unfortunately it isn't free, and costs about
the same as a cheap scanner. This is sad, as it's a good product; it's
just made by a small company (Australian, I think) who aren't big enough
to be able to offer it at a lower price. (There is a free "evaluation"
version, but that puts overprinting on the result - it's intended for
you to see if your scanner works with it.)

/../

Yeah, that's it. https://www.hamrick.com/reg.html

30 or 80 dollars. American dollars afaict. For the extra money you
get flim and slide scanning, OCR of text, and unnamed extra features.

/../
But still, they seem to have done it for scanners, which I was also
interested in. . There are a lot more printers and there's a a lot
more printing being done. Maybe greater volume would allow a lower
price, although I can see that printing is a lot more complicated than
scanning.

Hi Mick,
VueScan is good stuff, really! I can recommend it even though I don't
use it. Those people work hard to reverse-engineer the scanning
protocols and idiosyncracies of individual scanners.

Under linux and MacOSX we have the SANE project for scanning, and the
gutenprint project for printing. Both provide back-ends, that is,
drivers, for the hardware. Look them up online, both are free software,
and continuously improving and keeping up with the latest devices, while
adding older one as well, best of both worlds.

The SANE project to which I contributed in the past mostly for Canon
devices, has most of the capabilities of VueScan, but OCR is not part of
the project, and unfortunately also still lacking infra-red dust removal
capability for those devices that have it physically (the new PIE
backend has it, so in future other back-ends may be able to implement
such capability also).

The gutenprint project, to which I contribute as maintainer of the Canon
backend, offers varied support for a host of printers from many
different manufacturers, mostly inkjets, and dye-sublimation devices.

Since printers use different print languages and data formats, even a
back-end for one manufacturer has tons of variations to accommodate
differences. And then occasionally one needs to create a new back-end
entirely.

Gutenprint does well for standard text and graphics printing, but has no
calibration for photo printing for different media and resolutions, so
it is up to the user to adjust individual ink densities and so on for
best performance. This is an area where the project could improve, but
also impossible without access to the printer by developers, or some
automated way for users to do themselves.

Gutenprint tries to handle all linux and MacOSX versions as far back as
possible, but because of the idiosyncracies of MacOSX, support for 10.2,
then 10.3 and 10.4, and finally 10.5 had to be dropped, and the latest
version requires 10.6 or later.

Regards,
Gernot Hassenpflug
--
NNTP on Emacs 24.3 from Windows 7

On 18/08/2015 17:43, Good Guy wrote:
On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.


Interesting thought, but I'm still using a printer that I bought in the
middle of Windows 98. Works fine in 8.1, and even behaved under 10,
though I upgraded back to 8.1 pretty quickly (another story). It's HP
Deskjet3845

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Wed, 19 Aug 2015 15:08:06
+0100, Peter wrote:

On 18/08/2015 17:43, Good Guy wrote:
On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.


Interesting thought, but I'm still using a printer that I bought in the
middle of Windows 98. Works fine in 8.1, and even behaved under 10,
though I upgraded back to 8.1 pretty quickly (another story). It's HP
Deskjet3845

You still have a parallel port, or was there USB already then?

Good Guy wrote:
On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.


Well,there is NOTHING for the Panasonic KX-P1093 (including NO manuals).

Robert Baer wrote:
Good Guy wrote:
On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.


Well,there is NOTHING for the Panasonic KX-P1093 (including NO manuals).


Don't forget, that for old kit, there are *two* classes of drivers.

1) The manufacturer driver. They get tired of making drivers for
new OSes, and after five years, stop doing that.

2) Microsoft sometimes cooks up "universal" drivers for a class of
device. These may work out-of-the-box. Or, the driver package is
a kit, requiring a minimal amount of work by the manufacturer.
Universal drivers are possible, when there is a semblance of
an industry standard mode of operation.

It is the Type (2) drivers that you should be looking for.

I'm not an expert on Dot Matrix, but I'm willing to bet
there is some crusty old solution for them which is not (1).

http://geos-infobase.de/ND_DOCS/273IBM.HTM

Panasonic KX-P1093 (IBM Mode) {x1}

So for some reason, they recommend IBM Mode for yours.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/177512

"Dot-Matrix Guidelines

Almost all dot-matrix printers emulate an Epson or an IBM printer.
Exceptions to this rule include Toshiba, Texas Instruments,
some Okidata and C.Itoh printers. All Panasonic, Star Micronics,
and Citizen dot-matrix printers default to an Epson emulation
mode but can also emulate an IBM printer if you change the
printer settings.

