Last night, I tried to set up an older printer to a new laptop, but I kept running into driver issues. I’ve always dealt with that, but never understood what it was and why it was necessary.
In: 13
Yes, there is a standard. This is the interface between software that wants to print and the printer driver. All printer drivers support the same standard interface, to the degree the printer can do all those things (a color printer driver can’t make a B/W printer print in color).
But, in order to make varied products to optimally serve all the varied uses for printers, printer companies need to implement a conversion from the standard printer driver interface to the data their printer actually uses. Every printer company uses different inks and mechanisms, so it needs different conversions. Even within a printer company the laser printers work very differently from the inkjet printers (and don’t even get into the oddball label printers and the like).
Some printer companies make a “universal driver”, a giant program you install which simply contains all the conversions with a big “IF printer model 1 THEN … ELSE IF printer model 2 THEN …” switch statement at the top. This is easy but if they make 100 different models it takes up 100 times as much disk space (and potentially memory). Other printer companies make tiny drivers, one for each printer model, and if you install the wrong ones you can’t print. It’s a feature, not a bug.
Latest Answers