What about network printing?

Well, maybe - but how do you do that in DOS? And then you have the issue of drivers, I don't suppose any DOS programs have drivers that would work with modern printers.

They still make laser printers with PCL and PostScript support. Both are supported by Windows and by the vast majority of DOS software.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Well, maybe - but how do you do that in DOS? And then you have the issue of drivers, I don't suppose any DOS programs have drivers that would work with modern printers.

Uhm, why do you worry so much ? Printers are the most supported piece of hardware with the longest life span.
Besides, old style printers never really went out of prodution (doctors still need them).
In fact, you can get fairly new dot-matrix printers, for example.
Epson still sells them. Have a look at this page: http://www.epson.ae/ae/en/viewcon/corporatesi … /cms/index/1010
The random model I did choose (Epson LX-1350) comes with three (!) port: Serial, Parallel and USB.

The only real problem would be software wise (the driver thing). Support only mentions Win98 as the oldest version.
But perhaps you can also use one of these old standard protocols, like PostScript or HPGL (old plotter language).
Or the driver for an earlier "LX" model.. Or just plain ASCII.

NJRoadfan wrote:

They still make laser printers with PCL and PostScript support. Both are supported by Windows and by the vast majority of DOS software.

Jo22 wrote:

Uhm, why do you worry so much ? Printers are the most supported piece of hardware with the longest life span.
Besides, old style printers never really went out of prodution (doctors still need them).
In fact, you can get fairly new dot-matrix printers, for example.

Well, yes - but I'm headed off to college and the printer I'm going to have is pretty much guaranteed to be a standard inkjet all-in-one (HP Officejet, or something other such equivalent style).

HP isn't going to support those latest printers on Windows 98, are they? Maybe they are and I'm just spouting hot air.

Maybe not; this comes from an "HP Support Agent" on their forums:

The earliest Operating System that currently has print drivers is Windows XP.

You could print to a file (PDF for instance or PS or any other universal format) then move the file to a modern computer and print from there.

An example using Ghostscript http://www.milec.com/en/gs_dos.htm

keenmaster486 wrote:

Well, yes - but I'm headed off to college and the printer I'm going to have is pretty much guaranteed to be a standard inkjet all-in-one (HP Officejet, or something other such equivalent style).

You shouldn't let your retro hobby interfere with important stuff. There is a time and place for using a modern computer, this is probably one of them.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Well, yes - but I'm headed off to college and the printer I'm going to have is pretty much guaranteed to be a standard inkjet al […]
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NJRoadfan wrote:

They still make laser printers with PCL and PostScript support. Both are supported by Windows and by the vast majority of DOS software.

Jo22 wrote:

Uhm, why do you worry so much ? Printers are the most supported piece of hardware with the longest life span.
Besides, old style printers never really went out of prodution (doctors still need them).
In fact, you can get fairly new dot-matrix printers, for example.

Well, yes - but I'm headed off to college and the printer I'm going to have is pretty much guaranteed to be a standard inkjet all-in-one (HP Officejet, or something other such equivalent style).

HP isn't going to support those latest printers on Windows 98, are they? Maybe they are and I'm just spouting hot air.

Maybe not; this comes from an "HP Support Agent" on their forums:

The earliest Operating System that currently has print drivers is Windows XP.

Ah, okay, that makes sense. I thought you were worried about new printers in general.
Didn't know you have to use an existing, unsupported model.
In this case you've got to try older drivers or one of the standard languages.
Chances are good that it supports either PCL (raster based) or its "Brother" language (pun intended!) HPGL (vector based).
Back in time this worked at least for the Deskjet and LaserJet series I used (Deskjet 500c, for example).
But saying this, I've never tried this with the more modern models. In worst case, you're confronted with one of these cheap GDI-Printers (aka Windows-Printers).
Unfortunately they don't support anything at all. In this case your last hope is to get one of HP's "Universal Printer Drivers" to work.
Older versions can be found on ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/UPD/

Here are a few links I've found while searching the web. Nothing special, though:

