Thanks Ed. I didn't get back on UT until just now and just saw his message. Given your knowledge, would you consider posting a FAQ on this subject? There seem to be a LOT of threads regarding GDI, host-based printers, escape sequences, printing in DOS, etc on the UT as more and more customers buy low-end host-based printers and then the applications stop printing!

Tracy

>>Hi Tracy;
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>>You said GDI printers are "Host Based" printers that don't have internal micro-processor to interpret the printer codes.
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>>What does GDI stand for ?
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>Graphic Device Interface; the layer of the Windows operating system responsible for rendering graphical output to a device like a video card or printer
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>>I am still struggling to better define which printers are compatible with "Esc Sequences" and which ones are not.
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>GDI printers are NOT printer code friendly; they expect the computer to render their output as bits rather than characters, so (1) it takes a great deal of bandwidth to move a page from host to printer, (2) there are no escape sequences telling the printer how to render the stream, since the stream is a raw graphic and not character-based, and (3) printer capabilities are not fixed, but are a function of the supported Windows Graphical functions on the host PC (the older and dumber the OS, the less capable the printer is to do fancy stuff.)
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>>In your opinion, What is the BEST way to define Non-GDI (or Non-Host Base) printers?.
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>They are printers which can either accept a graphical stream, or support a printer command language that tells an engine on the printer how to interpret the stream of input and generate the rendition needed by the host, without the host directly intervening to perform the rendition.
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>>I already told a customer "not to" buy a GDI printer, but the Dealer had told her "This is a Panasonic and not a GDI!!", so then I got stuck, trying to explain to her why the darn printer doesn't work!!.
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>The customer needs to understand that this is a class of printer not a model; it's the difference between a car and a tow truck, not a Ford and an Oldsmobile.