DOS printing through USB port

[Richard Swaby]

My Epson 740 printer has developed a fault on its parallel interface,
but it works fine through its USB port. I need to print from DOS
applications but I don't know of a way to do it through the USB
interface.

If anyone can tell me how to copy a straight ASCII file to the USB
port I'd be grateful.

Thanks

Richard

 

[Alan]

My Epson 740 printer has developed a fault on its parallel interface,
but it works fine through its USB port. I need to print from DOS
applications but I don't know of a way to do it through the USB
interface.

If anyone can tell me how to copy a straight ASCII file to the USB
port I'd be grateful.

See <http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/winprint.html#usbprint>
This works if you're running your DOS app under Windows.

Also, I think it's possible to make a cable to connect the PC RS-232
serial port to the Apple RS-423 serial port on the printer. That would
let you print from plain DOS.

 

[Davide Guolo]

Richard,

If anyone can tell me how to copy a straight ASCII file to the USB
port I'd be grateful.

if you are running a recent Windows version, you could share the USB printer
(say myprinter), then open a command prompt and type:

COPY filename.txt \\mypc\myprinter

If you do not know which is "mypc", you can probably find it out by typing:

ECHO %USERDOMAIN%

This method do not work on Win9x.

Alternatively you could try Printfil which can automatically pick-up your
file and send it to any Windows printer, including virtual printers, such as
faxmodems and PDF writers / e-mailers.
With Printfil you do not need to share your USB printer.

More info and a free trial is available for download at my web site.

Kind regards,
Davide Guolo
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Printfil - Windows Printing System for Applications
http://www.guolo.com/printfil
Odbc4All - Connection to ODBC Data Sources for any Application
http://www.guolo.com/odbc4all
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