BJ-85 driver for DOS

[xl...@sympatico.ca]

I would like to use a BJ-85 printer for my DOS
partition (where I keep a couple of old programs
that use IBM Code Page 437). Where can I get a
vanilla DOS driver for this venerable peripheral?
All the drivers I find are for Windows.

[zakezuke]

I wish you the best of luck.

My memory is rather vague from this time period. I seem to remember
some of the earlier canons did require a device driver to even think
about printing, and even then anything without a math coprocessor took
hours to print. Without this TSR program printing was simply not
possible. This being said

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=DownloadDetailAct&fcategoryid=329&modelid=7980

You "might" enjoy luck using the bjc-4300 dos driver, this is at least
what is reccomended when installing the bjc-50.
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=DownloadDetailAct&fcategoryid=329&modelid=6784

Besure to checkout the European site too.
http://software.canon-europe.com/Printers/Bubble_Jet_Printers/BJC85428.asp?ComponentID=81956&SourcePageID=102838

[xl...@sympatico.ca]

zakezuke wrote:

> I wish you the best of luck.

Tnx.

[GEO]

DOS is different from Windows in that each application would have
its own printer drivers; it does not share a common set of drivers as
Windows does. The printer might have a couple of emulation modes that
might match one of the printer drivers available with the programs you
are using. The Canon BJC-240 had two 'Printer control modes' you could
try:
1- IBM Proprinter X24E
2-Epson LQ-510

Geo

[Fred McKenzie]

In article <1151721954....@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>,
xl...@sympatico.ca wrote:

Xlrv-

Have you tried it without a driver? As I recall, DOS and older TRSDOS and
CP/M printing was done without a driver. You directed an ASCII stream out
the printer port, and the printer printed it.

A driver would have been used for bit-mapped fonts and graphics, and some
subsequent printers bit-mapped everything. However, any particular
printer may have a default ASCII print mode that might meet your needs.
It wouldn't hurt to try, assuming you are using the Centronics port on the
printer.

Fred

[Don Phillipson]

<xl...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:1151721954....@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...

DOS does not use drivers of the Windows type.
Instead each app pipes formatted data to the printer through
the driver peculiar to that app, e.g. WordStar, Quattro, etc.
Your BJ 85 probably "emulates" one or more DOS-era
printers, which simplifies your task: but the printer
must be installed separately for each DOS app.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)