Date   : Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:43:32 +0100
From   : Ian K <BBCmail@...>
Subject: Re: Modern printers and Beebs

In article <8EDD441C6BF344369701D06FF5B71EDC.MAI@...>,
   Ian Wolstenholme <BBCMailingList@...> wrote:
> Does anybody know if modern laser printers can generally be
> used with Beebs?

> I finally gave up with my trusty old OKI OL400ex after having to
> feed all 21 pages of a document through the manual feeder and
> got a new one, a Brother HL2040.

> The good thing about the OKI was that I had been successfully
> using it with my Beebs for the last four years, as it ran in HP
> printer command language emulation mode, so I could just
> send bold, underline etc. control codes to it.  The escape sequences
> in PCL are a bit longer than the Epson codes but it works.

> Unfortunately my nice new Brother printer doesn't seem to support
> PCL so I can't use it from the Beeb.  If I try to print anything it
> just chucks out a few dozen blank pages.

Unfortunately the Brother seems to be a GDI type printer so you won't be
able to print to it with the BBC. You may be able to set it up so you can
print through a Windows box but I am not knowledgeable enough to advise
you how yo do this. 
Many laser printers support PCL still, although these tend to be the more
expensive ones. 

> Can anybody help?

> Maybe somebody out there works in a printer shop and can sneak
> a Beeb into the office one Sunday and check out which ones work...

The company I work for could probably supply something but it is likely to
be over the top for your needs. Probably the best bet would be to pick up
a second hand HP Laser printer as these are plentiful and it would support
PCL.

Regards
Ian K