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From: laser-lovers@uw-beaver
Newsgroups: fa.laser-lovers
Subject: Re: round vs. square pixels
Message-ID: <1283@uw-beaver>
Date: Wed, 5-Jun-85 15:48:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.1283
Posted: Wed Jun  5 15:48:43 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Jun-85 01:32:40 EDT
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Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
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From: imagen!geof@Berkeley


I think you've got it reversed.  The 10/240 uses the Canon LBP-10
engine.  I am told that its pixels are roundish, although I'm not sure. 
The 8/300 uses the now famous Canon LBP-CX engine.  Its pixels are
rather square.

The shape of the pixels is very noticeable.  For example, the jaggies
on rounded letters or angled lines are much easier to see on the LBP-CX
than on some other machines, so font tuners must be much more careful,
and line drawings tend to look more jaggy.  On the other hand, filled
regions and horizontal or vertical lines look much more solid.
Textures involving single pixels surrounded by white space are also
darker on the CX.

Fonts for the 8/300 look different when printed on other engines.
Usually, they look too slender, and the serifs vanish.  Conversely,
fonts prepared for other engines look stodgy on the 8/300, since even a
single pixel serif is very visible. 

It takes a good deal of effort, for example, to get compatible fonts
for the CX and other engines because of this problem.  That's one
reason why downloaded fonts are starting to be a worse idea (and why
Imagen has started to sell printer resident fonts).

While I'm on fonts....

To answer a previous comment on the list, I would agree (without
consulting our marketing department -- I'm writing as a civilian) that
anyone buying an Imagen printer for use with DI/TROFF should seriously
consider buying printer resident fonts with it (and paying the extra
price for them) for the above reasons, as well as to avoid the
need to use the much deprecated versions of the Computer Modern fonts
that we distribute for free (I guess that you get what you pay for).  I
would especially recommend this to users who intend now or in the
future to have different IMAGEN printers in house (8/300 + 12/300 or
24/300).

On the other hand, not all of our customers use the printer as a text
output device (some use them mostly for graphics).  Also, some
customers have their own fonts, and don't want to pay for ours.  It is
thus reasonable for Imagen to sell the fonts separately from the
printers.

- Geof Cooper

Usual Disclaimer: 
I am an employee of Imagen.  The above views are mine, and not necessarily
those of Imagen Corporation.