Your old printer can talk to anything
Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta
How do you print what you want?
By sending the file to your printer memory, of course. But, how do you do it? Let's count the ways.
If you have a stand-alone personal computer connected with a parallel cable to a printer, all you have to do is tell your operating system to do it. I have an old HP LaserJet 6L Gold connected to my Pentium III desktop PC, and this is basically what I do each time I want to print out a document.
In the early days, people would use a serial cable to connect a PC to a printer. As you know, a serial cable sends one bit of data after the other, so you can imagine how many hours would be needed to print sizable bitmap graphics. Thank God, those days are long gone.
If you have a newer printer, your life should be much easier. Just plug the USB cable to both your printer and your notebook or desktop PC, and normally the computer will immediately notice that it is now connected to a printer.
If the right software driver for the printer is already installed on the computer, the rest will be as easy as pressing Ctrl-P.
A problem may arise if you use a USB printer with an old computer that has only a parallel or serial port. Fortunately, it is not really hard to solve. All you have to do is buy a USB-to- parallel cable. Plenty of choice is available. This may also be a solution if you are still using Windows 95, which does not directly support USB.
The same solution can be used if you are using an old printer with a notebook that only has USB ports. Just buy a parallel-to- USB cable.
Suppose you have a Bluetooth-equipped notebook but a printer without Bluetooth. Can you connect them wirelessly? You can. All you have to do is buy either a parallel or USB Bluetooth adaptor. They usually call it a Bluetooth dongle.
Some of the old printers also have infrared ports. If your notebook has an infrared port, too, then you can just beam the data to the printer. Make sure that you are using the right software driver for that printer. If you really want to use infrared and your desktop PC does not have the infrared module, your computer store may also have a serial-to-infrared adaptor.
I would not really recommend this path, though. Not only is the infrared rather slow, you will have to put the two communicating devices -- the printer and the computer -- within a line of sight of each other.
Now, what would you do if you have a Wi-Fi network and you want the flexibility of placing your printer in the most convenient location in the home or the office?
If your printer already has a built-in Wi-Fi (many of the newer printers already come with Wi-Fi), then you will not have to worry. Just make sure the printer is recognized by your computer before your start printing.
If, on the other hand, your printer only has a USB or even a parallel port, no problem, either. D-Link, Belkin and others have various models of USB-based Wi-Fi adaptors. An example would be D-Link DP 311P. Just plug it in to the printer's parallel port, add the printer to your network and you are set to print.
Now, what if you want to print photos directly from your digital camera? You must first ascertain that the two devices support the PictBridge standard.
This allows digital cameras to print directly via USB without the help of a computer. Unless the two devices understand each other perfectly, the printer will not be able to print what you want to print.
If your printer does not support PictBridge, the best you can do is download your photo files first to your PC or Mac and then print them using Photoshop, CorelPHOTO-PAINT or any other image handling tool.
Again, you can equip your PC with a Bluetooth adaptor or a media reader for easy file transfer from your portable gadgets. Keep in mind that the Bluetooth solution is slow and costly, though.