In general, try an Epson printer driver first, and then try
an IBM driver if necessary.

Determine if the printer is a 9-pin or a 24-pin printer.
If a driver is installed, you can determine this by viewing
the available graphics resolutions. A 9-pin printer uses
resolution settings that are increments of 120 x 72.
A 24-pin printer uses resolution settings that are increments
of 120 x 180 or 180 x 180. Then, determine if the printer is
capable of printing in color and if the printer uses a wide
carriage (can take paper that is up to 14 7/8 inches wide).

Use the following table to determine which driver to use.
"

Naturally, there isn't a hope of getting such info
for a modern OS. But, try the terminology in a search
and see what pops up.

For example, every user is expected to be a rocket scientist.
Here, a user launched his own rocket, with only a few
burn marks from the experience.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...d631635?auth=1

Paul

Paul wrote:
Robert Baer wrote:
Good Guy wrote:
On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for
old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.


Well,there is NOTHING for the Panasonic KX-P1093 (including NO manuals).


Don't forget, that for old kit, there are *two* classes of drivers.

1) The manufacturer driver. They get tired of making drivers for
new OSes, and after five years, stop doing that.

2) Microsoft sometimes cooks up "universal" drivers for a class of
device. These may work out-of-the-box. Or, the driver package is
a kit, requiring a minimal amount of work by the manufacturer.
Universal drivers are possible, when there is a semblance of
an industry standard mode of operation.

It is the Type (2) drivers that you should be looking for.
* So far,drivers for the Epson FX-100, FX-80, FX-80+ and the LX-80
all(more or less) work. 9-pin Epson generic driver works.
Problem is graphics is all low resolution.


I'm not an expert on Dot Matrix, but I'm willing to bet
there is some crusty old solution for them which is not (1).

http://geos-infobase.de/ND_DOCS/273IBM.HTM
* Check; found that early in the game; used their list that had the
P1093 included and tried drivers listed (those available); about half
worked.
Note "NewDeal print drivers will not work with other Windows, OS/2,
or DOS programs."; What "other" windows programs?
AND, "You must have NewDeal software to use NewDeal print drivers."
Well, they DO NOT say this mythical software will run in (any version
you care to list) Windows.
Lastly,they DO NOT SAY where to get it...and how much...


Panasonic KX-P1093 (IBM Mode) {x1}

So for some reason, they recommend IBM Mode for yours.
* Saw that. Where the heck are their "drivers",etc?
All useless blabber as fa as i can tell.


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/177512
* USEFUL chart and info

"Dot-Matrix Guidelines

Almost all dot-matrix printers emulate an Epson or an IBM printer.
Exceptions to this rule include Toshiba, Texas Instruments,
some Okidata and C.Itoh printers. All Panasonic, Star Micronics,
and Citizen dot-matrix printers default to an Epson emulation
mode but can also emulate an IBM printer if you change the
printer settings.

In general, try an Epson printer driver first, and then try
an IBM driver if necessary.
* Good point; will fiddle with IBM drivers;maybe i can get hi-res (AKA
readable) graphics.


Determine if the printer is a 9-pin or a 24-pin printer.
If a driver is installed, you can determine this by viewing
the available graphics resolutions. A 9-pin printer uses
resolution settings that are increments of 120 x 72.
* Thanks; my fiddling tells me it is 9-pin.

A 24-pin printer uses resolution settings that are increments
of 120 x 180 or 180 x 180. Then, determine if the printer is
capable of printing in color and if the printer uses a wide
carriage (can take paper that is up to 14 7/8 inches wide).

Use the following table to determine which driver to use.
"

Naturally, there isn't a hope of getting such info
for a modern OS. But, try the terminology in a search
and see what pops up.

For example, every user is expected to be a rocket scientist.
Here, a user launched his own rocket, with only a few
burn marks from the experience.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...d631635?auth=1
Methinks he should have upgraded by returning to what he had for OS
(XP?) and the older Quickbooks.
Also bitch like crazy to QB about their (in effect) useless software).
Maybe even take them to small claims court: time wasted, equipment
rendered truly useless, money lost, etc.




