SDI LPD 3.3

The name SDI LPD is a combination of two words. SDI stands for SDI USA Inc, a group of companies founded back in the ‘60s that specializes in developing “string of ground-breaking system software innovations for IBM mainframe computers.” SDI also develops applications for the Microsoft-developed Windows operating system. SDI LPD is such an application.

Okay, so SDI is the name of the company. LPD, the other part in this application’s name, is short for Line Printer Daemon. That’s what this software application is: a 32-bit printer daemon.

Here is how this application works. You work on a report all day long, and when you finish it you would like to print it out. With SDI LPD you can send the print request from a remote computer; the print job will be performed on a Windows local or network printer. Basically you can work from home and print out the report on your printer at work – this way when you come in the following day, the report is there waiting for you.

The SDI LPD print daemon has the following features to boast about:

• Provides support for any Windows local and network printer.
• Provides support for all Windows versions, including the latest iteration, Windows 7.
• Provides support for EBCDIC to ASCII character translation.
• Provides support for the conversion of Line Feeds to Carriage Return and Line Feeds (LF to CR/LF).
• Provides support for SNA Character Strings (SCS).
• Pause, resume and delete print jobs.
• Print to a file.
• Page management functions: print in portrait or landscape mode, set page margins, specify the number of rows and columns per page, scale font width, suppress or append form feeds, and so on.
• Print of suppress banner pages.
• Can be set to run in the system tray.
• User selectable fonts.

SDI LPD is not freeware. You can use the software free of charge during the trial period of 30 days.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Works with all Windows versions and with any Windows local or network printer
• Offers support for EBCDIC to ASCII character translation, for the conversion of Line Feeds to Carriage Return and Line Feeds, for SNA Character Strings.
• Print to a file

Cons

• Free to use only during the 30 day trial period

SDI LPD has been reviewed by George Norman on 26 Apr 2010. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated SDI LPD 4 out of 5 stars, naming it Excellent