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From: news@sun.uucp (news)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: dumb vs. smart laser printers
Message-ID: <27431@sun.uucp>
Date: Tue, 8-Sep-87 18:11:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.27431
Posted: Tue Sep  8 18:11:35 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Sep-87 05:26:28 EDT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Mtn View, CA
Lines: 34
Approved: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com

Can someone explain the differences to me between a "dumb" laser
printer (such as the HP LaserJet) and a "smart" one (such as the
Apple LaserWriter).  The incredible price difference (~ $3,000) is
what I can't comprehend.

I understand PostScript and we have two LaserWriters at work that
we use with ditroff and both Adobe's TranScript package and devps'
package.  I also understand that the LaserWriters come with a 68000
inside them and quite a bit (1+ Mbyte ?) of memory.  I like the idea
of an ASCII based device independent graphics language.  Then I've looked
at a manual for the original HP LaserJet and can see how you're
restricted by the amount of graphics you can display on a page
(56 Kb of memory) and the font limitations.  I'm not sure what the
differences are between the LaserJet and the LaserJet II.

What's puzzling me is that a firm named "elan" markets versions of
DWB 2.0 (ditroff, etc.) that supports the LaserJet and they claim
it runs almost 2 times faster on the LaserJet than a Postscript
printer.  If that's true, then why pay tiwce as much for a PostScript
printer than the HP ??  Would one be severly limited when using ditroff
with a "dumb" printer, in terms of fonts and point sizes ??  Or if your
main use for a laser printer will be troff, perhaps you don't really need
all the features of PostScript ??

	Richard Stevens
	Health Systems International, New Haven, CT
           { uunet | ihnp4 } ! hsi ! stevens
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