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Printing and scanning is a bigger problem

Printing and scanning is a bigger problem

Posted May 6, 2005 12:24 UTC (Fri) by rwmj (guest, #5474)
In reply to: The ins and outs of USB (IBM developerWorks) by jwb
Parent article: The ins and outs of USB (IBM developerWorks)

I find a bigger issue is lack of standardisation for the protocols for printing and scanning.

I can plug in just about any storage device (camera, memory card, phone, ...) and it appears as "USB mass storage".

Why can't I do the same for printers and scanners? It's not as if printers and scanners differ from each other so much (rectangular page, the only major difference is the resolution). Yet I need to install special drivers for every type of printer. Certain printers (esp. HP crap) the drivers are very invasive, whatever platform you're on.

Rich.


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