how to make use of daisy wheel printer

[Fred Cisin]

On Sun, 30 May 2021, dwight via cctalk wrote:
> I had a Brother daisy wheel that would do a single step of the stepper 
> and a second strike, for bold. You need to have the right esc sequence. 
> Just about every printer is different until HP had a standard( pscl5 as 
> I recall ).

Prior to the HP PCL (Printer Command Language), quite a few printers put 
in Epson [MX80] emulation.

HP introduced PCL in 1984.

When they introduced the LaserJet["Minus"] (still in 1984) they were up to 
PCL 3.

LaserJet PLUS got PCL 4.  That remained active for a very long time.
"Intellifont" font scaling was in PCL 5 (for LaserJet III?)

PCL 6 (1995?) was optimized for Windows.


In terms of "backwards compatability", EVERY subsequent operating system 
SHOULD be capable of working with all prior drivers, albeit without 
whatever new features that have been added.
And, EVERY new[er] model or printer SHOULD be capable of working with the 
older printer drivers, albeit without whatever new features that have been 
added.
When you upgrade your hardware, OR upgrade your software, you SHOULD be 
able to immediately function with your existing drivers, unless/until you 
get newer drivers that include the added features.


I remember the "techs" at the college computer lab bought a new 
"all in one" HP "OfficeJet"? printer and a new version of Windows (XP?), 
and were "UNABLE to obtain drivers"!

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com