Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!waikato.ac.nz!canterbury!chem194
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: Questions about DTP printing and refresh speed
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.141855.946@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
From: chem194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis)
Date: 3 Jun 91 14:18:55 +1200
References: <1991Jun2.013507.26940@ichips.intel.com>
Organization: Chem Dept, U of Cant, ChCh NZ
Lines: 52

In article <1991Jun2.013507.26940@ichips.intel.com>, waggoner@omews1.intel.com (Mark Waggoner) writes:
> 
> I have a couple of questions about desk-top publishing programs that I hope
> someone can answer.  I am specifically interested in Pro-Page and Pagestream
> but if you would like to comment on other packages, feel free to do so.
>
>   - Can it print to a non-postscript printer using the printer's full
>     graphics resolution.  I mean really using the printer's resolution, 
> 	not just scaling the screen to the printer's resolution as
> 	Prowrite, for example, does.

I use Pagestream 2.1 (mainly for our local user group newsletter) - it
can use either it's own printer drivers (optimised for use with PS -
ones for HP laserjet, Epson 9 pin, Epson 24 pin, Nec 24pin, DeskJet, Postscript
etc are provide) or the normal Preferences driver (so if you you've got
a particularly odd-ball printer, but happen to have a prefs level driver
for it you can still use it). Either way, it drives the printer to full
resolution (since it uses scalable fonts).
 
>   - How long does it take to print a moderately complex page this way?
>     (Tell me what kind of system you are using).

On a 25MHz 2500 it takes about 1min to create a reasonably complex
page (graphical ad, with a couple of IFF bitmaps in it). Time to
print it then depends on the output device - several minutes for my
old 24pin NEC (at 360x360dpi), about 3min to send it to a Brother Hl8
laser (LaserJet II clone) using the old 1.3.2 parallel.device, or
about 1min40sec using the new 1.3.3 parallel.device running in 
fast mode (the new 1.3.3 device is really worth getting for talking to
PCL laser printers!). Basically you're limited by the speed at which your
printer can accept data.

Sending to a postscript printer isn't really any quicker for complex
pages either (ones with bitmapped gfx or custom fonts on it) as the time
taken for the laser to process the page can be considerable, though it
does free your amiga to get on with other things whilst the printer
does it's stuff...
 
>   - How fast are screen updates?  Sub second?  Multi second?  Tens of
>     seconds?  Minutes?

depends on how far you're zoomed in, what level you've got greeking set at etc.
If the whole screen is being re-drawn using scalable fonts or has a lot of
graphics on it it can take a good 10-30sec for a page - for 12/24 point though
PS uses pre-generated screen fonts which speed things up dramatically (at the
expense of 'true' WYSIWYG). For a simple page of 12pt text redraw times are
a couple of secs max.

-----------------------------------------------------------
| o      John Davis - CHEM194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz       o |
| o    (Depart)mental Programmer,Chemistry Department    o |
| o  University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand o |