…a no-frills network driver for single-user printers. Its component pieces are created by the enclosed application, ‘Ecco Maker’. Ecco Print has been tested successfully with the ImageWriter and the StyleWriter. It does not work with the Personal LaserWriter LS.
Ecco Maker allows you to install either a ‘server’ System Extension or a ‘client’ printer driver on Macs connected to AppleTalk networks. On a server Mac, Ecco Maker creates both a new printer driver and a System Extension which will install a AppleTalk server. This server allows the newly created Ecco printer driver to be accessed by Ecco Print clients across the network. After it finishes installing Ecco Server, Ecco Maker reminds you to select the Ecco printer driver in the Chooser. The server will be installed the next time that you restart your Mac.
On a client Mac, Ecco Maker creates a new printer driver customized for the selected printer. You are then reminded to select this new driver via the Chooser. The Chooser will display a list of available Ecco Servers for you to select from. Because the clients will be looking to select a server in Chooser, it is best to install the server before installing clients.
Being a no-frills network driver, Ecco Print has some limitations. First, it does no queuing of print jobs. This means that several conditions must be met in order to print: the server Mac must be running, have the published printer connected, turned on and selected in the Chooser. If these conditions are not met, the printer driver will inform you that it could not find a server.
Secondly, Ecco Print won’t work with Macs older than SE/30s unless they are running System 7. An important design goal of Ecco Print was that it be simple and inexpensive. To overcome this limitation would require me to double both the complexity and price of Ecco Print.
If you like Ecco Print and find it useful, please pass along any suggestions you may have for improvements or features. Your input will help me prioritize my future efforts on Ecco Print. If you encounter any problems (‘bugs’, ack!), let me know ASAP. Especially appreciated would be your experiences, both positive and negative, with currently untested printers.
‘Ecco Print’ is…
…shareware. If Ecco Print proves useful to you, please pay for it. I am asking $10 for each server installed and $2.50 for each client.
