The parallel port in most PC is first introduced in 1970, has now changed a lot since then, but still a popular choice for many interfacing purposes. The prime use of it was to connect a printer to the PC, but later many other devices like scanner, tape drives, jazz drives, PC-PC direct cable etc. are also become user of this port. This requirement changes the Parallel port in some respect.
The original parallel port is called Standard Parallel Port (SPP) and the Enhanced version are called Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) and Extended Capabilities Port (ECP). There are some other modes like Bi-Directional mode and nibble mode. IEEE 1284 describes these in much details.
you have basically many options to control parallel port. Depending upon our convince we select software invironment.
I have done it in two ways..
1.using MATLAB
2. using C/C++
Parallel Port
Parallel port has 25 pins . Parallel port cables are locally available (commonly referred as printer port cables). These cables are handy to connect port pins with your circuit. Pins 2-9 are bi-directional data pins (pin 9 gives the most significant bit (MSB)), pins 10-13 and 15 are output pins (status pins), pins 1,14,16,17 are input pins (control pins), while pins 18-25 are Ground pins.
You can connect the pins of the parallel port to the driver IC for further application which include higher current and voltage .