Nibble mode allows data transfer back to the computer. This mode is best used with printers. Byte mode uses software drivers to disable the drivers that control the data lines in order for data to be sent from the printer to the computer. The data is sent at the same speed as when data is sent from the computer to the printer. One byte of data is transferred instead of the two data cycles required by the nibble mode.
Data transfer occurs at two to four megabytes per second.
An advanced feature is channel addressing. EPP mode was adopted as part of the IEEE 1284 standard. The EPP mode uses data cycles that transfer data between the computer and the peripheral and address cycles that assign address, channel, or command information. This allows data transfer speeds of 500 kilobytes to 2 megabytes per second, depending on the speed of the slowest interface. The EPP mode is bi-directional.