USB Printer Cable

USB Printer Cable

This is a USB printer cable. The flat rectangular end is the usual USB connector which can be pinned into the USB socket on the computer. Unlike in the case of small USB devices like mobile phones, this does not function as a charging cable for the printer, which needs another power cable.
The other end has a square cross section and is used to connect to the printer. Some printer cables have additional passive elements in the cable which are not seen here. Earlier types of non-USB type of printers used a different type of cable to be connected to the printer port on the computer. Now there are also WiFi printers which do not need a printer cable at all!

Connector to the computer is Type A and connector to the printer is Type B.