Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!tekbspa!optilink!cramer
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: HP DeskJet printer
Keywords: Need info on performance, limitations, etc.
Message-ID: <732@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 88 19:12:38 GMT
References: <29843@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 36

In article <29843@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, shum-s@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Sik K. Shum) writes:
> I consider buying a HP DeskJet printer for my pc and would appreciate any
> comment about that printer. In particular, I want to know how it compares 
> with the more expensive HP LaserJet II in terms of quality and speed. 

At least on Xerographic paper, the print quality is enough inferior that
I don't think of the DeskJet as a low-cost replacement for a laser printer,
but rather, as a high-quality, low noise replacement for a 24-pin dot 
matrix printer.  Especially when you start making photocopies (and
photocopies of the photocopies), the blurriness associated with the 
ink jet approach becomes apparent.

It's much slower than a LaserJet, but compares very favorably with a
dot matrix printer.  It's much quieter than a dot matrix printer, and
even quieter than laser printer.

It's ALMOST compatible with an HP LaserJet.  Some of the hardware
engineers here are using LaserJets for CAD drawings, and hoped that
the DeskJet would provide a low cost alternative, but for reasons
that are not immediately apparent, the LaserJet driver causes the
drawing to cross a page boundary on a DeskJet, and put the last 5% 
of the drawing on a separate page.

> Also, do I need to get a memory expansion in order to print whole-page
> graphics? Thanks in advance.
> 
> >>>SKS<<<

The literature for the DeskJet makes a big deal of the fact that
you can do full page graphics without expansion memory -- but only
in the same sense that any dot matrix can do so -- there's no page
buffer, so your software has to be smart enough to do all your graphics
in the order they are going to be printed on the page.  There is no
landscape mode on the DeskJet, unlike the LaserJet.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer
{pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer          (Note new path!)