Printing An Overview

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Printing (An Overview)

• File and print services were one of the major
  benefits of Windows for Workgroups
• The most common early PC networks used Novell
  Netware 3 for printing
• Dot-matrix printers were the normal standard,
  often using continuous stationery
• The most common nuisances were noise and having
  to re-align the paper

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Printer Technology

• Dot-matrix printers were solid, if clunky and had
  the ability to survive an earthquake,
  particularly the Epsons
• Decent printers were very expensive and often
  beyond the reach of small organizations
• Colour printing was almost always professionally
  done

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The decline of the dot-matrix

• Dot-matrix PC printers were controlled by
  relatively simple DOS-based control characters
• People wanted more sophisticated printing,
  particularly more variety in fonts and size
• There were improvements in ink technology and in
  printer hardware

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Printing Protocols

• The old gold standard of printing was PostScript,
  developed by Adobe and used by Apple
  (Laserwriters). See http//www.gkss.de/W3/PS/posts
  cript.html
• HP used PCL (Program Control Language) for their
  laser printers and then began to use it for
  inkjets and bubblejets.
• Windows 3.1 introduced Truetype fonts

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Colour Arrives

• Early HP deskjets were black-and-white only
• Colour deskjets started appearing in 1993-94. The
  resolution (300 dpi dots per inch) was not very
  good and cartridges were expensive
• Currently interpolated dpi ( up to 1400 etc) is
  probably higher than the human eye can distinguish

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Personal Printers and PCs

• Under Windows 3.1 you simply opened Control
  Panel/Printers and used Add Printer. You might
  have to use Have Disk if there were no old
  Windows 3.1 drivers for it
• This is still the way in which you manually add a
  printer under Windows 2000
• The great change was in Windows 95 with the
  introduction of Plug-and-Pray

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Printer Woes

• Windows 95 stamped printers were supposed to be
  able to be detected by PnP
• Windows NT 3.5 and 4 is not a PnP system so
  printers have to be added manually
• Windows NT uses GDI (Graphics Device Interface)
  to render the job in the language of the device
  it is talking to.

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Windows 9X v NT Printers

• Manufacturers like HP assumed (wrongly!) that
  people wouldnt want small cheap printers for
  Windows NT
• Sites running NT were expected to use NT server
  as a print server and to run large laserjets
• HP also assumed that nobody would keep a deskjet
  for much more than a year...

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Windows 9X v NT Printers

• Very few deskjets (ie the ordinary personal
  printers) were NT-compatible between 1996-1998
• Belatedly HP did provide NT-compatible drivers
  for most of them. Check http//www.hp.com/cposuppo
  rt/eschome.html
• Mostly because Epson and Lexmark re-entered the
  market

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What do I look for in a personal printer?

• Speed
  - measured in
  pages-per-minute.
  If the user is administrative, this can
  be crucial
• Horizontal feeding if possible
  - pages are less likely to get jammed
• Noise - a shared office or library?
  
  There will be complaints!

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Dos and Donts

• NT 4 does not support USB. So no USB printers
• Decent paper. Too light and it may jam/misfeed in
  the printer - and damage it!
• Dont buy a cheap printer for heavy usage. -
  Black-and-white laser printers are relatively
  cheap
• Dont use recycled cartridges too often -
  they do the printer no good and may shorten its
  life

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What about Photo-Realistic printers?

• Fine if you want to print out your homesnaps
• Because the interpolation is very high, colour
  printing is slow
• Black-and-white printing may also be extremely
  slow
• They eat ink, particularly colour cartridges
  (expensive)

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Running Costs

• Depends on usage. Colour cartridges can be up to
  40, and these go very quickly
• If you put printers in a public area, expect to
  get through at least three cartridges a year
• Probably best to supply paper (free or charged
  for) since cheap paper can damage printers
• CS charges 4p a sheet, 50p colour

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Network Printing

• NT server happily works with Windows 3.1, Windows
  9X and NT workstations
• It renders printing jobs as EMF (enhanced
  Metafile) or RAW (if Postscript)
• You do not have to install individual printer
  drivers on these machines
• An NT print server can talk to Apple Macs but
  there are sometimes zone problems

