Thermal printer Driver In windows

Question

I am new to windows driver development, now i am developing Driver for our own thermal printer. So learn some Printer driver basics From MSDN (WDK source). Now i am printing with Generic TEXT/ONLY mode in windows .but i need to integrate my printer with different applications like (word ,pdf, and from browser)for that GENERIC/TEXT ONLY MODE will not help so i need to create a own driver.every printer driver must have

1.GPD

2.Printer graphics DLL.

3.Properties.DLL

i have some doubt about this.i found some dlls from WDK source

1. is it possible to use that dll for my printer .
2. Are those dll's printer specific.
3. how to make my printer support various printer command languages?
4. how to make my driver to work with multiple windows versions like xp ,7,8 ?

if you have any experience with printer driver development can you share your knowledge with me.

Answer 1

Your question is very broad. In essence, you're asking for an entire tutorial on print drivers, which could fill a book. Take a look at the Unidriver plugin samples in the WDK. A version 3 Unidriver plugin will work on any Windows platform from XP to Win8. If your printer is raster technology, you'll probably want to start with the BITMAP sample.