Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl From: strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Windows & Mac: printer architecture Message-ID: <3065@gmdzi.UUCP> Date: 8 Jul 90 20:10:52 GMT References: <1990Jul6.174126.18953@portia.Stanford.EDU> <1990Jul8.054547.1344@d.cs.okstate.edu> Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, F. R. Germany Lines: 34 minich@d.cs.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) writes: > I guess we need to consider what goes into a printer. Limited >intelligence isn't a big problem. ($$$ wise) I presume the only reason >why PC printers aren't so talkative is that the parallel ports don't >offer any reason to. I think that the user should only have to consider >choices, not answer questions about facts which the computer can likely >determine with greater ease and accuracy. (ie, the user shouldn't be >able to answer incorrectly.) I agree. But there is no sharp border between choices and answers to questions about facts. Of course the printer may be able to detect the size of the paper it uses. Then it's a fact, not a choice. But what if the user prints to a file in order to create the output somewhere else? I this case he has to choose the paper size he will put into the printer. Then it *is* a choice. > What happens if you tell Windows you have font X in the printer, but >you don't? It depends. HP PCL printers (i.e. LaserJet, DeskJet) and clones have their own font matching algorithm, which selects the most similar available font by relaxing the specifications in a certain order (font weight is dropped first, size last, if I remember correctly). This gives the best thing one can produce from the users specifications, so there is not much lost. If the printer is unable to communicate anything back and dies from a wrong font specification, what can Windows do about that? It can try to get as much information as possible from the user. So it does. Wolfgang Strobl #include