>Print screen is a very good trick to see if the printer is connected right
>and printing correctly.


>I'm wondering how you managed to do a 'Print Screen' in DOS.  As far as I'm
>aware this function is part of Windows, and isn't available in DOS.

The print screen key was originally a DOS function. Pressing it in a DOS
session, or when viewing the BIOS, will send one third of a screen view to
the printer. Unless your BIOS has been set up with print out settings,
something I haven't come across yet, then you will have to use the Print
Scrn key pressed three times in order to print a single screen / page. If
you want to then print a partial screen you would press the key one or two
times and issue this command
echo  > prn
but this is something appropriate to a DOS command screen, but not the BIOS
screens. You will have to press the key three times to print a view, unless
the BIOS has printer support.

You will also need to be using a hardware driven printer, like a laser
printer, in order for this to work. Some early inkjet printers were
hardware driven, meaning they employed their own processor to print.
However, modern Inkjets rely on windows drivers, and your CPU, in order to
print. They will only print in DOS, from a DOS window, in a windows session.

 From the very beginning of Windows, the Print Scrn key was used to copy
the screen to the <clipboard>, which can then be pasted into a graphic
application, and saved as a file. DOS is not a multi-tasking operating
system, and has no clipboard.

Rode
The NOSPIN Group
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