Printer drivers are programs developed to translate the language of an
application to a language the printer can understand. You must have a
driver installed to print. Printer drivers also allow users to manipulate
the settings, which control printer output. Typically these settings vary
from product to product but generally they include options for such things
as paper handling, tray selection, and default font.
Printer drivers are complex pieces of software that are the source of
many problems, because they are usually written in a hurry and are inadequately
tested. Here are a few common printer driver problems:
The last character on a line is missing.
Grid lines are missing when you print a format.
The program crashes when printing, and Windows reports the error as
occurring in a file like HPPCL5M.DRV.
Nonsensical characters appear.
There are three solutions to printer driver problems:
Get an updated printer driver
Use a different printer driver
Change your format
1. Get an updated printer driver
The best solution to a printer driver bug is to get a newer and better
printer driver.
2. Use a different driver
If you can't get an updated driver, then you can often relieve your problem
by installing a different printer driver. This will not change the way
that your existing programs work. This is accomplished by following the
following three steps:
Think of a compatible printer
Install the driver for that printer
Print to that printer
3. Change your format This is the last resort. In general, printer
drivers behave better on simpler tasks. If you have designed a format
on the screen, it may well have background shading that you don't really
need, and removing it may make life simpler for the printer driver. There
is no guarantee, but it can be worth trying.
For more information about specific printer drivers, check out the resources listed below.