Paul

Paul wrote:
Robert Baer wrote:
Good Guy wrote:
On 18/08/2015 13:06, micky wrote:
Seems to me, someone should be able to write a printer driver driver,
that will take the output from XP, 7, 8, or 10 and convert it to what
the output from win98 or XP would look like, to be used as input for
old
printers. So that old printers -- and other accessories -- could be
used with new versions of windows.

So it woudln't have to be printer-specific,

If this won't work, how come?

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.


Of course there are people writing drivers for old printers for new OS.
The only problem is that they have over-advertised themselves and so
people are wary of them. They stick their Ad in almost anything, even
in articles when you focus on a particular word, something pops up.
People have said enough is enough and so they just ignore them.

Do a search and you will find lots of them but be careful about them.
Some are good and some are pure evil. they will take you and your bank
to cleaners.


Well,there is NOTHING for the Panasonic KX-P1093 (including NO manuals).


Don't forget, that for old kit, there are *two* classes of drivers.

1) The manufacturer driver. They get tired of making drivers for
new OSes, and after five years, stop doing that.

2) Microsoft sometimes cooks up "universal" drivers for a class of
device. These may work out-of-the-box. Or, the driver package is
a kit, requiring a minimal amount of work by the manufacturer.
Universal drivers are possible, when there is a semblance of
an industry standard mode of operation.

It is the Type (2) drivers that you should be looking for.

I'm not an expert on Dot Matrix, but I'm willing to bet
there is some crusty old solution for them which is not (1).

http://geos-infobase.de/ND_DOCS/273IBM.HTM

Panasonic KX-P1093 (IBM Mode) {x1}

So for some reason, they recommend IBM Mode for yours.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/177512

"Dot-Matrix Guidelines

Almost all dot-matrix printers emulate an Epson or an IBM printer.
Exceptions to this rule include Toshiba, Texas Instruments,
some Okidata and C.Itoh printers. All Panasonic, Star Micronics,
and Citizen dot-matrix printers default to an Epson emulation
mode but can also emulate an IBM printer if you change the
printer settings.

In general, try an Epson printer driver first, and then try
an IBM driver if necessary.

Determine if the printer is a 9-pin or a 24-pin printer.
If a driver is installed, you can determine this by viewing
the available graphics resolutions. A 9-pin printer uses
resolution settings that are increments of 120 x 72.
A 24-pin printer uses resolution settings that are increments
of 120 x 180 or 180 x 180. Then, determine if the printer is
capable of printing in color and if the printer uses a wide
carriage (can take paper that is up to 14 7/8 inches wide).

Use the following table to determine which driver to use.
"

Naturally, there isn't a hope of getting such info
for a modern OS. But, try the terminology in a search
and see what pops up.

For example, every user is expected to be a rocket scientist.
Here, a user launched his own rocket, with only a few
burn marks from the experience.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...d631635?auth=1


Paul
Reference: the Epson FX-80 driver for the Panasonic KX-P1093.

The KB177512 article was the most useful, but the FX-850 seems to be
for a 24-pin printer and drives the KX-P1093 absolutely NUTS.
The IBM Generic Graphics driver produces graphics with worse
resolution (read: crappy); there is no "wide" version available.
The IBM Proprinter and Proprinter XL drivers work; the Epson FX-80 is
just as good.
The Epson FX-1050 driver looks the same, ditto for the Epson 9-pin
driver.
BUT..
Hold onto your hat!
Using the Epson JX-80 (color) driver gives excellent results!

Much thanks!
((now to see if that driver exists in Win7))

In article ,
micky wrote:

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.

Beats me why Microsoft have to change things so that older printer drivers
don't work any way. After all, a program sends the print request to the OS
which then sends the information to the driver, why change stuff?

Well, actually Microsoft are in cahoots with hardware manufacturers to
make sure you have to keep buying new printers etc.

--
Stuart Winsor

Tools With A Mission
sending tools across the world
http://www.twam.co.uk/

In microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:00:55
+0100, Stuart wrote:

In article ,
micky wrote:

It annoys me that not only do they want us to buy a new version of
Windows, which often means a new computer, but then we have to buy new
printers, etc.

Beats me why Microsoft have to change things so that older printer drivers
don't work any way. After all, a program sends the print request to the OS
which then sends the information to the driver, why change stuff?

Well, actually Microsoft are in cahoots with hardware manufacturers to
make sure you have to keep buying new printers etc.

Yeah, I'm sure that's the reason. I wonder what MS gets out of it.