Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!linus!linus!linus!mbunix!sdl From: sdl@d74sun.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvinchouk) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications Subject: Re: Printer Drivers Message-ID: Date: 6 Mar 91 05:27:46 GMT References: <27264@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> Sender: news@linus.mitre.org (News Service) Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA. Lines: 47 In-Reply-To: cr1@shark.cis.ufl.edu's message of 4 Mar 91 13:56:26 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: d74sun.mitre.org In article <27264@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@shark.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) writes: > I write a lot of papers and what not. I've tried various > wordprocessors and I've found that when I use anything but the built > in printer fonts on either of my printers( the Panasonic 1124 or the > Citizen GSX 140, both 24 pin printers), I get absolute crap for > quality. I'm using the Epsonq printer driver. Now, am I correct in > assuming that it is the printer drivers fault for this? I assume you are attempting to print text using Amiga bitmapped screen fonts. These often print poorly, due to: 1. Their inherently poor resolution (72 dpi?); diagonal lines show "jaggies" both on screen and on printout. 2. Since the vertical and horizontal resolutions of your printer both differ from the Amiga's screen resolution, the printer driver must rescale the font in both horizontal and vertical resolutions. For Epson LQ, neither horizontal nor vertical resolution is an integral multiple of the screen resolution. Therefore the printer driver scales irregularly in both dimensions, adding a little more here and a little less there. 3. Since the aspect ratio of your printer is different from the aspect ratio of the screen, the horizontal rescaling is different from the vertical rescaling. In ProWrite, you can force the program to use the printer's aspect ratio by turning off "Aspect Adjusted" in "Page Setup". To avoid all these problems, you should use a program that employs scalable fonts. For a program that outputs PostScript, there are PostScript drivers available for dot-matrix printers. I have found that TeX produces very nice printed output, no doubt because it employs its own scalable fonts and very high resolution bitmapped fonts. -- Steven Litvintchouk MITRE Corporation Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mbunix.mitre.org UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,necntc,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"