Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!ndcheg!jeff
From: jeff@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu (Jeffrey C. Kantor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: I like my new HP Deskwriter.  A lot.
Message-ID: <714@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu>
Date: 28 Jul 89 19:58:46 GMT
Organization: Dep't of Chemical Eng., Univ. of Notre Dame
Lines: 57


I got my HP Deskwriter a couple of days ago, and am *very* pleased with
it.  I was looking for something to put in my office so I don't have
to keep running down the hall to the shared laserwriter(s).  A personal
laserwriter seemed a bit expensive.  So when I saw the ad for the HP
Deskwriter, it looked like something that would fit the bill.

And does it!  The image quality is excellent. You have to look fairly
carefully to see the difference between a page of Laserwriter output and a
page of Deskwriter output.  The Deskwriter output might be just a bit
fuzzier around the edges of the characters, but it is hardly noticeable.
And the blacks are not quite as dense, but again it is hard to notice.

The thing to keep in mind, of course, is that you're getting near Laserwriter
quality for not much more than the price of an imagewriter.  On campus, the
Imagewriter II costs $465, and I paid $729 for the Deskwriter.  I suppose
there are cheaper places to buy them (so please don't send me a lot of mail
telling me so.)

Installation is straightforward.  One minor complaint is that the Deskwriter ->
Mac interface cable is *not* included, you have to go buy one from your Apple
dealer.  This seems a bit cheesy on the part of HP, why couldn't they just
through one in the package?

Software installation consists of putting the
printer driver in the System folder, along with a folder of printer fonts.
Then use the Chooser to select the Deskwriter and you are in business.  No
need to even reboot. The included fonts are Times, Helvetica, Symbol, and
Courier (with slightly different names).  Just like the first edition of
the Apple Laserwriter.

I also bought the 6 font collection.  These are simply extra files to stick
in the Deskwriter font folder.  Matching screen fonts come with these and
can be installed using the Font/DA mover. These fonts are Avant Garde, N 
Helvetica Narrow, New Century Schoolbook, Bookman, Platino, and Zapf. (Again,
with proprietary names just to confuse the innocent).

So far I've  used it with Word 4.0, Powerpoint, and Mathematica.  These all
printed without a glitch.   I have not been able to print graphics directly
from Matlab, only a blank page comes out.  And it doesn't do PostScript, so
PostScript only applications are out of luck.  This hurts me the most
when it comes to OzTeX, the recently posted public domain TeX which only
drives PostScript printers.

How about it?  Will someone out there ever to an HP Deskwriter version of
the DVI printer driver?

Summary:  If you can live without postscript, and want a light duty printer
for your office or home, it is hard to imagine a better value than the HP
Deskwriter.  I like mine so much I'm planning to buy another for the Mac
at home.

-- 
Jeff Kantor
                                       US Mail:  Dept. of Chemical Engineering
internet: jeff@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu                University of Notre Dame
    uucp: iuvax!ndmath!ndcheg!jeff               Notre Dame, IN   46556  USA