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Shoutout to the parallel port on my 1998 ThinkPad that still prints labels just fine
I keep a ThinkPad 380XD from 1998 running Windows 98 in my garage mostly because the parallel port still talks to an old label printer I got for $12 at a flea market in Dayton. Everyone I know says toss it and buy a new wireless label maker for $40, but the thing has printed about 600 address labels without one jam. The catch is nobody makes drivers anymore, so I had to write a tiny batch file to send raw text straight to LPT1, and it works every time. Anyway if you have an old dot matrix or label printer sitting in a closet, try the raw text trick before you toss it, does anyone here still use a parallel port for anything besides printing?
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bencampbell6d ago
Wait, you're telling me its just raw text to LPT1 and that gets the job done? I always thought you needed a real driver even for dumb old printers, but a lot of those label and dot matrix units just take plain text and a form feed, so the batch file makes sense. The thing I'd push back on is the "nobody makes drivers" part, because Windows 98 actually has a generic text-only driver built in, the one for "Generic / Text Only" printers. You point that at LPT1 and it does the same thing your batch file does, no coding needed. Your way works fine, but anyone reading this with an old printer might save an hour by just picking that driver from the list.
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