Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 17:23:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu> To: Jack W Doyle <n9ogk@juno.com> Cc: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PS printer Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970625171150.22918G-100000@Journey2.mat.net> In-Reply-To: <19970625.153309.11878.0.N9OGK@juno.com>
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On Wed, 25 Jun 1997, Jack W Doyle wrote: > Do any one of you know of any affordable color PostScript printers out > there? I'd like to be able to print PS files directly. The price range > I'm looking to be in is between $375 to $600. The requirement that I > have is that it be capable of at least 720x360 output in color. Jack, you can get the same functionality, maybe even better, by leaving the idea of a postscript printer behind. Let me explain that. I used to have an HP Laserjet printer, which had a postscript plug-in module, so I could print postscript. I wanted to be able to directly print postscript. OK, it took about 45-60 seconds for most pages to print, and many things wouldn't print at all, because of shortcomings in the module being able to accept anything outside of it's idea of what postscript ought to be. Many things I could read fine via ghostview, but I couldn't print them. I had a document from school come up, and I _had_ to get it printed, no way to avoid it. My HP with it's module choked on it, and wouldn't print. Before being forced to go to a local printer (and have some great sum surgically removed from my wallet for that) I decided to remove the module from the HP laserjet, and use ghostscript directly to generate the HP PCL5 code to drive the printer in a native mode. To my astonishment, the document printed about 5 times faster, and without any problems. Since then, my original HP Laserjet died, and I bought a HP Deskjet 693, I forget, maybe for 350 bucks. I now use apsfilter to print with. I send anything I want to lpr, and it just prints great. Ascii, postscript, gifs, anything at all, apsfilter figures out what the file is, and does the modification or transformation needed to get it to print. I set up two drivers via apsfilter, because printing in color is kinda expensive unless you need it. It's not everyday you can save a bunch of money and improve the quality in one step. Postscript printers cost an arm and a leg; go price them. > > Jack > > The faster your computer is, the slower your life becomes. > > ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data chuckr@eng.umd.edu | communications topic, C programming, and Unix. 213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1 | Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run Journey2 and picnic, both FreeBSD (301) 220-2114 | version 3.0 current -- and great FUN! ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
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