Specifications

Mobile Users
Mobile printer users have limited platform choices because only thermal or small inkjet printers are
available. However, a checklist can still provide valuable guidance:
■ Same PDL or escape-sequence control as used by office printers to make field printing similar to
office printing
■ Parallel interface with optional PC Card or USB for portability between systems
■ Multiple-sheet paper feed to improve reliability of printing
■ Readily available ribbons, ink cartridges, or thermal paper (check your favorite office-supply
chain to see if you can get spares at any of their locations)
■ Print quality is more important than speed
All-in-One/Multifunction Users
Multifunction units are compromises, but careful study of the features of various units can help you
get the best balance of features for the money:
■ Flatbed scanner/copier mechanism with at least 300dpi optical resolution
■ 6ppm black-text minimum speed for inkjet-based models
■ 8ppm minimum speed for laser-based models
■ Copier that can run whether computer is on or off
■ Fax features
Installing Printer Support
As soon as you connect a typical printer with a PDL or escape-sequence controls onboard to your PC’s
parallel or serial port, it is capable of receiving and processing ASCII text input. Even before you
install a driver, you can issue a simple DOS command, such as the following:
dir > LPT1
The greater-than sign in this command redirects the directory listing to the PC’s parallel port. A
printer connected to that port will receive and print the listing using the printer’s default page format.
If the printer connected to your PC processes data a page at a time, you must manually eject the cur-
rent page to see the printed results. This is because the echo command does not include the form feed
escape sequence that causes the printer to eject the page.
You also can redirect a text file to the printer port using a command such as the following:
copy readme.txt > LPT1
These commands prove that the PC’s parallel or serial port provides a fully functional interface to the
printer, but to exercise any further control over the print job, you must install a printer driver.
However, if you are troubleshooting a system problem that prevents you from loading the Windows
printer drivers, this capability can be useful for printing documentation files or other documents.
Note
These simple tests will not work with most host-based printers. A few can perform these DOS-based tests from within a
DOS session running under Windows (a “DOS box”), but most require that printer drivers be installed first.