Brother printers do not use a traditional Centronics 36-pin that you can find on other printers or 2-row 25-pin D-SUB parallel port (LPT) that you find on computers. Instead of that, they use a smaller 3-row 26-pin D-SUB connector. And new printers do not come with a cable/reduction to LPT. You have to go and buy the reduction from Brother under name "PC-5000".
On one end, I understand Brother. If I were them, I would also want to know how many people still need LPT. And by selling the reduction separately you get the count. On the other end, the cable sells for a quarter of the printer.
Since the reduction is nothing else but a simple wire reduction that you can solder from and old LPT cable and a new 3-row 26-pin D-SUB connector for 2 dollars.
The wiring is simple. Pin 1 on one connector goes on pin 1 on the other connector. Pin 2 on one connector goes on pin 2 on the other connector. And so on. Pin 26 does not have its counterpart and is left unconnected. Ground goes on the ground.
For reference, I include wire colors on my cable (note: they might be different from your cable). And the pin numbers are the numbers on the D-SUB connectors on the cable.
D-SUB 26:
| 1 | black | 10 | white | 19 | black white |
| 2 | brown | 11 | pink | 20 | brown white |
| 3 | red | 12 | azure | 21 | red white |
| 4 | orange | 13 | red black | 22 | orange white |
| 5 | yellow | 14 | orange black | 23 | green white |
| 6 | green | 15 | yellow black | 24 | blue white |
| 7 | blue | 16 | green black | 25 | purple white |
| 8 | purple | 17 | grey black | 26 | not wired |
| 9 | grey | 18 | pink black | ground | shielding of the cable |
D-SUB 25:
| 1 | black | 14 | orange black |
| 2 | brown | 15 | yellow black |
| 3 | red | 16 | green black |
| 4 | orange | 17 | grey black |
| 5 | yellow | 18 | pink black |
| 6 | green | 19 | black white |
| 7 | blue | 20 | brown white |
| 8 | purple | 21 | red white |
| 9 | grey | 22 | orange white |
| 10 | white | 23 | green white |
| 11 | pink | 24 | blue white |
| 12 | azure | 25 | purple white |
| 13 | red black | ground | shielding of the cable |
Just note that the 3-line D-SUB is a bit overcrowded in comparison to 2-line D-SUB. You might want to start from the middle row and use a micro soldering iron.
