First post, by 1nanoprobe
One retro computing experience that most of us don't have anymore is printing, and for good reason. The printers are bulky, can be a pain to maintain, or may take special papers or inks.
To recreate that experience in a "practical" way, I've often wondered if a point-of-sale (receipt) printer could be used like a mini dot matrix. I'm talking about the older style impact printers, not thermal printers. Some have a parallel interface, and it seems like they should at least be able to output plain text. Isn't that all a really basic receipt is? It looks like it, but honestly, I don't know.
Anyway, I have no idea which models might work better for this or how functional a POS printer would even be. Do they use the same protocols as dot matrix? Do they need special drivers or software? It would be thrilling enough to be able to hit Print Screen and get a physical print out of a directory listing. But of course what would be really cool would be the ability to print out mini banners from Print Shop or clipart-laden, rich documents from WordPerfect, all in miniature.
I know nothing about POS printers, so this may be a bunch of nonsense. Does anyone have experience or advice to offer?