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Sci Tech
IT TRENDS
Drive all my printers for me
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Connection of all PCs to all printers has been every user’s dream
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— Photo: Special Arrangement
Serious issue: None has created universal, ‘one size fits all’ printer drivers for lay customers who are the ones challenged.
Working in the media centre of a large Information Technology event recently, I needed to print a few pages in a hurry — and I needed them in colour, to the right size. There were at least three printers connected to the network that was being shared by a dozen connected laptops.
Dispersed printers
One was a monochrome laser printer; the second a colour inkjet and the third a heavy duty colour laser production printer. Only one of the printers was close to the bank of connected computers. The others were dispersed across the large hall.
Having saved my job on the laptop, I tried to print the sheets I wanted — but which was the printer I needed to invoke? I struggled for five minutes, and tried to choose the different printers whose names popped up in the print menu. No joy. Somewhat sheepishly I sought assistance — but the person in charge of the media room took her own time to try and connect me to the right colour printer.
Finally she too gave up saying all she could give me was a reduced-size black and white print.
Common driver
Why does this incident rankle? Because only a few hours earlier at the same media event I heard proud claims of a universal print driver (UPD) offering, that was designed to solve precisely the type of problem I faced. It was supposed to allow different printers to be installed using a common driver software. The UPD has long been on the wish list of those whose job entails enabling the printing of documents from computers, in environments where there are heterogeneous printers connected to multiple PCs.
Typically, this would be a networked office situation: even in fairly small or medium enterprises (SMEs), it is not unusual to find half a dozen printers, a mix of colour and monochrome, single function and multifunction (print-copy-scan), laser and inkjet... even some impact dot matrix machines.
Keeping track
Unless such enterprises have a dedicated team to run such networks, keeping track of different printer models; upgrading their driver software, assigning printing rights to different users can become an administrative nightmare.
The addition of every new printer sets off a fresh cycle of updates across the network. What if a single driver software ran all the printers in an installation, even across geographies, at distant outposts of the organization?
Own range
Printer makers have been sensitive to this customer wish and in recent years most manufacturers have tried to create a single driver which works across their own range. Xerox came up with a Walk-Up Printing Driver, designed for individuals who travel between offices and use different printers.
The driver stores information for about 15 printers. Ricoh offered the PostScript Driver for mobile printing. Lexmark called its solution the Universal Driver and Hewlett Packard released its Universal Print Driver.
There have been some third party solutions, mostly aimed at network managers rather than individual users: UniPrint from Ingenica, was a software-based printing solution for server-based computing environments.
Citrixhad its own printer control software which came bundled with its MetaFrame server solution. The most ambitious of the downloadable free-to-use UPD offerings is arguably the one launched by HP which is available in its latest version, 4.5, this month.
Two standards
It covers the two standards, PostScript as well as PCL and because HP has such a wide range of offerings the number of printer models covered, is also large: nearly 100.
The list almost covers the full current catalogue of laser printers, both single and multi function, but on the inkjet side, the driver covers only the enterprise end — mostly the Officejet brand.
HP claims its driver can add some functionality — like retrofitting double sided or duplex printing (with the right attachment) or holding back printing on a networked printer till the initiator is ready to collect the prints — something they call Private Printing.
Most of the companies who profess to offer UPDs — and this is particularly true of HP the market leader — have a significant market which is provided not by corporate users, but by the rest us, home-based dummy users.
One size fits all
Yet none seem to have put their money where their mouth is and created universal, ‘one size fits all’ printer drivers for lay customers who are the ones seriously challenged by having to deal with a masala mix of printers.
Every time you upgrade to a new printer you have to reinstall software from a new disk.
Forced to upgrade
Every time you reinstall the operating system (OS) on your PC you have to do the same. The installation CDs are no good. Vista demands a new generation of drivers many of which are a well kept secret between printer manufacturer and Microsoft — or so it seems to us janatha customers. This is where a truly universal printer driver would have helped. And this is precisely where it is not available — as of now.
Another thought: loftily calling your product “universal” may look good in advertisements: But what is universal about a software that does not even cover the full range (inkjet as well as laser) of any one maker.
Right now, what they are giving us is work in progress, slow lurches in the direction of a universal software to drive all makes of printer, and painfully slow at that.
ANAND PARTHASARATHY
Printer friendly
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