On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 09:16:19PM +0800, Paolo Alexis Falcone wrote: | Hello: | | I've checked the printer compatibility list, and most printers that | are listed are either inkjet or laser printers. Is there any way to | print using dot matrix printers? I still have an old Epson LX-300 | printer on my desk - would appreciate if it would work in Linux. I | also have an HP Deskjet 670c but the prohibitive cost of HP ink | cartridges here in the Philippines is quite a turn off. Any help on | this?
Many modern printers (especially inkjet) require certain data streams in order to print something. For example, Apple laser printers require Postscript. Many new inkjets require PPA (some half-baked proprietary win-modem style protocol). This is why there are the filters and compatibility lists. In the "old" days, however, printers simply took a stream of ASCII characters and dumped them to the page. Some printers would understand certain escape sequences to set some proprerties (but these were non-printing characters anyways). Since you have an old dot matrix printer it should work just fine as long as you have a filter than can convert from Postscript to plain-text. Most Unix programs can output postscript which is why you need that translation. If you have a good enough printer and filter you may even be able to get graphics and different fonts (as graphics) to print reasonably. HTH, -D
