USB vs Parallel printers

[mjgraz]

OK- I se were most of the new printers. PSC's use USB ports. VS the old printers that have parallel connection. What makes them so different.?
Is USB the way to go? and also what is bydirectional print?

 

[kiddpete]

USB has more communication ability and may be faster. If the printer supports parallel, and you have the cable anyway, it probably makes no difference.

Bi-directional printing used to mean that printing can be done in both directions (left and right motions of the print head). It may still mean that for inkjets although the concept is probably moot these days. In a laser, it has no meaning. You probably mean bi-directional communication. That's when the printer can talk to the computer.

 

[cdogg]

The move to USB back in the late 90's was primarily an "industry-standard" move. At first, there wasn't a major difference between the two in terms of overall performance. But as printers became faster, the difference started to show.

USB 1.1 is about 10 times faster than the older parallel interface. Now that doesn't mean that going with USB is going to make your printer print 10 times faster. Your printer still has a physical limitation on speed, regardless of how fast your PC can send it data.

But you will notice better overall times using USB on newer printers versus the older parallel. The extra headroom eventually pays off when sending print requests that contain a large amount of data (such as an image).


~cdogg
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