ColorCAMM PNC-5000 Thermal Transfer Printer/Cutter

What is a Driver? What is a plugin?

All Roland devices with a USB, Parallel (LPT), or Serial (COM) port need a driver to communicate with a computer. For Roland products compatible with Apple Macintosh operating systems, a plugin is used with Adobe Illustrator. For Roland devices with an Ethernet port, the output software (e.g. - RIP)includes the driver as part of the application.

Question
All Roland devices with a USB, Parallel (LPT), or Serial (COM) port need a driver to communicate with a computer. For Roland products compatible with Apple Macintosh operating systems, a plugin is used with Adobe Illustrator. For Roland devices with an Ethernet port, the output software (e.g. - RIP) includes the driver as part of the application.

Answer
A driver is a program used by a computer to communicate with a device. A plugin is an upgrade program for an existing design software designed to communicate specific functions through the software, similar to a driver. These progams translate the design software application into commands understood by the machine. It transmits this data from the correct port on the computer to the port on the device. This communication is typically one way in older devices, but can also be two-way in newer devices to read settings off the machine that can be used for creating and outputting the design. See the following links for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_driver 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_%28computing%29 

Roland creates and maintains drivers for the latest Windows operating systems for machines currently for sale in its portfolio. Roland also updates and maintains drivers for a period of six years after the product is discontinued. After this six year period, driver development ceases and no further software support is offered. For End of Life info, see here - http://www.rolanddga.com/owners/support/eol/ 

May 07, 2020