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From: cs326ag@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Loren J. Rittle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: An interesting idea...
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.044105.12364@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 91 04:41:05 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 40

In article <3867@dali> icsu8053@attila.cs.montana.edu (Craig Pratt) writes:
>This is exactly what the NeXT does.  The 400 DPI Next laser printer is a
>simple device which recieves raster information from the NeXT.  True, this
>does take up CPU time and RAM, but I can imagine upgrades are much easier
>and there aren't any real RAM problems thanks to virtual memory.  There
>also aren't any font compatability problems since the display and printer

This is also exactly what I do with Post 1.5 and my HP DeskJet printer on
my Amiga...

>use the same font resources.  The price is also nice:  ~$1300 educational
>and ~$2000 retail.  This is one of the beauties of using PostScript as
>a imaging model.

No, that is the beauty of being able to use the same CPU to render
PostScript for the computer and the printer...

Humm, with HP laser printers (that also work with Post, of course) being
under a grand retail, you have to wonder how come NeXT charges so much
for their PostScript-less printers...

>BTW, I don't think the NeXT sends the printer the raw image.  It's
>probably send with some sort of encoding, perhaps run-length encoding.
>
>I also understand that there are now drivers for other raster printers
>such as desk jets and dot matrix printers, as well.  They would have to
>be quite a bit slower due to the above and the fact that they would
>probably have to be connected to the serial port.  Chalk another up for 
>NeXT.

I guess that means we need to chalk one up of the Amiga too...

> Craig Pratt                                           icsu8053@cs.montana.edu

Loren J. Rittle
-- 
``The Amiga continues to amaze me--if I had not been told that this video was
  created using the Amiga and Toaster, I would not have believed it.  Even     
  Allen said, `I think I know how he did most of the effects.' '' - Jim Lange
  Loren J. Rittle  l-rittle@uiuc.edu