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Compatible Laser printer with a TI-99/4A


sparkdrummer

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I have a strong desire to reprint the newsletters that I put together for the VAST users group that I was a member of. I have all scanned and put together in pdf form, but the reproduction of a dot matrix printout was less than desired.

 

Does anyone know of a laser printer with centronics input and Epson compatible that will work with a TI? The software for final printout was Pagepro composer (and it took a LONG time for each page to print, but worth it).

 

Anyhow, just looking for a potential better quality print of my work.

 

Or maybe some form of PC sotware that captures the printout of a parallel output to image???

 

conTInuing,

-Ralph...

 

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IIRC correctly early laser printers had a parallel port, and would not print until you printed to every line on a page. I remeber writing something for alarms on a SCADA system that worked that way. To force the page to print one simply had to send an appropriate number of CRs to force the printer to start a new page.

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and then there's the fact that USB replaced centronics interfaces on most printers long ago.
I don't think I've had a printer that included a centronics connector since around 2005.

The only laser printer I could find on Amazon that is listed as centronics for under $1000 is a discontinued HP and it was almost $1000.
HP and Brother don't even list a centronics laser printer on their websites anymore.

You might check recycled PC stores for a centronics laser printer you can still buy toner cartridges for.
I wonder whether your software could output data in a format it understands though.

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Fred Kaal has software that runs on a PC that captures the printed output from a TI to allow you to then print using your PC. Check out his website. I don't have the URL to hand, I'm afraid.

 

Looks like we posted darn near simultaneously, anyway ...

 

This link to Fred's site is: http://www.ti99-geek.nl/

After you get there, click on 'PROJECTS' it's the third row from the bottom.

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Wow! I just love the TI community!

 

I will definitely check out Fred's site for that software - it will be great if it works.

 

Attached is a pdf of one of my favorite issues because of the Escher cover.

 

The originals scanned for making into a pdf were pretty light because I didn't have bux for a new ribbon and it reflects it.

VAST News 12 10.pdf

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My LaserJet will print text via its parallel port (full 80x66, no less,) but you have to terminate a page with a proper code. Damn if I remember what that is. I know that sending a page to it from my TI or Amiga via parallel it would sit with the job light blinking until either I hit the "Go" button or sent it some termination character. Been so long I cannot recall what it is.... arrrrrrgh.

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** UPDATE **

I found an old copy of Page Pro 99 on an image of my old original master disk, I loaded it up, and tried it in both emulation modes... NADA. I have no clue why some programs work and others do not. Maybe someone is up to making a new driver selection for the HDX print program?

 

 

 

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Check the following articles in MICROpendium:

 

Nov93 Page 14 Laser Printers

 

Oct94 Page 26 Inkjet Printers

 

Nov95 Page 24 Canon BJC-4000 Bubblejet

A Canon BJC-300(?) was the last printer that I used with my TI. It was a workhorse too - I only got rid of it when my sister gave me her HP all in one. In hind sight, I should have kept it though.

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tiprint from fred http://www.ti99-geek.nl/

(click on projects)

 

is the only way to go.. it emulates two dot matrix printers supported by TI software.. and just needs a rs232 card and straight through cable to your pc.. if you have HDX you can use it in conjunction with the same cable at the same time

 

Greg

Edited by arcadeshopper
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As I said before, man do I love the ti community!!!!!

I am going to try Fred's software first and hope it will recognize pagepro composer output. If it works, my plan is to send the page(s) it captures and send them to adobe distiller - making the PDF creation hopefully less painful then printing and then scanning. Wish me luck!

 

conTInuing,

Ralph

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As I said before, man do I love the ti community!!!!!

I am going to try Fred's software first and hope it will recognize pagepro composer output. If it works, my plan is to send the page(s) it captures and send them to adobe distiller - making the PDF creation hopefully less painful then printing and then scanning. Wish me luck!

 

conTInuing,

Ralph

 

Cool you can print to a pdf on the pc if you have that driver installed..

 

maybe we can beg Fred into adding mx-80 or star support

 

Greg

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Form Feed (11) should end a page and force a print.. IRST that worked when I used my TI on my inkjet back in the day. ;)

 

Aw, shebang! That was it! Not 11, though, it is ASCII 12 (CTRL-L, ^L, >0C, etc.) I kept thinking that, but kept second-guessing because I could not find my notes.

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