Pb2 Passbook Printer Driver- — Citic
Introduction
What is the CITIC Pb2 Passbook Printer?
Before diving into driver management, let’s establish the hardware. The CITIC Pb2 is not a standard office laser printer. It is a dot matrix (impact) printer specifically engineered for passbooks.
6) Configure port and printer settings
- Open Devices and Printers → right‑click the Citic PB2 → Printer properties.
- On the Ports tab ensure the correct port (USB/COM/LPT) is selected.
- On the Advanced tab, set appropriate spooling behavior (e.g., “Start printing after last page spooled” or “Print directly to the printer” if you experience formatting issues).
- If using a serial port, configure the port settings in Device Manager → Ports → Properties → Port Settings to match the printer manual (baud rate, parity, data bits, stop bits, flow control).
Common Emulations: Olivetti (PR2, PR2E, PR40, PR50), IBM Proprinter II (X24, 4722, 4748), Epson, OKI, and Hitachi.
5. Why the Driver is "Interesting" to Sysadmins
Most passbook printers require manual page length setting. The PB2 driver auto-detects passbook page height by dragging the book against the left margin sensor during the first print. This creates a temporary book_height.hdc file in C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3\ – delete it if alignment drifts.
- Dedicate a low-latency USB controller per printer
- Use print server redirection only for non-MICR endorsements
- Automate driver deployment via PNPTools, not Point and Print
- Always keep a legacy Win10 LTSC 32-bit VM as fallback