Parallel port vs USB port

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray
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Ray

Can someone advise me the benefit of USB 2.0 over parallel port and USB 1.1
port especially in terms of effective printing speed.

Thanks,

Ray
 
Can someone advise me the benefit of USB 2.0 over parallel port and USB 1.1
port especially in terms of effective printing speed.
Click to expand...

Depends a lot on the printer, as to what is the critical factor in printing
throughput. Communications and/or the actual printing process which have a
specific speed associated with it to allow the ink to dry on the paper a
bit.

Epson 1270 parallel vs usb 1.1 about the same.


________________________________________________________
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 ([email protected])
http://EdwardGRuf.com
 
[This followup was posted to comp.periphs.printers and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

NoSpam-Ray282828 said:
Can someone advise me the benefit of USB 2.0 over parallel port and USB 1.1
port especially in terms of effective printing speed.
Click to expand...

I don't think most any consumer/small-office printer can overload any
of them. Some newer printers may support USB 2, but that may be mainly
to prevent issues with some USB 2 ports that drop everything down to 1.1
speeds if a slower device is connected.

Between USB and parallel, it's mainly an issue of convenience.
Parallel is fast disappearing from printers anyways, and even from newer
computers.
 
Ray said:
Can someone advise me the benefit of USB 2.0
over parallel port and USB 1.1 port especially
in terms of effective printing speed.
Click to expand...

The speed difference is apt to be negligible.

The parallel port still has one advantage over
USB (or LAN): you can print from DOS (not just
from a DOS window), and from BIOS using the
[PrntScrn] key.
 
Hi Ray,

There is a very useful site on the web called 'Everything USB'. Quoting from
one
of there pages is the following:

USB 2.0 has a raw data rate at 480Mbps, and it is rated 40 times faster than
its predecessor interface, USB 1.1, which tops at 12Mbps. Originally, USB 2.0
was intended to go only as fast as 240Mbps, but then, USB 2.0 Promoter Group
increased the speed to 480Mbps in October 1999.

There is more details on this site about how USB 2.0 has 3 different speed
rates depending on what you hook it up to.

As you might see in a previous posting, I am having problems connecting a HP
printer with USB 2.0 to an older DELL computer with USB 1.0.

Sherwin D.
 
Ray said:
Can someone advise me the benefit of USB 2.0 over parallel port and USB 1.1
port especially in terms of effective printing speed.
Click to expand...

With any computer that is recent enough to have USB ports, print speed
is effectively the same with either USB or Parallel connections.

Just use whatever method is most convenient or economical for you.
 
That is true most times.I have a very highend photo printer that supports
firewire and USB2.0.If I connect ot to a USB1.1 port,it gives me a message
box that says "this is not a high speed connection".It will not print until
I plug it in to a USB2.0 connection.My system has both types of USB,as well
as both firewire 400 and 800.
 
Ray said:
Can someone advise me the benefit of USB 2.0 over parallel port and USB 1.1
port especially in terms of effective printing speed.

Thanks,

Ray
Click to expand...
Almost no difference because few printers can print faster than the
slowest port can transmit data. USB may be slightly faster (HP says 10%)
because it puts less demand on the CPU.
 
Douglas said:
That is true most times.I have a very highend photo printer that supports
firewire and USB2.0.If I connect ot to a USB1.1 port,it gives me a message
box that says "this is not a high speed connection".It will not print until
I plug it in to a USB2.0 connection.
Click to expand...

Then that printer is not using the official USB 2.0 format, or the
driver software is deliberately restricting the connection for some
demented reason.

Either way, it's not typical and it's not a fully compliant model.
 
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