Imaging Spectrum Blog

Tips for installing photo printer drivers in Windows OS

Installing photo printer drivers in windowsA couple of rules when loading Windows drivers. Always assume the disk you receive with the printer is 2 to 3 months old. There could have been updates to the driver, especially on new printers. Imaging Spectrum has a link to all of our vendor’s drivers. The links can be found here: http://imagingspectrum.com/support.html

Download the driver file into a place where you will be able to find it, now and later. Do not just run the installer. By downloading the file you will have it on your computer if you ever need it again later. This is especially important if you take your computer and printer on-site to events where there is no internet connection.

Windows 7 has an all new way of loading the Windows driver. LOAD the Windows 7 driver BEFORE you connect the printer. In earlier versions of Windows you plugged in the printer and it launched the Install Wizard. Windows 7 is different so please remember to install the drive first, then connect the printer.

Windows dye-sub drivers are designed to have several printers attached and therefore will install copies every time you plug a printer into a different computer port. Even if it is the same printer. Here is a tip: decide which port you want to use the first time you plug in the printer and label it in order to prevent having the wrong printer copy as the active printer. If you are using Darkroom Pro Software with built-in drivers (Sony, Shinko, Kodak, Fuji and some Mitsubishi printers) it will not matter which port.

Dye-sub printer drivers usually do not go looking to see what size paper is in the printer. Many 6” dyesub printers default to 4×6 so if you are using 5×7 or larger paper it is critical to set the correct paper size in the driver.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions please feel free to email our tech team.

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Bill Vahrenkamp, Cr.Photog., leads technical operations at Imaging Spectrum.

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