With the promise of the paperless office seemingly destined to remain unfulfilled, printing continues to be vital to the average home office, and only marginally less vital to the average home. This article discusses how to install, configure, and manage printers and fonts. Article 28 discusses how to share a printer via your network and how to connect to a shared printer.

Understanding the Basics of Windows Printing

Windows makes the process of installing a printer as straightforward as possible. But before you start, it helps to understand the basics of printing in Windows. First, some of the terminology is confusing. Second, Windows offers three ways of installing a printer; this article discusses the first of those ways, and Article 28 discusses the other two. Third, you should know the essentials of how an item you print makes its way from the program to the printer.

The Terminology of Windows Printing

Just as the windows in Windows are most likely substantially different from those in your home, Windows terminology for printing is a little different from regular terminology. Here are the terms that you need to know before you consult the Help files or call for tech support:

• A printer is the hardware device that actually prints the page - in other words, what people normally mean when they say “printer.” This doesn’t go without saying because Microsoft sometimes refers to a printer as a print device. If so, what does Microsoft mean by printer at those times? Read on.

• When the hardware device is called a print device, a printer is the software that controls the print device. Normally, it’s clearer to call this software a printer driver, even if this isn’t technically 100 percent accurate.

• A print job or just plain job is an item sent to a printer for printing. For example, if you print the first spreadsheet in an Excel workbook, that’s a print job. If you then print three pages of a Word document, that’s another print job.

• A network printer, shared printer, or printer connection is a printer that’s being shared by another computer or by a print server and that you can connect to across the network.

• A print server is a device typically a hardware device that relays print jobs to a printer. Windows also has print server software built in for managing print jobs.

This article uses the terms printer for the hardware device and printer driver for the software that drives it.