Supported Printers
As the Retro-Printer module is designed to sit between an older piece of equipment/computer and a printer, the question as to what printers we support can be interpreted in two ways.
If you are wondering what printers we can allow you to replace with a modern printer, then first of all look at our supported printer emulators – that will show whether we have an existing solution to capture the data sent from your equipment and replicate your existing printed output. We can even create a new bespoke printer emulator if necessary.
However, as you would expect, when people are looking for a solution to replace an old dot-matrix (or even daisywheel) printer with a modern alternative, one of the most asked questions is “what modern printers can I print to”?
To some extent it is an impossible question to answer and certainly any list we provided would be out of date within weeks. The Retro-Printer is designed to be plugged into the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer, which runs a variant of Linux and thus provides the Retro-Printer with access to a whole host of printer drivers for most modern printers, thanks to the CUPS printer system.
When a new printer is released onto the market, they tend to be sold with just Windows printer drivers, but Linux printer drivers are normally created by the Linux community within 2-3 months. HP, Canon, Epson and Lexmark all provide Linux printer drivers for example.
As a result, the Retro-Printer supports a wide range of printers, which can be connected to the Retro-Printer using a USB connection or a Network connection (either cabled or wireless network). You can even use a centronics printer with the Retro-Printer provided you have a USB to Centronics adaptor cable.
You can also check with the printer manufacturer if they already offer a Linux printer driver, or check it on the Linux CUPS website – check for Linux (CUPS) Compatible Printers.