HP Printers and HP Plotters - PostScript (R) / PCL Comparison
"What is PostScript?" "When would you need to use PostScript?" "What is PCL?"
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/dis … emr_na-bpo00141

Understanding HPGL
"Although HPGL was intended for HP's line of pen plotters, variants have found their way into inkjet and laser printers.
PCL, on the other hand, is strictly used by HP for its raster devices and is very slowly loosing favor to PostScript
and Windows-based direct-GDI."
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/people/faculty/seaboch/hpgl.htm

Information on Printers from HP
"This document contains information on the capabilities that are supported on printer hardware from Hewlett-Packard (HP)."
* It also mentions the "Epson ESC/P2" printer language I've never heard of. It seems it was used by other manufacturers, too. Interesting.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1019534

HP's History Of Printer Command Language (PCL)
History about PCL. It says that PCL5 from the mid-90s got "HP-GL/2" compatibility.
Cool, didn't know that. That feature was added a bit late, though.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/hppclhist.html

Whats is your modern printer? does is suppurt PCL or Ghostscript?

Is it okay to print from your dos-apps in a Command Prompt inside Windows?
(there is a programm that captures LPT1 and send it to the real printer)

You can also do network printing, need a second pc with a virtual postscript printer that is network shared, and converts the data on the fly to print it on the modern printer.

(this is the way with printing to pdf/ps , but no need to handle with usb-sticks or do manually printing on the modern pc)

keenmaster486 wrote:

Well, maybe - but how do you do that in DOS? And then you have the issue of drivers, I don't suppose any DOS programs have drivers that would work with modern printers.

You could use a network client for DOS, and use LPT2 as an alias to the network queue. Don't worry about drivers, it's easy to buy a new network printer that supports PCL or PS.

Or you could run some program that "dumps" raw data printer from LPT1 (I had one of those) and then copy that file to a newer machine and send it from that PC.

I tested today the Program Printmaster if i can get it to Print on a newer Printer.

Here a some tipps if you need Printing with old Dos-Programms:

First i install (in Windows) an Epson FX80 Printer Driver.
I set the Output to File (C:/Epson.prn)

Then you can share the Fx80-Printer and mount it on an Other PC (Dos Win3.11, Windows98)
Or if you print on the same PC where the FX80 Driver is installed, you can use DOSPRINT to redirect LPT1 to the EpsonFX80 Printer.

Use printmaster setup and change Printer type to EPSON-FX.

When i Print, the Data is saved to C:/epson.prn

Now the Second Programm: DOSPRINTER
It reads the epson.prn file and renders it as a graphic.
Now you can save it to a PDF or print it directly on your modern Printer.

Assuming TCP/IP is running... and the shared printer is a real printer (real laserjet compatible) from my actual use

net use lpt1 \\servername\shared_queue_name

EDIT:

Also works in DOS Window on same PC to say install modern printer (again I still use a real HP laserjet compatible) setup in Windows on a USB port. Then manually install the same printer on the unused lpt1 port and then use p0rinter pooling to 'tie' the two ports together

SquallStrife wrote:

keenmaster486 wrote:

Well, yes - but I'm headed off to college and the printer I'm going to have is pretty much guaranteed to be a standard inkjet all-in-one (HP Officejet, or something other such equivalent style).

You shouldn't let your retro hobby interfere with important stuff. There is a time and place for using a modern computer, this is probably one of them.

I second this. Old computers are a lot of fun and all. But sometimes a old computer just can't cut it.
If you can get by with a old computer and have a retro hobby like I do go ahead a d use a old PC. I had a 10year old PC in school my self. But my hobby is mostly finding away to get old computers to do new stuff.

What Programms you wanna print from?

Dos ? Word for Dos?

Windows 98? Office ?

today I found out DOSPrinter is still seeing updates - March 2017.
http://dosprinter.net/

I've been trying to keep my eyes open for a DOS LPT port to LPR print server redirector, or even a WPDOS LPR printer driver. Anyone ever make one?