Serial printer on G4 with Stealth port

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Level 2

445 points

Serial printer on G4 with Stealth port

I use a serial Epson 1520 on a G4 with Stealth port and Epson driver when booted into OS 9.2.2-. So far I have had no success to make the printer work under OS 10.3.9 or Classic. I guess that serial printer drivers for OS X are very rare. Epson has no OS X driver for the 1520. Is there anybody out there who made a serial printer work under X with a Stealth port? If so, please share your experience. Thanks in advance.

Hans

PM G4/Digital Audio 1GHz upgrade, Mac OS X (10.3.9), Mac OS 9.2.2

Posted on Sep 15, 2007 3:09 PM

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Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Sep 15, 2007 3:31 PM in response to Hans777

HI, Hans777. I believe serial ports and serial device drivers are unsupported in all versions of OS X, and because OS X controls the Mac when you're using an older application in Classic mode, serial ports aren't supported in Classic either. I assume your printer works normally when you boot directly into OS 9 — it should, anyway. But there isn't much hope of getting it to work in OS X or Classic mode.

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Answer 2

Hans777 Author

Level 2

445 points

Sep 15, 2007 4:17 PM in response to eww

eww,

thank you for your input, yes the printer works just fine in 9.2.2 . I do not have much hope to make it work with OS X but it can't do any harm to ask. The GeeThree company supplies a port driver for OS X , thus my port is listed by the X system as "Serial Port". The printer software is what is lacking. Gimp-print has the 1520 listed as supported but I think it is not looking for a serial port - I had no success trying it. Guess gimp-print will work with the network card Epson sold as an accessory. I have such a network card and can possibly go this route but am a bit afraid of disturbing the solid print operation in 9.2.2 .

Hans

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Answer 3

Hans777 Author

Level 2

445 points

Sep 21, 2007 3:09 PM in response to Hans777

I can report that using the Epson network interface I can now also print from OS X. It is interesting that I did not need to change the setup under 9.2.2. The Printer does not mind having two cables connected to it. I replaced Gimp-print with the newer Gutenprint and it works OK. Can't say much on the print quality yet. Epson provides drivers for the Stylus Color 1520 in Windows, too. Thus the versatility of this old large format printer is not bad at all.

Hans

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Answer 4

Sep 21, 2007 5:22 PM in response to Hans777

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Answer 5

Hans777 Author

Level 2

445 points

Sep 22, 2007 5:16 AM in response to Matt Broughton

Matt,
thank you for the info. I have already consulted your page. GREAT! In the long run I shall buy a new printer. I am mainly using 9.2.2 now and intend to make 10 equal with all kinds of new software. This will be a lengthy process and I can't afford to loose OS 9 capabilities. Two sets of hardware would be cumbersome, too. As of now I have not tried to print from Classic. Booted in 9.2.2 and 10.3.9 works. My experience with Classic is mainly dim. I'll restrict myself to boot either system.

At some point, you may want to consider using a parallel to USB adapter

Epson supplies no driver for the SC 1520 in OS X. It is special in being almost a plotter.

hans

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Answer 6

Sep 22, 2007 8:15 AM in response to Hans777

Hans777 wrote:
Epson supplies no driver for the SC 1520 in OS X. It is special in being almost a plotter.

Manufacturers will only provide drivers for their peripherals for a period of time. The Epson SC 1520 is about 10 years old. The Epson support page for this printer shows that its support goes back to System 7. It makes no economic sense for Epson to expend the time and resources to write updated drivers in perpetuity.

Luckily, there are the Gutenprint drivers. It may take some experimenting with different print settings with these drivers to get the quality of printing you desire. In general, I have found that I need to set the print resolution/quality to a higher option than the default with my Epson printers while using the Gutenprint drivers to get the same output quality as was provided by the Epson drivers. This seems to the case especially for older Epson printers.

Matt

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