brother MFC-7420 won't print from dos app

[Illinoisboy]

Okay I bought the wrong printer, it doesn't have any built in emulations and now I can't print from my dos-based scanning support program. when I tell the program to print, it sends what I thinks are page breaks because I end up getting blank pages. Nothing, not even garbage, but a page or more prints. Does anyone have a solution or do I need to get another printer with emulation? thanks - Mark


forgot to add: using windows 2000 and a a-b printer switch for brother mfc-7420 and a UPS label printer, both on lpt1

[Platypus]

According to the specifications, the MFC-7420 has only Windows and MacOS functionality. I don't know how responsive they are, but it could be worth trying Brother's email support service:

http://www.brother-usa.com/AskUs/default.aspx

to confirm if there is nothing that can be done.

[confus-ed]

For a 'sideways answer' :- can you not print to a file & then print that from windows ?

[Illinoisboy]

the dos software only allows me to print to a port (lpt1 or lpt2), I don'tknow how to make it print to a file.

[confus-ed]

.. using '>' generally sends something (text) somewhere's in dos, & '>>' adds text to something - e.g 'dir > lpt1' lists on your printer, 'dir >> list.txt' adds text {a directory listing} to the file 'list.txt' .. I think though even knowing that mayn't be helpful, if you can't save this output to a file from within the program.

So no options to save reports or such ? In which case, good suggestion, but no bloody good ! :D

[Illinoisboy]

OK - I don't think this is possible, so let me try another track. Screen capture and dump, from a DOS window, into windows clipboard, paste into notepad or wordpad and print. Possible?

[Illinoisboy]

OK guys-it worked. At least enough for me to get the reports I need. Thanks for your help!-Mark

[confus-ed]

..Thanks for your help!-Mark

You are welcome .. even though you 'fixed it' yourself :thumbs2: