HP 400 manual Windows Printer Drivers, Chapter

Windows Printer Drivers

Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft provide several HP DeskJet 400 printer driver solutions for Windows 3.1. This chapter identifies available printer drivers and which driver to choose for optimum performance.

Some users may choose to use the Microsoft printer driver, although the driver has limited capabilities. Microsoft’s and Hewlett-Packard’s printer drivers can be installed in Windows at the same time and assigned to the same port. Windows, however, allows only one default or active printer driver per port at a time. Selecting a printer as the default or active device automatically switches any other printer drivers assigned to the port to an inactive state.

The next two sections describe Microsoft’s printer drivers, included with Windows software, and Hewlett-Packard’s printer drivers, included with DeskJet 400 printer.

Microsoft’s Printer Drivers for Windows

The Microsoft printer drivers are printer drivers available from Microsoft or included in versions of Microsoft Windows.

Limited Microsoft Printer Driver Features

•Limited grayscale imaging; scanned images in particular will not print as well

•Supports printer internal fonts in portrait mode only

•Small size; occupies only about 150K of disk space

•Monochrome (black) text and graphics

•No detailed online help information on the specific printer

Hewlett-Packard’s Printer Drivers for Windows

The Hewlett-Packard printer drivers are printer drivers available from Hewlett-Packard or bundled with HP DeskJet 400 printer.

Note	Hewlett-Packard recommends that Windows 3.1 users update to the HP DeskJet 400 Printer Driver.
	For information on obtaining printer drivers, see the “Service and Support Resources” section in
	chapter 6.

4-2 Printer Drivers