Can you print to a USB printer in DOS?

[pinhead]

I have a user with a machine that is running DOS only (windows is not installed on this machine).

His old printer died, so he went and bought one that only has USB (HP Deskjet 3740).

I've found some info through google regarding capturing the port, however, I don't know how to capture the port in DOS or if it can even be done.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Matt

[NooNoo]

I think you may be SOL...

Mostly because you would need dos drivers for the usb and a dos driver for the printer... the dos usb may be possible, but not the printer

Everything is geared to allowing dos programs to print from windows...

[Moostang]

I am with NooNoo on this, I think you are SOL
One of our programs here at work, is in DOS, the only ways we can tell people to do it, is to have them share the printer in windows then we send out a copy or print command, copying the file to the share (however you can't do it in XP). There are also Dos print utilities out there you can use, however they also involve using windows.

[ShadowWynd]

I agree with the other posters that you SOL. You're best bet would be to start looking at old printers on eBay. Quite a few parallel port printers don't work in straight ASCII DOS mode either - quite a few of the Canon bubble jets and some of the HP inkjets are like this. Most of the laser printers can use the original HP Laserjet specs, but Laserjet support depends on the program you are using (I know WP and several other DOS programs had LaserJet support).

Either that, or you can try printing to a file and pick the file up on a floppy and carry it to system with windows on it.

There was one situation I encountered where my clients had a system with Windows on it, but they needed to print from DOS apps they were running under Windows. Capturing the port didn't work (as it was a USB printer). I shared the printer attatched to the computer on the network, then set the DOS program to print to the network printer - which it did happily.

[houseisland]

Ditto on the SOL.

Apart from the driver issues for USB and DOS....

Most modern (inexpensive) printers are Windows Graphics printers. The work of processing the print job is handled by the operating system, not the printer itself. DOS will not print to these printers, even if they are parallel interface.

Any laser printer with a Post Script or PCL print engine (and a parallel interface) will accept DOS print jobs. Dot matrix and older (DOS/W3.11/early W95-era) inkjet printers will also accept DOS print jobs.

[slgrieb]

USB printer ports are virtual printer ports which don't exist outside of Windows. Can't print to them from DOS. Check out vendors like Linco Computer, Minnesota Computer, Compucycle and local resellers for parallel printers that will work for you per houseisland's post. I like HP LJ 4's or 4000's. Both are very robust, cheap to run, cheap to fix (especially the LJ4) and deliver great print quality with decent speed. Supplies and parts for both are easy to get.

[ironwill99]

I was going to suggest some sort of usb to parallel converter but that wouldn't work anyway since most entry level ink jet printers rely on software to work properly (I think the print processor is emulated). I can vouch for the LJ 4L. Mine has been going strong since 1993.

[NooNoo]

I can vouch for the LJ 4L. Mine has been going strong since 1993.

Mine too!