Assembly Guide
4.00, using hpdskjtb.drv, will provide color and B&W output to the DeskWriter 660C, allows supports serial printing, but the color output is of very poor quality and the driver properties are very limited. Later versions of this driver (e.g. v9.02 and v11.0), available at HP's web site http://www.hp.com/, do not support printing to the serial port. Unfortunately, "tricks" like redirecting printer port output to the serial port via the DOS mode LPTn=COMn redirection command do not overcome this limitation.
Interestingly, a driver for a much more modern HP DeskJet series of printers does work, and it works very nicely. The drivers for the DeskJet 640C series (with USB and Parallel interfaces) are entirely compatible with the DeskWriter 660C, and support printing to a serial port. The "HP DeskJet 640 Series Printer Driver USB" driver, dh653en.exe3 v2.4.4, can be downloaded from HP. The startup screen is shown below:
Figure 4: HP DeskJet 640C Printer Driver Installer
Run the setup program4 on your PC by selecting "Install HP DeskJet 640C Series printer software", and select a parallel port (e.g. LPT1:) even though your DeskWriter is not connected to said parallel port. Use the Skip option to disregard any problems the installer has communicating with the printer. After setup is complete, the printer driver will have been successfully installed:5
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