What is a Printer Driver?
Simply defined, printer drivers are the small machine program that is required by the printer to function. As everybody knows, printers are devices that are tasked to make hard copies of documents and everything else you want printed in paper. Printers can be used for photos and images as well.
There are a good number of printers available today and most of them are capable of doing a lot other things than just simple printing. Most printers currently available are standalone systems, which would mean that they can practically work on their own, independent of a computer system. Aside from printing, a lot of printers can also do scanning, faxing, and copying all at the same time.
Standalone printers may not need drivers to work. But the moment you connect it to the computer, that’s when the drivers become necessary. All the network capabilities and printing properties of your printer will only work if and only if you have the necessary drivers all setup.
It is the printer driver that allows the printer to talk to the operating system so that the user can utilize it accordingly. Printer drivers work this way – the user would ask MS Word or any word processing program to print the document. That particular program would then collaborate with the operating system so the task can be performed. The operating system, which is commonly Windows, would attempt to call the printer and put the task in its queue. However, Windows can talk directly to the printer. What it will do is that it will call on the drivers and use it to translate the command in a manner that the printer would understand.
Without the drivers, the printer won’t be able to work with your computer. The printer may be able to work on its own. But it can’t be associated to the computer at all. This is the reason why all printers are sold with a CD that contains the driver and the software that you need to make the device work. The drivers are also tasked to maximize the use of the printer and make sure that all of its functions and features can be taken advantage used accordingly.
So the moment that printer you ordered arrive at your door, look for the user’s manual and the CD first. Read through the proper way of installing the printer before connecting anything to your computer. Don’t worry the installation process is straightforward and easy. You’ll be able to use the printer in minutes.