Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!teknowledge-vaxc!mkhaw
From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Mike Khaw)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: cheap good printers
Message-ID: <26592@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>
Date: 9 Feb 89 02:05:09 GMT
References: <17924@vax5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU>
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 36

Dave Platt and I conducted a "print-off" between the DataPak driver
(his) and Grappler LS (mine) on a Mac II driving a HP DeskJet.

We found that each had its own quirks.  The DataPak driver was somewhat
faster, and was able to print closer to the edges of the page, but as
far as print quality goes, we didn't find any appreciable differences
if you were using the same 4x fonts with each driver.

Grappler LS doesn't take advantage of font cartridges, but comes with a
print spooler.  I bought it instead of the DataPak driver because at
the time I'd heard that the latter had problems with MacWrite, and
MacWrite is what I have and expected to print from most often.

Bugs I've noticed with Grappler LS:  If you try to select print
reduction from MacPaint's Page Setup dialog box, the printer ends up
spitting out blank pages forever.  Selecting "#10 envelope" from the
IW/LQ Page Setup dialgue box in MacWrite seems to have no effect:  I
expected it to let the printer print closer to the top and left of an
envelope, but no go.  When I had only 1 Mb RAM in my SE, trying to
print a MacWrite document that contained lots of rulers and font
changes would cause a bomb (I forget the bomb id), but now that I have
2.5 Mb, that appears to have gone away.  Finally, during our
"print-off" Dave tried to print from WriteNow, and we got (vertically)
squashed letters.

Recently, GDT Softworks announced JetPrint(?) for the DeskJet.  It is
supposed to use "outline font technology", implying that you don't need
4x bitmap fonts.  There is also another company coming out with
"MacPrint", which is supposed to translate QuickDraw into HPGL and
drive both LaserJets and DeskJets.

Mike Khaw
-- 
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