If you own a computer that has a printer attached, you are using a printer device driver whether you realize it or not. Every computer has a specific operating system, whether it is Windows, Linux, DOS, or Amiga, or another one. Device drivers are dependent on hardware and are specific to a certain operating system. This means that a printer device driver intended for a Windows operating system will not work if your computer has a Linux operating system, because the two are not compatible.
A printer device driver for a Unix operating system uses a system called the common Unix printing system. The computer will implement these printer device drivers as filters usually. When using a printer device driver compatible with the Linux operating system, the device driver is usually given the name front end concerning the printing system, and the back end of the system would be the print spoolers for the device. Every time the Linux system starts up, the system will ask the print spoolers, or backends as they are called, for a list of supported devices and all available information concerning the device.
The MS-DOS operating system is unique concerning printer device drivers, because this operating system does not offer printer device drivers which will work with a wide variety of applications. Each specific application needs the correct device drivers to work. For this reason, many of the new applications included the needed printer device drivers with the application when it was shipped. MS-DOS does not offer the ability to have a system wide printer device driver, instead drivers are installed as needed for the applications they translate for.
Microsoft Windows operating systems use printer device drivers that involve GDI or XPS. Printing programs using either method can then use standard APIs, which are the same, to place the text and any drawings or images on the paper and the computer screen both. Printers which involve the use of GDI are sometimes called Winprinters, and these printers will only work with the Windows operating system. Windows also has a process which allows the application to skip the printer device driver and go straight to the print spooler, but this option is very rarely used by the Windows operating system.
The Amiga is the last operating system we will discuss concerning printer device drivers. Newer models of Amiga computers have a standard printer device driver which allows the user to control multiple printers from one computer. Some owners of these computers prefer to use an independent printer system, because there are more modern printer device drivers available with these systems, making the process of using your Amiga computer and printer together much less complex and easier to do.
There are many different operating systems available for a computer. And because printer device drivers are specific to a particular operating system, it is essential that you verify that the correct printer device driver is chosen, and that it is compatible with your operating system before you install it.
