trying to work with an old dot matrix printer
 

I have an old (+25yrs!) matrix printer (Citizen 120D), if I don't have its driver; setting it up as “generic text print only” is the best option or there is a better option for me to test it?

PS. Personal environment: desktop, Intel premium CPU G645 , distro: Ubuntu 14.04

Citizen printer
 

Best is if youu can find a driver for it.
Second best is if you have the book on it and can write your own.
Third is if you can find an NEARLY compatible driver and set it's emulation to take advantage.
Fourth is generic text-only driver, which is still useful. (and can tide you over while you seek a better answer)
Last is waste it and buy a newer printer. While that works, it ignores the value in impact printing and recovering more of your printer investment.

A quick search looks like the printer is Epson FX-80 or IBM proprinter compatible. You can find drivers at www.openprinting.org but the site looks like it is down at the present time.

A ghost may save you, citizen!
 

Is there an ibmpro driver in the ghost (GS=GhostScript) driver deck? That may do the trick!

I used to have one of those! It produced very nice NLQ output on my Sinclair QL, after a little re-write of the driver.

I remember that the problem with the generic Linux driver was that it ran the printer in graphics mode to try to represent vector fonts. To use the printer's own fonts, you need to send a plain text file to the printer, or to get a dedicated driver. I can't see a 120D driver for Linux, though — only Windows. I think an Epson FX80 driver should work, but that may be just as difficult to find.

trying to work with an old dot matrix printer
 

wpeckam & michaelk, Thanks; I tried to find its driver many times; in vain!, however I will try again. Will test applying "Epson FX-80"; most probably it's comaptible; thanks again for your help.
PS. will also look for a driver in ghost, it's interesting always to look for and work with tricks!

I used to use a test like from command line send a text file to lpt port or prn.

Many of the older dot matix printers would offer a way to emulate different printers. If this one does then you may be able to use it under a different emulation. We assume that is is under OEM right now.

Does it work under generic text? The graphical in those old printers were rather limited.

trying to work with an old dot matrix printer
 

As for, working under "generic text"? : ** yes, it does work
its grahical limitation? : ** I know, it should be limited (speed & quality wise) no complain; I'm not tending to use it for graphical printouts, mostly for my text editing and printouts.
thanks for your post

Like the others said, Epson FX-80 should work. In those days just about all Japanese Printers emulated the FX80 or could be set to do so.

As far as graphical mode printing goes, what I think the other posters were referring to is that to get WYSIWYG the printer needs to print in graphical mode. Otherwise you are limited to the fonts resident in the printer. Which should be OK for most uses.

Essentially setting the font involves sending an Escape code to the printer. Do you have the manual? Or an FX-80 manual. If not I may be able to dig one up.

Happy Playing.

trying to work with an old dot matrix printer
 

I think, for the time being; I'm happy so far working with the "generic-text-only" option as it's working properly till now, I have some printouts hopefuly end soon, might be better to keep the hustle of try and check other options for latter. The graphical printout isn't one of my concerns at the moment, but I can predict its quality with an old printer like this; in addition its time comsuming for many graphical pages in the print que!. I do have the original manual, thanks for the offer; digging for it.
Thanks for your help.

A thought: you CAN set up more than one queue for a single printer. Trying a new queue with a different drive should not disable your "Generic-Text-Only" queue. Quality printout may be worth some experimentation!

trying to work with an old dot matrix printer
 

Thanks for pointing, do you think spooling will gain speed advantage despite the buffering wise, I'm not that expert to judge, but yet I think adding more than one que will easy issuing many print commands while they still waiting in line to be printed, thanks for the hint.

trying to work with an old dot matrix printer
 

Finally, I have the time to make more tries, applying the Epson option, came out with the alternative to set it for “Epson-24 pins” (there was no FX-80 within the available drivers); however it worked. Printing the test page took around 5mns., too much?, I don't think I have to ask for too much out of an old printer like this one that I have. Anyhow; I need it only for printing text printouts, I'm patient enough to print my personal jobs; I'm happy with what it's doing.

I'm marking this subject as solved; thanks for everyone shared thoughts or experience, will be more than happy to do the same for anyone who needs mine (if it's worthy).