Horun wrote on 2020-04-22, 02:44:

Hmm you could not network print from XP even though there are drivers for XP ? That does not sound good. Are you sure your router is not part of the issue ? Possibly blocking some ports.. Just a thought as I do see Xp32 and XP 64 drivers for your printer which should allow network printing if configured properly.

I think OP meant that he could not print from Windows 98 to the printer shared by XP . At least that's how I understood it .

Horun wrote on 2020-04-22, 02:44:

Hmm you could not network print from XP even though there are drivers for XP ? That does not sound good. Are you sure your router is not part of the issue ? Possibly blocking some ports.. Just a thought as I do see Xp32 and XP 64 drivers for your printer which should allow network printing if configured properly.

That won't work. You have to have drivers for the printer you are using for the OS you are trying to print from if you are sharing or using a network printer.

It's possible to install the network printing suplment for windows 98
https://www.thewichitacomputerguy.com/blog/st … sing-windows-98
Then the driver you are going to use is a generic HP laser JET PCL6 driver.

It will print plain text black n white. Your printer should support PCL6

Btw I know this works with any network attached printer that is using Ethernet that supports HP PCL6
you printer does support pcl 6

Warlord wrote on 2020-04-22, 04:30:

It's possible to install the network printing suplment for windows 98 https://www.thewichitacomputerguy.com/blog/st … sing-wind […]
Show full quote

It's possible to install the network printing suplment for windows 98
https://www.thewichitacomputerguy.com/blog/st … sing-windows-98
Then the driver you are going to use is a generic HP laser JET PCL6 driver.

It will print plain text black n white. Your printer should support PCL6

Btw I know this works with any network attached printer that is using Ethernet that supports HP PCL6
you printer does support pcl 6

According to my understanding of the manual and other references, OP's printer does not support PCL 6 or any version of PCL or PostScript .

oh you are right i miss read theres another printer with almost the same name that does. Yeah sorry about that your printer is no good for windows 98. Find a printer that supports pcl 5 or 6 and you retry my advice.

There's another protocol/printer language to try.. Good old HPGL.

It was supported by various plotters and popular printers,
including HP LaserJet Plus and HP Deskjet 500. :)

Edit: Makes me wonder why no one mentioned it yet.
Did it already become a forgotten relic, just as DXF vector graphics format ?

I used to "print" into HPGL files, in order to let my PenMan plotter robot from the 80s become alive.
To do so, I saved my AutoSketch (DOS) drawings as HPGL files and used COPY command to send it over serial..

Boy, times seemingly have changed. Still miss that little robot. :(

Yes I miss read and thought OP could not print from XP to the Brother printer.

I'm trying to go back to this, has anyone used CUPS-PDF to print from an old machine?

At this point I am tempted to get the version of my machine that does support PCL. I am so annoyed mine doesn't support it. I didn't know anything about PCL when I bought it, if I knew, I would have.

List of current-ish Brother printers that support PCL:
https://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c … _001#other-faqs

So here is an idea... Not sure if the software exists for it though. The ERP system we had where I used to work, saved files to a network folder and there was a service on the server that monitored that folder. Whenever something showed up in that folder, it printed to the printer.

If there is something like that, you could print to pdf to the network share and then the monitor service would print it and then delete the file.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-07-19, 21:29:

So here is an idea... Not sure if the software exists for it though. The ERP system we had where I used to work, saved files to a network folder and there was a service on the server that monitored that folder. Whenever something showed up in that folder, it printed to the printer.

This is kind of what I have been trying to do to no avail.
Is there a way to have a Raspberry Pi that would show up as a generic PCL printer on the network, and would save anything sent to it as a file, that then can be placed in a watch folder that my actual printer can access?

If there is something like that, you could print to pdf to the network share and then the monitor service would print it and then delete the file.

The problem is, there is NO software/drivers for Windows 9X that print to PDF, at least none I could find that would work.
If there was anything I could use that "prints" to PDF, this would be solved real quick. But afaik there isn't.

So I think the only solution would be what I described above: some sort of "generic laser printer emulator" running on the network that would work with standard Windows 9X drivers.

kikendo wrote on 2023-03-20, 20:16:

The problem is, there is NO software/drivers for Windows 9X that print to PDF, at least none I could find that would work.
If there was anything I could use that "prints" to PDF, this would be solved real quick. But afaik there isn't.

So I think the only solution would be what I described above: some sort of "generic laser printer emulator" running on the network that would work with standard Windows 9X drivers.

What about PDFCreator 0.9.3 ? I use this on Windows 95. It's a virtual printer that spits out a PDF-file from any print-capable application.

Not free but old copies of Adobe Acrobat installed a virtual pdf printer. (Version 5 been the most common version well into XP days)

leonardo wrote on 2023-03-21, 20:14:

What about PDFCreator 0.9.3 ? I use this on Windows 95. It's a virtual printer that spits out a PDF-file from any print-capable application.

I'll give that a try. It rings a bell, maybe I tried it. Will let you know, thanks!

chinny22 wrote on 2023-03-22, 11:30:

Not free but old copies of Adobe Acrobat installed a virtual pdf printer. (Version 5 been the most common version well into XP days)

I didn't know!
Everything is free nowadays , me matey, shiver me timbers!