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I have become obsessed with vintage printers.

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner .. I'll at least get the download link fixed. (And possibly add the Linux binary.) While I monitor this forum, my email address is more direct and is on that web page.
 
mbbrutman said:
My apologies for not getting back to you sooner .. I'll at least get the download link fixed. (And possibly add the Linux binary.) While I monitor this forum, my email address is more direct and is on that web page.
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No trouble at all, but my first experiences with Go were... interesting.

The disintegration/imaging module wouldn't "go install" in newer versions because it's "not a main module" but "go get" has been deprecated and removed. Older versions support "get" but complained about the linked CCITT module being a program and not a module, and in the end I just downloaded the imaging-master.zip file from git, put it where I thought it should be and edited out various complaining sections of io.go until it worked (e.g. no BMP or TIFF files are handled so I just cut out those code blocks). Then it worked.

You may have better luck but I think the disintegration/imaging module is a little out of date so perhaps this will help if you run into similar issues on Linux with newer versions of go.

And thanks again: this is the best photo output I've obtained from the old Nixdorf.
 
I'm on go 1.21.6, which is fairly recent. The latest is 1.22.4. For me it was as simple as "go build." The code dates back to 2021 and back then I was on go 1.16.

I think where I failed is that I didn't provide a go.mod or go.sum file. With those you get a clean build right away, and they also call out the specific versions of dependencies that are needed. I'll upgrade to the latest Go soon and build from scratch, fixing any errors on the web page.

Do you have a scan or a picture of your output from the Nixdorf? I'm curious; nobody has every reported using the code.


-Mike
 
That came out great!

I've gone ahead and updated the web page .. a proper ZIP file with the source code, Windows 10 & 11, and Linux 86 versions are posted. If you feel the urge to compile again it will compile cleanly with no changes; I confirmed that you just needed the go.mod and go.sum files, which I should have included originally.
 
keenerb said:
FX350 would be my suggestion for anyone wanting to experience "retro" 9-pin printing with both modern and vintage hardware, in the most convenient way possible. The serial/USB/LPT inputs on it give a lot of options and let you even print from Windows 11, Dosbox-x, and pretty much any vintage hardware you've got laying around just fine. It might not be an actual vintage printer but it's got a parallel port, takes pin feed paper, and accepts standard Epson ESC/P input from apps like Printshop 1.0 for DOS and MS Works and graphics.com.
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Thanks for the tip. I just received the LX-350 printer that I ordered, liking the older connection options.

First tested it on a Win 11 pc with usb only to make sure it prints ok.

I plan on using it with my Osborne 1, 1A, Kaypro 1 Compaq Deskpro and other vintage computers I have.

I know it's not "vintage" but it does use mostly vintage era technology, and sound :cool:, and it's really nice having new ribbons available that are not decades old.
 
Has anyone ever heard of Gakken printers - I used to have a Gakken daisywheel printer which I threw away in the noughties, which I kind of regret, but I had so many retro computer things and at the time no-one wanted it. You used to have to be careful because if you didn't press return on the line you were printing, the printer would carry on off the paper.
 
I worked at IBM on the 4214 printer (among many others). It was a Centronics mechanism, with one of two interface cards(coax-3270 or twinax- S36/S38) provided by IBM. The coax printer was available with monochrome or color, the color being for the European market. This business kept Centronics in business a few more years before they went out of business. They tried to persuade us to offer the 4214 as a PC printer, and supplied a couple of samples. This didn't happen because the price we could charge would have been about half of what we were charging for the 4214. I wrote a TSR program in Turbo-Pascal that translated the Proprinter datastream to the Centronics datastream, which actually worked pretty well.
 
I do like some dot matrix printers, have quite a few. One of the few Apple products I like is the Imagewriter II. I prefer older printers though, teleprinters. I would love an ASR33. I have 2 model 15 and a model 14 Teletype.
 
I just joined this forum to get some advice as to what to do with a Brother Daisy Wheel Printer HR-20 and about 10 unopened printer tapes. Kept it all these years because it was so unique and liked the fact that it left an impression on the paper as if it typed. Have the original User's Manual too.
 
In my collection I have a General Electric TXP-1000 thermal transfer printer equipped with a factory interface for 8-bit Atari and Commodore computers.


TXP10001.JPG
TXP_Int1a.jpg
 
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I recently got enough free-time on the weekend to explore more about the RetroPrinter. I'm having success with as a proxy to an Epson EX-1000. I can't even recall the model of the printers I had over the years (a couple Tandy models - some were "color printers" by swapping out the print head with red, green, or blue cartridges -- and then some Cannon "bubble jets" {are those same category as ink jets?}). It would be neat to get a DB25 adapter to older IBM printers (5103's?) but the noise pollution might alert the EPA? (joke)

The RetroPrinter isn't perfect (the settings need tweaking for each printer involved), but I have had output success and gotten PNG/PDF results corresponding to "what would have been printed." While functional "periodic correct" equipment is special and always great to see, printers do take a lot of space (relative to how often they'd get used) and that paper/ink maintenance. Here are my evolving notes about the RetroPrinter - I just randomly picked the Epson EX-1000 as a model to focus on. Is there some other late 80's/early 90's model dot matrix that might have been more popular?

voidstar.blog

Project Xiphod 386: Retro-Printer — voidstar

BACK to main Project Xiphod 386 Summary Retro-Printer Setup There was a brief period of time when it was fashionable to have an office party or a home-celebration (birthday, graduation, etc.) that involved taping up a long-printed banner. These days we are printing far less, but it was a long...
voidstar.blog voidstar.blog
 
I have a vintage 1980s Brother HR-20 Daisy Wheel printer with 8 unopened Brother film ribbons that I would like to rehome. I barely used it then, but kept it because I thought the impressions it left on the paper were so unique compared to the inkjet printers that started to take over the office printers then. If anyone has suggestions as to where it might find another life, please let me know. Thanks
 

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