XyWin and USB printers (Was: Cannot Load Printer)

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

Richard Giering  wrote:

> Has anyone on the list tried a USB Printer??? It woulld appear that
> XYWIN is really a modified DOS app to run under windows rather than a
> true windows app. Carl, comment?? If my perception is correct, members
> of the list should be aware that XY will NEVER be capable of supporting
> USB printers, either directly or via windows.

I haven't followed this discussion in its entirety, but I just tried
printing from XyWrite for Windows (version 4.13) to my Hewlett Packard
OfficeJet G85 which has only a USB port, and it works just fine
. In the Printer Setup dialog box of XyWin, the option "Use
Windows fonts only" is checked and the Windows printer driver for the HP
G Series is selected. The connection from the computer to the printer is
straight USB to USB (i.e. no parallel-to-USB conversion involved). So
XyWin is definitely able to print to a USB printer. My OS is Windows 98
SE.

Therefore, for people wanting to print from XyWrite for DOS to a USB
printer, using XyWin as an intermediary looks like a possible solution
(unless my HP USB printer is an utter exception and this really isn't
possible with other USB printers). The advantage here over Tim Baehr's
program would be that the file formats for Xy4DOS and XyWin are exactly
the same, so that all formatting information is retained (and one can
further edit the file either in Xy4DOS or in XyWin).


I am in fact very glad that this exchange prompted me to try out the HP
printer with XyWin. So far, whenever I wanted to print from XyWin, I
used a Brother HL-1240 laser printer connected via the parallel port.
This works, too, but there was the old annoyance of every page after the
first one coming out as "black on gray" unless I stuck a
≪bg255,255,255≫ at the top of the file. With the HP G85 on the USB
port, XyWin prints multiple pages just fine, without this quirk. I don't
print all that often from XyWin, but when I do, I'll use the HP from now
on.

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx