Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!gatech!rutgers!ucsd!nprdc!malloy From: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Host software alternatives to PS engines? Summary: GoScript, a $195 package for the IBM PC & clones Message-ID: <887@skinner.nprdc.arpa> Date: 16 Sep 88 13:54:39 GMT References: Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego Lines: 37 In article bob+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bob Sidebotham) writes: >For people with relatively modest volume printing requirements, it would seem >ideal to be able to buy a cheap printing engine, without PostScript support, >and do the PostScript to raster conversion in the host computer. Does anyone >know if there is any such product on the market, or anticipated to be? . . . There is a company here in San Diego (unfortunately, I've misplaced the flyer I picked up at the San Diego Computer Fair over Labor Day Weekend -- I'll find it this weekend and post the information) that makes a product called 'GoScript' for IBM PCs and clones. This is an entirely software-based Postscript-compatible interpreter that will output to many dot-matrix and laser printers, and a number of plotters. The program uses Bitstream's soft font packages, so adding fonts to the output should be simple. An update to the GoScript package to implement the Postscript color model is under development -- they were demoing an alpha version of the color output on an HP plotter at the Computer Fair, as well as running the current B&W version. The output looked pretty good on the dot matrix printer (unfortunately, they don't yet support the 360x360 dpi mode on my NEC printer, but the 240x240 Epson compatibility is supported). On the HP LaserJet, I couldn't tell the difference between its output and output from a Laserwriter. The only problem with the program, and one that may or may not be a major problem, depending on your needs, is that it's _slow_. Doing a complex PostScript image can take upwards of 45 minutes. The GoScript package is being sold for $195. I will dig out the flyer I picked up and post the address for the company. Sean Malloy Navy Personnel Research & Development Center San Diego, CA 92152-6800 malloy@nprdc.arpa