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Parallel Printer Cable

This cable can be used to connect a parallel printer to the parallel port on a PC. The phrase parallel cable can be ambigous as it shelters numerous different specifications, not all of which are simple PC to printer type. The parallel port socket on a computer uses 25 pins. There are two types of parallel printer cable that are widely used for PCs.  The old "standard" IBM Printer cable and the newer IEEE 1284 bi-directional cable commonly sold today.

25 pin male connector 25 pin D-Sub Male

36 pin Centronics male connector

36 pin Centronics Male

Parallel Printer Cable Pinout

Signal 25-DSub 36-Cen
Strobe 1 1
Data Bit 0 2 2
Data Bit 1 3 3
Data Bit 2 4 4
Data Bit 3 5 5
Data Bit 4 6 6
Data Bit 5 7 7
Data Bit 6 8 8
Data Bit 7 9 9
Acknowledge 10 10
Busy 11 11
Paper Out 12 12
Select 13 13
Autofeed 14 14
Error 15 32
Reset 16 31
Select 17 36
Signal Ground 18 33
Signal Ground 19 19,20
Signal Ground 20 21,22
Signal Ground 21 23,24
Signal Ground 22 25,26
Signal Ground 23 27
Signal Ground 24 28,29
Signal Ground 25 30,16
Shield Shield Shield+17

 

This data was contributed by the team at The Hardware Book.

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