Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!amdahl!oliveb!sun!daleske@cbdkc1.ATT.COM From: daleske@cbdkc1.ATT.COM Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop Subject: Re: dumb vs. smart laser printers Message-ID: <28268@sun.uucp> Date: Wed, 16-Sep-87 19:46:18 EDT Article-I.D.: sun.28268 Posted: Wed Sep 16 19:46:18 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 19-Sep-87 09:09:42 EDT Sender: news@sun.uucp Distribution: comp Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, OH. Lines: 45 Approved: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com >Essentially, what you get for your extra money in one of these "smarter" >laser printers is a slower laser printer. >The cheap, fast printers with the simple page description languages can >generally perform all the desktop publishing needs of a typical user. >The right software can produce superb looking documents on a plain old >LaserJet with 64K of memory. It's all you need for letters, manuals, >charts tables etc. >Systems like Postscript are an admirable attempt at presenting a more >abstract interface, but they are currently not written well enough to >be fast and cheap. I'll take typesetting at a full 6 pages per minute >on a cheap laserprinter over fancy type expansion features on a slower, >much more expensive printer any day. Interestingly, Kyocera provides a set of laser printers which are comparable in price to the LaserJet but also provide a more intelligent page definition language. The language, PreScribe, is not Postscript. I have been quite surprised at the speed of the machine whether for graphics or text. The mid-range machine has 36 built-in fonts, supports down-loadable fonts, and has a set of meta-fonts for generation of tables of fonts in whatever form you want. Once the font is generated, any text using the font is printed as quickly as the built-in or down-loaded fonts. Some of the graphics commands are the standard line, box, circle, ellipse, pattern fill, arrow, pie, etc. Now, is the speed slowed by these extra capabilities? Font generation takes a little time. Graphics appear to be as fast as any text. My tests show ten pages per minute output with mixed text and graphics. ___________________________________________________________________________ John Daleske Columbus, Ohio. 614-860-4335 | Default disclaimer... UUCP: {ihnp4,cbosgd,desoto}!cbdkc1!daleske | ____________________________________________|______________________________ "Now," said the butterfly, "look closer and tell me what you see." "I see a tiny horse with wings upon its back" said Flutterby. "Why that's me I see! But what am I?" "You are you. Just as I am me!" said the wise old butterfly. "Nothing more, nothing less." ---------------------------------------- Submissions to: desktop%plaid@sun.com -OR- sun!plaid!desktop Administrivia to: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com -OR- sun!plaid!desktop-request Paths: {ihnp4,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!sun Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ We live and learn, but not the wiser grow -- John Pomfret (1667-1703)