VOGONS

Common searches


First post, by Peter Swinkels

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Hi,

I have searched the internet and the forum and am fairly sure this question has been asked and answered before but I can't seem to find it.

Is it possible to print (just text, no graphics) from inside DOSBox to the printer connected to my Windows 7 pc?

I am playing with an old Quick Basic program that uses the LPRINT statement to send text to a printer and not trying to use some one business app for serious use. I know DOSBox isn't meant for that. 😀

Thanks in advance.

Do not read if you don't like attention seeking self-advertisements!

Did you read it anyway? Well, you can find all sorts of stuff I made using various programming languages over here:
https://github.com/peterswinkels

Reply 5 of 9, by Gene Wirchenko

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Peter Swinkels wrote:
Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

I have searched the internet and the forum and am fairly sure this question has been asked and answered before but I can't seem to find it.

Is it possible to print (just text, no graphics) from inside DOSBox to the printer connected to my Windows 7 pc?

I am playing with an old Quick Basic program that uses the LPRINT statement to send text to a printer and not trying to use some one business app for serious use. I know DOSBox isn't meant for that. 😀

Thanks in advance.

I have the DOSBox Megabuild that has printer support.

Can anyone tell me if I can send him a copy? Legitimately, of course.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Reply 6 of 9, by dr_st

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I bet you can, but the Wayback Machine still has cached versions of the Megabuild available for download:
http://web.archive.org/web/20161130233554/htt … .de/h-a-l-9000/

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 7 of 9, by JosSchaars

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Don’t think DOS users will be satisfied by a DOSBox mod ‘supporting printing’. That involves more than just sending ASCII data to a parallel or serial port. Most modern PC’s don’t have such ports, while printers often don’t support ASCII data streams.

Reply 8 of 9, by Azarien

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
JosSchaars wrote:

Don’t think DOS users will be satisfied by a DOSBox mod ‘supporting printing’. That involves more than just sending ASCII data to a parallel or serial port. Most modern PC’s don’t have such ports, while printers often don’t support ASCII data streams.

If you think of just redirecting emulated LPT1 to real hardware LPT1 then that's not very useful (requiring old or specialized printer) - but there's nothing preventing DOSBox from emulating text-mode printer by rendering the text just like Word and other applications do.

Reply 9 of 9, by JosSchaars

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I didn’t think that, even to the contrarily: DOS printing to modern printers is more complex (That involves more than…). Sure, nothing would prevent DOSBox to do that, it’s just also more than a mere ‘like Word and other applications do’.