Printer oddity

[inkleputDEL]

Going through Control Panel, etc., I have my printer set to print front to
back. But it prints back page first, etc., running via regular printer
cable. (I haven't chcked on what USB would do.)

Is this case of "Set it backwards so it will print forwards?" Or might
there be some sort of complication?

JimL

 

[Don Phillipson]

Going through Control Panel, etc., I have my printer set to print front to
back. But it prints back page first, etc., running via regular printer
cable. (I haven't chcked on what USB would do.)

The standard cure is:
1. Using correct MS methods, uninstal the device (e.g.
remove it from / Control Panel / System / Device Manager.
2. Then reinstal it;
3. Reboot and test.
This seems to solve more than half our hardware problems.

 

[bojimbo26]

Going through Control Panel, etc., I have my printer set to print front to
back. But it prints back page first, etc., running via regular printer
cable. (I haven't chcked on what USB would do.)

Is this case of "Set it backwards so it will print forwards?" Or might
there be some sort of complication?

JimL

Have you looked in the manual to find how to do it ?

 

[inkleputDEL]

(e-mail address removed) said:

Have you looked in the manual to find how to do it ?

Actually I don't have a manual, but what do you mean by "how to do it?"
It's simple enough to click on "Front to Back" or "Back to Front." And
with my previous setup using the printer via a network it worked "as
advertised." That is, with it set at "Front to Back" it printed first
page first, etc. Now with it set "Front to Back" it prints last page
first, etc.

I haven't got around to removing and reinstalling the drivers yet.
Although I had just done exactly that with the current setup - even
disconnecting the printer and restarting the computer a couple times in
between after clearing everything out.

JimL

 

[Sam Hobbs]

(e-mail address removed) said:





Actually I don't have a manual, but what do you mean by "how to do it?"
It's simple enough to click on "Front to Back" or "Back to Front." And
with my previous setup using the printer via a network it worked "as
advertised." That is, with it set at "Front to Back" it printed first
page first, etc. Now with it set "Front to Back" it prints last page
first, etc.

I haven't got around to removing and reinstalling the drivers yet.
Although I had just done exactly that with the current setup - even
disconnecting the printer and restarting the computer a couple times in
between after clearing everything out.

It is unliekly the physical printer does that. It is likely the driver that
enables the back-to-front, since back-to-front requires that all pages be
stored somewhere. It has been many years since I did a printer device
driver, and I did not learn everything, but I doubt that Windows does the
work to provide back-to-front, and most printers don't have enough memory to
implement back-to-front of many pages in the physical printer.

 

[legg]

Going through Control Panel, etc., I have my printer set to print front to
back. But it prints back page first, etc., running via regular printer
cable. (I haven't chcked on what USB would do.)

Is this case of "Set it backwards so it will print forwards?" Or might
there be some sort of complication?

JimL

Both printer set-up and the programs' printing GUI may have this same
option.

If both are selected, they may cancel out, as you are observing.

Do all programs exhibit the same printing order?

RL

 

[inkleputDEL]

legg <[email protected]> said:

Both printer set-up and the programs' printing GUI may have this same
option.

If both are selected, they may cancel out, as you are observing.

The only page order settings I can find are in the control panel's
printing properties.

Do all programs exhibit the same printing order?

Notepad, Wordpad and Firefox all do the same thing. I have no other
printing programs except the previously used network setup (that did it
right).

Interestingly the Wordpad and Firefox print preview screens show pages in
proper order, yet print backwards.

JimL

 

[inkleputDEL]

"Sam Hobbs" <[email protected]_change_social_to_socal> said:

It is unliekly the physical printer does that. It is likely the driver
that enables the back-to-front, since back-to-front requires that all
pages be stored somewhere.

Interestingly I also have it set to print immediately instead of waiting
for a full buffer.

I doubt that Windows does the work to provide back-to-front,

Hm, one should also doubt that Windows would do the work of actually
running a printer instead of letting a printer hardware card do it, but we
have the full cards for other OS's and half cards for Windows.

JimL

 

[Sam Hobbs]

Hm, one should also doubt that Windows would do the work of actually
running a printer instead of letting a printer hardware card do it, but we
have the full cards for other OS's and half cards for Windows.

I do not understand that.

I am not aware of any printer that has a specialized card for it for any
operating system.

 

[inkleputDEL]

I do not understand that.

I am not aware of any printer that has a specialized card for it for any
operating system.

I don't recall saying anything about cards for specific printers. There
are a very few cards (used to be a lot more) that run printers in general
(not some specific printer) which would run printers without the windows
type CPU based printer code. That is, the printer code was on the cards
firmware, not in the operating system (which obvioiusly requires dedicated
CPU cycles to function). Such cards were generalized and still required
drivers for specific machines. As windows shot down other operating
systems, fewer and fewer coded printer cards were made. More and more
placed the printer load directly on the CPU via the windows OS.

If Microsoft has reversed that method, so be it. I don't keep up with
hot-new. It occurs to me that the more you can off load resource
requirements to peripheral cards the faster your system will be overall.

JimL