Printers and MS-DOS; of course! But not the new stuff, no USB or AirPrint. Just the plain old printer port and a Centronics cable. What were the nice things to have back in the day for your Matrix printer? And does this old stuff still work after three decades?

Introduction

A while ago someone mentioned something about old printers and the subject briefly changed to Matrix printers. I still have one and last time I used it (in 2020 I believe) I dove into the attic, took the printer and hooked it up. And yes, it did work just fine .

So this got me wondering about the love for old printers. Love for new printers is hard to find but mechanically and software-wise a Matrix printer and MS-DOS should make a fine combo. After all there is little to no hassle with drivers, no spooler problems and the Matrix printer just has a ribbon that either works or doesn't. It's not like it's refusing to print in black and white because the yellow toner ran out...

My Matrix printer

A Mannesmann Tally 80 that was given to me along with my first PC (ARC ProTurbo88). I rarely use the printer but I did hang on to it for decades now. The printer generally is in fine condition and never gave me any issues with paper getting off track or something like that.


The printer and the computer in all it's glory

So what can it do?

Lot's of things! On the technical side of things the way a matrix printer works it gives a unique way of printing; both on the eyes as well as on the ears . The matrix printer is also referred to as a dot matrix printer because the print consists of small dots.


Close-up of the dots, it looks washed out due to a dry ribbon

However, on the software side of things you had several interesting programs. I'll name a few that I used in the past. Some of them are obsolete but some still show some neat tricks and really aren't that bad in what they could achieve. A modern version of software like PrintMaster really is useful today.

PrintMaster

So that's out of the way; PrintMaster! Some of you may remember 'The Print Shop' by BroderBund which initially was released on the Apple II and allowed you to create banners and cards. PrintMaster by Encore was a clone of The Print Shop. It led to courts and stuff but eventually PrintMaster sold very well, too. You can read about it on Wikipedia (Wiki - PrintMaster). I only knew about PrintMaster back in they day so that's what I'm going to show here:


Screenshots only tell so much and since it's a shame to miss out on the sound of a matrix printer I have a recording on YouTube:

Funny Face

Not specifically printer related however I loved creating faces and a nice touch is that you can print them as well. Look at this funny face!


You can download Funny Faces here. Apparently this version is slightly different than the ones you'll find scattered on the web. This one has a teal background.

Printer Maestro by UPTIME

A neat little TSR program that quickly lets you configure things like half-speed mode or compressed printing. If you used your printer a lot back in the day this utility might have suited you.

The TSR pops up a window over your existing screen.

Print Screen Window

A utility that lets you select a portion of the screen you want to print. It only works in text-mode but it's easy to use. I couldn't find anything on the internet about this utility and my version seems to be translated to Dutch. I guess someone (perhaps my uncle) modified the text from English to Dutch.

You can activate the utility by pressing CTRL+F6. A bar will appear around the screen which you can move using the arrow keys. Press <SPACEBAR> once and you can move the right bottom corner of the bar. Press <SPACEBAR> again and the selected text on screen will be sent to the printer.

You can download both Printer Maestro and Print Screen Window here.