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Further References

• http//www.lebarge.com/clark/winnt4/NTPrinting/ntp
  rint1.htm gives a full and detailed description
  of NT network printing
• http//support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q
  209/4/83.ASP for a general problem with HP
  drivers (install the latest!)
• NT Resource Kit has some useful tips on printers

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Network Printing Dos and Donts

• Do buy at least three years on-site maintenance
  with your network printer - it saves the
  hassle factor
• Do make sure that your printer is up to the job
  (try and estimate print output and look at the
  printer specifications)
  - no deskjets!
• Do make sure that someone is responsible for
  paper supply if you are away...

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Network Printing Problems

• NT 3.5(1) Server and NT 4 workstations have
  problems - upgrade to NT4 server
• Make sure that users cant reset the printers
  properties (changing default from EMFgtRAW) can be
  catastrophic
• Set a limit where possible on the size/length of
  files users can send to the printer
• Make sure that users defaults are set to A4, not
  letter!

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Non-NT Printer Server Setups

• If you are a small group and only have one
  printer then it can normally be shared
  successfully (assuming Win 9X or NT)
• You will need local accounts on the machine which
  is attached to the printer
• You will need to install the printer driver on
  every machine which needs to access it
• Dont use a machine with confidential data on it
  (eg CAPSA) to share the printer from!

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Who needs personal printers?

• Everyone believes that they need a personal
  printer (My work is very important) -
  This is not necessarily true
• Staff who standardly print confidential documents
  probably do need one (for obvious reasons)
• Heads of Departments and other VIPs dont
  necessarily need one but may have to have one

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Printing v Photocopying

• The two technologies have recently begun to
  converge which can be confusing
• Some deskjets now offer double-sided printing eg
  HP Deskjet 895CXI
• Be a little wary - this substantially slows down
  printing and you must let the ink dry
• Deskjet colour fades very quickly (three months)
  and is really not suitable for documents which
  need to be kept!

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Printing v Photocopying

• For good quality print masters (black-and-white)
  on a laser and then photocopy to
  double-sided/multiple
• For best quality (especially for colour graphics)
  use a colour laserjet (3000)
• If you dont have access to one then try
  http//www.cam.ac.uk/CS/PIS/

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Printer Troubleshooting It Doesnt
Work

• Check that the printer is still set as the
  default (there may be more than one listed)
• Try and print a testpage on the printer
• Ask the user if theyve changed anything recently
• Re-install the drivers and/or try downloading the
  most recent drivers from the manufacturers website

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Printer Troubleshooting

• Try the clean/align print head options most
  printers have nowadays if the printer keeps
  complaining
• Check that the user is using decent paper and
  that it is actually being picked up by the
  printer
• Check that the printer will work on another
  machine

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Printer Troubleshooting It never worked!

• Try installing/using a generic driver instead of
  the specific one for the printer eg HP
  Deskjet/Laserwriter
• WordPerfect 5.1 or 6 have their own printer
  drivers- use the nearest to the printer you can
  see on whats offered
• Old printers - the printer may have run out of
  buffer memory

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Font Problems

• Printers often have their own fonts installed -
  If you are using a non-standard font like Sabon
  you should probably download it to the printer
• Times Roman on a Mac is not necessarily the same
  as Times Roman on a PC - beware!
• Non-interpretable characters. If you have foreign
  scripts in a document you may need the font(s)
  they use as well!

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Print to File

• If you dont have a local printer or one with you
  you can use Print to File
• Print to File uses whatever you have installed as
  your default printer
• Therefore if your normal printer is a Laserjet 4
  elsewhere install the Laserjet 4 drivers on your
  portable!
• Dont be surprised if things look different on a
  different printer

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Time for a New Printer?

• A local firm charges 50.00 for an initial
  callout for printer problems - a new printer will
  probably cost 150.00-200.00 pounds
• Printer parts (especially inkjets) are
  increasingly hard to come by, so you may be
  waiting a long time
• Complicated graphics may take up to three times
  as long on an old printer (buffer limitations)

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Any questions?