Serial Printer with Open Office?

[W1GUH]

I've got an old Juki Daisy Wheel printer that I loved back in the day. Is it reasonably do-able to use that with ".doc" documents? Or do they all do bit map type printing?

Laser and inkjet prints are wonderful, but don't have the luxurious feel of "real" typing with a carbon ribbon.

[NQ6U]

The real question is if you can find a suitable driver for it that works under your present OS. That's doubtful, but if you can, it should work with OO.

[W1GUH]

Thanks! You defined the issue I'd been thinking of, the driver. I'll have to search around. Wonder if anybody, anywhere actually uses real typing anymore?

Thanks again.

[KC2UGV]

Well, you can set it up in CUPS as a plain jane serial printer, it should work. You might have some margin problems and what not, but it should work. No graphics, just alphanumeric character, but it should work.

As a test, plug it in, and with a terminal program, send some characters to it. See if they are correct.

[n6hcm]

I've got an old Juki Daisy Wheel printer that I loved back in the day. Is it reasonably do-able to use that with ".doc" documents? Or do they all do bit map type printing?

for which os? xp?

[KC2UGV]

for which os? xp?

I guess I should have asked that before assuming he would be setting it up in CUPS...

[W1GUH]

Vista or Ubuntu

[n2ize]

Thanks! You defined the issue I'd been thinking of, the driver. I'll have to search around. Wonder if anybody, anywhere actually uses real typing anymore?

Thanks again.

I do know one person who still uses a regular typewriter. I haven't used one in years. It's far too convenient to use a word processor or text formatter and just send the work to a printer or convert it into one of many electronic formats.

For example, I type a lot of stuff that requires the use of mathematical (and finance and engineering) symbols and for that I use LaTeX. Most of the stuff I set up via LaTeX never ends up printed on paper. Most of the time it ends up in some electronic format i.e. html, postscript, pdf, etc. Much more convenient to set up and do all this electronically and use an inkjet or laser printer if needed. Typewriter of daisywheel or dot matrix would be way too inflexible.

[n6hcm]

Vista or Ubuntu

i would be truly surprised if you were able to find anything for vista. vista made a point of obsoleting "old" device drivers, and most of those "old" drivers weren't particularly old.

otoh, linux has a history of supporting technologies from the dark ages, and i think this should be very doable with cups.

[W1GUH]

I mis-spoke. I didn't mean actually typing on a typewriter, I meant printing a document with a "real" impression-making physical action, e.g., a dasiy-wheel, or Selectric, for that matter.


I do know one person who still uses a regular typewriter. I haven't used one in years. It's far too convenient to use a word processor or text formatter and just send the work to a printer or convert it into one of many electronic formats.

For example, I type a lot of stuff that requires the use of mathematical (and finance and engineering) symbols and for that I use LaTeX. Most of the stuff I set up via LaTeX never ends up printed on paper. Most of the time it ends up in some electronic format i.e. html, postscript, pdf, etc. Much more convenient to set up and do all this electronically and use an inkjet or laser printer if needed. Typewriter of daisywheel or dot matrix would be way too inflexible.

[n2ize]

I mis-spoke. I didn't mean actually typing on a typewriter, I meant printing a document with a "real" impression-making physical action, e.g., a dasiy-wheel, or Selectric, for that matter.

In the old says I used a dot matrix printer. Thing I liked about them was that the ribbons last a long time. These day's I use inkjets and they require refilling quite frequently. Fortunately I adopted a continuous ink feed system on one of them which really helps save the the trouble of having to but or refill cartridges.

[KC2UGV]

I mis-spoke. I didn't mean actually typing on a typewriter, I meant printing a document with a "real" impression-making physical action, e.g., a dasiy-wheel, or Selectric, for that matter.

Did you ever getting it working? Linux or Winderz?

[W1GUH]

No...this was an "out of curiosity" question. I'd thought of the Juki I've got in a box somewhere and how nice it would be to print fancy documents with it. I've always loved the look of carbon ribbon typed documents. And wouldn't they stand out as unique today in this age of inkjet and laser printers?

Well, maybe if I can't do it on a PC I'll haul out my good ol' Amiga! Plus, I could play some of the great games I have for it!