Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpcilzb!hpcea!twakeman
From: twakeman@hpcea.CE.HP.COM (Teriann Wakeman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Connect HP LaserJet Serial II and Hp 7550A plotter to a MacSE
Message-ID: <430061@hpcea.CE.HP.COM>
Date: 15 Nov 88 18:19:59 GMT
References: <97@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Organization: HP Corporate Engineering - Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 40

MAC=>HP PLOTTERS

There are several plotter drivers on the market. More drawing applications
are starting to include them as part of the application.

My personal favorate that I hace been using since 1986 is MacPlotsII by
Computter Shoppe in *Carolina. Another driver is MacPlotts by MicroSpot,
an English company. I have not looked at it lately but I have been told that
it is reaonably good & worth looking into. SoftStyle from Hawaii, is in my
opinion the one to stay away from.

More about MacPlottsII

There are 2 versions. Business vers supports desktop HP plotters. Professional
version supports desktop & the floor standing big birtha plotters. It plotts
from the clip board or anything saved in PICT format. MacPlottsII supports
pen switching {read as multiple colours}, hidden lines, and several fonts &
some patterns. 


You will probably have to special order any plotter application.  The Mac
Imagewriter cable will work. But there will be a handshaking line missing.
Instructions come with MacPlottsII on how to make your own cable. Mine is      
15 feet long. I find plotters to be too noisy to put next to my Mac.


MAC=>LASERJET

Softstyle of Hawaii makes a driver. It isn't very Maclike, but I understand
that it has improved over time. A LaserJet only makes sense if you already    
have one AND do not have a real Mac printer AND you are planing to print
text only using HP fonts from a HP cartrige or internal ROM.  Why do I say
this? 1. The LaserJet is SLOWWW at 300dpi graphics. There is NO smothing.
graphics and Mac fonts at even 300 DPI will look like they were produced
\on an Imagewriter with a new ribbon. Text only using HP fonts look good
and print quickly.

TeriAnn

en