Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!gatech!ncsuvx!eceris!ml
From: ml@eceris.ncsu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: DeskJet+ Questions
Keywords: deskjet printer hp
Message-ID: <3563@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 89 22:27:48 GMT
References: <459@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: ml@eceris.UUCP ()
Organization: North Carolina State University
Lines: 69

In a previous article, johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (John Lindwall) wrote:
]I am planning to buy an HP DeskJet Plus printer.  My university bookstore
]has it for $617, including the free Times-Roman font cartridge if you buy it
]before Sept 30.

  ... or Prestige Elite if you prefer (I do) ...

]I would like some info from people using a DeskJet or DeskJet Plus with an
]Amiga.  I plan to do Word Processing and some graphics.  I may someday use
]DTP but currently do not.
]
]------ Q U E S T I O N S -----
]
]Do Amiga fonts look any good on the DeskJet?  IE If I use PenPal, or Prowrite
]to write a document will it look blocky when printed?  Do WP programs use
]the internal fonts of the DeskJet (EG Times-Roman)?

       Look good: NO.  Blocky: YES.

       ProWrite has options to print using "NLQ" or "DRAFT" mode, which uses
the printer character set, instead of the Amiga fonts (that is, it sends text
instead of graphics).  You just need to
find a font whose spacing (within ProWrite) matches the printer's font, so
what you see on the screen will match what gets printed.  I have no idea
what other WP programs use.

If you want high quality output which makes the printer shine, use TeX.
Please note that TeX is a typesetter, not a word processor (it processes
an input file containing embedded commands to produce an output file;
no WYSIWYG or anything like that).

]Do graphics print OK on the DeskJet?  Can I do printouts of Dpaint graphics
]without any problems?

Absolutely superb.  Like a laser printer.  To be more precise, the printer
is capable of laser quality graphics.  What your software does with it
is another matter.  Remember that if you use a paint program (like DPaint)
that you are generating images on the screen which are of much lower
spatial resolution (dot density) than the printer is capable of.  If you
make a black & white picture in DPaint, it will look crude when printed
because a single pixel in your image will turn into many pixels on the
printer (if printed 1:1, the printer image would only be a couple of inches
square!).  This may be ameliorated somewhat if you are using color images
because of dithering;  but I haven't been printing color images so I 
cannot attest to this.

]Is the Better_DJ printer driver really an improvement over the C= driver?
 
???  Never heard of it.  Since I normally use TeX, I don't really fool that
much with the Amiga drivers.

]Also, please give me any comments, pro or con, to help me decide whether to get
]this printer.  Thank you.

I'd say the DeskJet+ was an excellent printer.  I'm very happy with mine.
There are a couple of problems, IMHO:

   *  Ink is water soluble.  I've heard (but have no proof) that HP is working
      on this.

   *  Feature selection (bold, italic, font, etc) is different when printing
      in portrait and landscape mode.  Apparently, landscape stuff is actually
      a separate set of fonts.  I believe the printer should have the smarts
      to rotate the font definitions 90 degrees, so that if you have any font
      or style, it works for both print modes.

Other than that, I have no complaints.  Laser quality output without laser
printer prices; quiet, reasonably fast.  I wouldn't mind having a way to add
Postscript capability though.