tractor-feed for mac

[stanley]

Hi all:

I'm in the process of converting a site from mixed pc&mac to all macs. One of the PCs prints bills of lading in triplicate via an Epson FX-880 tractor feed dot matrix printer. This is an impact/pin printer (so it prints onto the carbons of the triplicate form, which is a standard bill of lading form) connected directly to the PC via a serial port.

I've been looking for a similar type of printer to use with a mac (and I can use an old mac, system 8 if needed) but can't find anything at all. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing on the mac?

Essentially the problem is finding an old-style impact printer with tractor feed which will run with a relatively modern mac.

Thanks in advance

Stanley

[macguys]

I've successfully used Epson printers with internal Ethernet severs installed with both OS X and OS 9.x systems. The only problem I've found is that long print jobs (over 100 pages) can cause the FMP client to crash.

[stanley]

Which Epson printers? Our current setup has an Epson FX-880, which works great, but will only work with a PC. I notice that there is an FX-880+, which has a USB port, but no Mac driver. I've been looking on Epson's site and can't find any Mac drivers for their impact printers. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Stanley

[webcat]

hi,

I use Epson LX300+ and Epson FX880 printers with Mac OS X and they both work fine.

you need to use CUPS printer drivers.

there is loads of info about this on the web, it took me a good week to get the correct info, but I can now write my own CUPS printer drivers!

however, if all you want is to print on the normal sizes of US letter and A4 paper then the CUPS printer driver is already switched on in Mac OSX 10.2.x - you need to add the printer from the Print Center, but when you click add printer, hold the option key.

mail me if you want more info.

at the moment I am trying to figure out why FMP6 won't talk to these printers, but FMD6 will!

tearing my hair out as a large contract depends on this...

[butchm]

Hello, would like some advice on how you managed to print from Mac OS X to an LX-300. I have installed GIMP-Print and am using a parallel to usb cable, but nothing prints out when I add the printer in Print Center.

I've checked using the Mac and an Epson inkjet printer, and the cable works. The LX-300 also works when connected directly to a PC, even with the serial to usb cable. Thanks in advance!