Print Drivers

There is a wide variety of different manufacturers and models of printers available today. Printer models may range from inkjet, back and white or color laser, thermal wax, to label makers, and all sorts of devices. Current market trends include the production of “All-In-Ones,” printers that print, scan, and FAX. With all of this activity occurring “outside” the computer, something needs to control these devices and help them communicated back and forth with the computer; enter the printer driver.

Printer drivers provide the programming language necessary to convert the electronic data in the computer to a printed graphics representation on the printer. Don’t confuse printer drivers with print spoolers. Spoolers are the programs that queue up print jobs by temporarily storing them and presenting them to the printer when it is ready. Windows based printer drivers may make some use of the Microsoft Windows GDI (Graphics Device Interface), but lower-end printers need no extra driver software as they rely totally on the GDI. These printers are called Winprinters and they generally won’t work with any other operating system. However, there are very few printers manufactured these days that do not have their own driver. This is because the printer provides so many different functions, that the computer must have guidance on how to communicate with them all through one connection.

Printer drivers may also contain other applications that may be used to create or enhance print jobs. Also, printer drivers may contain the installation setup files for certain printer languages such as PostScript. Finally, printer drivers may carry the information necessary for the type of interface the printer uses with the computer (parallel port, serial port, USB, and SCSI to name a few). Most importantly though, the printer drivers main function is to provide the means necessary for the printer to use the digital data sent to it from the computer (whether it is binary code, hexadecimal, or ASCII) to create a printed end product.

Common Problems with Printer Drivers

1) Incorrect drivers for the printer model or operating system being used

2) Missing or corrupt driver files

3) Driver file competition (from installing more than one type of printer for example)

4) Inability of all functions to work on all-in-one printers

Troubleshooting Printer Drivers

Generally the computer will simply fail to notice that the printer is attached when printer driver files are missing, corrupt or incorrect. Sometimes, when using Windows operating systems under these circumstances you may see an error message, “Failure loading the device’s printer driver.” Occasionally, similar type printer drivers may compete. This can occur when you have attached a new printer, after already having one installed. Although this is rare, it can cause problem issues to develop. When this happens it may be necessary to uninstall the original printer driver first.

Most printer driver problems can be remedied by the proper installation of the proper printer driver file. Installing or reinstalling the latest driver will replace any corrupted or missing files which usually solves the problem.