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From: rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp,comp.text
Subject: Re: HP deskjet
Message-ID: <3508@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 6 Aug 88 00:00:38 GMT
References: <560@proxftl.UUCP>
Reply-To: rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 56

I thought I'd field these questions about the HP DeskJet.

> Does TeX have drivers for it?

Well, AmigaTeX does :-), but I don't know about other machines.
HP LaserJet Plus or Series Two drivers will *not* work; the font
downloading is significantly different, and all but useless for
TeX on the DeskJet.

> Is the print quality *really* on par with lasers?

Absolutely.  I've printed sheets on a QMS PS-810, QMS SmartWriter,
and the HP DeskJet, and people couldn't tell (from the front and
without touching the sheet) which was which.  From the back, well,
a little ink can bleed through with large black areas.

> How long does it take to print out a page of graphics?

Anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes.  Six for true, full-page graphics;
less if you're very smart about resetting the width of the page
whenever you can do a narrower portion of a page.  Average is
probably between 2.5 and 4 minutes a page.

> What's the approximate printing speed for plain text?

It's fast.  Like, two to three pages a minute.  And it looks very
good.

> How much do the ink cartridges cost (and how long do they last)?

Someone else will have to answer this; I never used up a cartridge,
so I didn't need to buy another.  (I had it long enough to develop
a printer driver for it.)

> How does one load fonts onto it?

One doesn't.  Buy a font cartridge.  Or bribe the soft font format
from HP (some people report that HP claims the data is proprietary
and will not make it available; I had no trouble getting the stuff,
though.  I have noticed that some of their technical support people
know quite a bit, but others are totally clueless.)

> Does it make a lot of noise while it prints?

This printer is incredibly quiet; quieter than almost any other
printer I have ever seen.  Loudest noise?  As a mechanism slowly
lowers a printed sheet onto the tray.

> It seems to be an excellent alternative to a 24pin printer, but I'd like some
> more facts than the advertisements offer.

It certainly is.  A 24-pin printer is about five times as fast for TeX,
but they are about the same speed for text, and the quality is out of
this world.  Not for those trying to do any volume at all, though.

Although I must say that I wouldn't buy one, since you can get a LaserJet
clone for a few hundred much more.  But that's just me.