parallel vs usb for a printer

[Xarick]

my printer has parallel and usb options. Which is better and why?

 

[LouPoir]

I doubt it matters -

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

USB, parallel is ancient.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

USB may speed up the time to start printing.

 

[Aluvus]

USB cables are much easier to route, and can be reused with future devices. USB will be around for a while (and is on just about all computers); parallel is a sinking ship.

In terms of day-to-day performance, you're not looking at a massive difference. But those little advantages for USB outweigh the complete lack of advantages for parallel.

 

[MacMcMacmac]

OTOH, the parallel port is pretty much useless for anything else, so utilizing it will keep a USB port free for some other device.

 

[xgsound]

I've had 2 printers with usb and parallel. They worked fine on win98se, but when installed on XP machines (all faster) they took longer to prepare and sent the work to the printer using parallel. There were also some crashes and artifacts. When switched to the USB interface they worked faster with no artifacts or crashes.

I suspect that no manufacturers are interested in optimizing thier drivers for parallel in XP.


Jim

 

[ShawnD1]

USB will send all the data to the printer immediately and the printer starts to print. Parallel is slower so it sends page 1 and the printer starts to print, and while page 1 prints it sends page 2, then page 2 prints and it sends page 3. Technically speaking the USB is "faster", but because of how the data is sent to the printer there is literally no difference in how long it takes to print 20 pages using USB or 20 pages using parallel.

Use whichever one you have the cables for. If you have some spare parallel cables around the house, use those. There's no sense in buying an expensive USB cable just for some imaginary gains.

 

[Roguestar]

USB is better if you need to use a long cable, strange as it may sound. With parallel you get increased data transmission skew over a longer cable that USB does not suffer from, being a serial transmission medium.