Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!laird From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) Subject: Re: Postscript printers Message-ID: <1991Apr23.235348.9765@Think.COM> Sender: news@Think.COM Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA References: <39358@cup.portal.com> Distribution: na Date: Tue, 23 Apr 91 23:53:48 GMT In article <39358@cup.portal.com> whirt@cup.portal.com (William Bill Hirt) writes: >(Rich Andrews) writes: > >>I am considering getting a Postscript printer for my amiga. The >>models that I am considering are: the TI miscolaser, NEC silentwriter >>2 model 90, QUME 410 or scriptTEN. Suggestions? (Budget = ~$2000) > >One other printer you might want to consider is the HP IIP. I have a IIP >with a Pacific Page Postscript cartridge. It emulates Adobe PS version 51.9. >We have a QMS PS 2220 at work with genuine Adobe Postscript 51.0 and I >haven't found anything yet which prints on one and won't print on the >other. Street price on the IIP is now under $800. The Pacific Page >cart is about $350 and comes with the standard 35 Postscript type families. >You need to add a 2 meg card to the IIP for Postscript work. I got a 4 >meg card (populated) for under $500 for my IIP. Another $150 or so mail >order can get you the under the printer 250 page sheet feeder tray. > >I have a friend which has the HP Postcript cartridge for the IIP and >has found it to work well with ProPage for several months now. The >advantage of the Pacific Page cart over the HP cart is that you can >send a software reset to the printer to switch between Postscript and >HP PCL mode. The HP cart requires you to remove it to drop back to PCL >mode. > >If you look around, you may be able find a close-out LaserJet II for >around $1000. Adobe makes a Postscript cartridge for the II that sells >for between $250-275 mail order. The Adobe cart only works on the >LaserJet II. HP's cart works on the IIP, III, and IIID and is a licensed >version of Adobe Postscript. > If you're looking specifically for a Postscript printer, I would advise against the IIp. Why? First, it is pathetically slow when compared to any other Postscript printer -- the primary factor seems to be that the IIp has a very slow processor in it (it was designed mainly for priting simple text). Second, it's quite expensive to expand RAM and can't be expanded otherwise. A Postscript printer that I would recommend highly is GCC's BLP II, which comes with 2 Mb RAM expandable to 4 by adding off the shelf SIMMs, and it also has a SCSI port for adding a hard drive. Best of all, it lists for under $2K. To use it from an Amiga you need to add a serial or parallel port to the printer ($100 or so for both) because it comes standard with only AppleTalk (aka LocalTalk). Or get a LocalTalk port for your Amiga (I've been looking for one, incidentally, if anyone has any info I'd like to hear it). >>How well does some of the packages for the amiga (ProPage 2.0, ProDraw, >>Pagestream 2.1) use these printers? Could I buy PS fonts and download >>them instead of buying extra hardware (how well does that work). > >I have used ProPage 2.0 to print to my IIP with the Postscript cart. The >change in ProPage 2.0 is that you must use the Postscript fonts in your >document. Before, ProPage would convert the CompuGraphic fonts to the >approriate Postscript fonts at print time. Why they changed this I have >no idea and I have yet to get a response yet from Gold Disk why this >change was made. > >The Gold Disk CompuGraphic font series has a Postscript font downloader >included in each font package. ProPage can also be told to download >any fonts you are using in your document at print time. There are a >number of Type 1 Adobe fonts around from IBM and Mac land that you can use. >The main thing is creating the AFM and metric files for use in ProPage. >There are several PD and shareware programs which do this. The other thing >is you need to have enough additional memory in the printer to hold all >your non-resident fonts while doing your print job. If you plan to to >use a lot of downloaded fonts, 4 megs of printer memory would be a lot >better than 2 megs. A 2 meg expansion on a IIP gives you 2.5 megabytes >of memory which would probably be sufficent 99% of the time. Of course, if you have a cheap 20 Mb hard drive on your printer, you only need to download the fonts once . >>Could I get a parallel PS printer to work under A-Max? I would be >>interested in using FreeHand, PageMaker, etc. What drivers would I >>need. How well does A-MaxII handle the parallel connection? > >The IIP and the Pacific Page cart support serial communications if you >need to go this way with Amax. > >Bill - Laird Popkin