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Printer options for 800xl


yorgle

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What printer options do I have for my newly acquired 800xl system? Do I have to locate an original Atari printer or can newer style printers, such as HP Deskjets, etc. be made to work? If I have to go with an original Atari printer, which model would be best for letter quality word processing with occasional graphics?

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What printer options do I have for my newly acquired 800xl system? Do I have to locate an original Atari printer or can newer style printers, such as HP Deskjets, etc. be made to work? If I have to go with an original Atari printer, which model would be best for letter quality word processing with occasional graphics?

 

 

Using A.P.E. (Atari Peripheral Emulator) is the best way to use a newer printer, since you are using a PC as the interface and can print to anything attached to the PC. If you will not be interfacing with a PC, you will need an Atari or Atari compatible printer (has Atari SIO connectors), or, you can get one of many printer interfaces that were made for Atari to use just about any parallel printer you want, providing there is a driver for it. Some of these interfaces are the Atari 850 interface, ICD's P:R: Connection, ICD Printer Connection, APE Face printer interface (not to be confused with the A.P.E. software mentioned earlier) and others. If I'm not mistaken, if you have one of these interfaces, there is an HP Deskjet driver for Atari out there that should work with most HP PCL compatible printer, including Laserjets.

Edited by Guitarman
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My best friend has a 1200xl and he had to use an Ape Face to connect to a Star Gemini 10 x Printer

 

Thanks for the advice. My initial inclination was to purchase an atari printer to keep the retro theme going, but because I plan on actually using it, I am concerned about getting replacement ink/ribbons/etc. to keep an atari printer functional. I think I'll go with one of the interface options mentioned and use an old deskjet that I've got laying around.

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Most HP printers will print plain text with no driver at all... just make sure the Atari is sending \r\n (ASCII $13, $0A) at the end of each line, rather than an Atari EOL character (most word processors will have a way to do this, probably pick "generic" printer driver). You won't get different-sized fonts, bold, italics, graphics, etc. this way, but you'll at least be able to tell the Atari is talking to the printer, which is one step in getting things working the way you want them to.

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Most HP printers will print plain text with no driver at all... just make sure the Atari is sending \r\n (ASCII $13, $0A) at the end of each line, rather than an Atari EOL character (most word processors will have a way to do this, probably pick "generic" printer driver). You won't get different-sized fonts, bold, italics, graphics, etc. this way, but you'll at least be able to tell the Atari is talking to the printer, which is one step in getting things working the way you want them to.

 

You're saying that a printer that lists as requirements as Windows (Winprinter) and does not support MS-Dos can print to the Atari?

 

-Larry

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What printer options do I have for my newly acquired 800xl system? Do I have to locate an original Atari printer or can newer style printers, such as HP Deskjets, etc. be made to work? If I have to go with an original Atari printer, which model would be best for letter quality word processing with occasional graphics?

 

As others have mentioned, APE is the best solution for this, but it gets better...

The newest *registered* APE versions will print graphics, emulating an Epson MX-80. It will even LIST programs from Basic, etc. with *most* Atari graphics characters. Check with Steve for availability.

 

There is also another option -- DOS PRINTER

http://www.dsbglobal.com/dosprinter/

This program will print to Dos (or an Atari) using a Winprinter. The author even added an EOL conversion for us!

 

-Larry

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You're saying that a printer that lists as requirements as Windows (Winprinter) and does not support MS-Dos can print to the Atari?

 

No, probably not... I guess my idea of what "most HP printers" means, is a bit out of date. I'm speaking of HP printers that support PCL (most laser printers, but doesn't include "win printers").

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I have an old HP printer that uses black ink only and I would like to hook it up to my ATARI 800 or my ATARI 800xl

 

yorgle :thumbsup: I really like your avatar and I always enjoyed playing Adventure on the 2600 and it was my favorite game for that console :thumbsup:

Edited by L¥NXGU¥
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