LWELCH@COLGATEU.BITNET (03/13/89)
The speed of AWGS printing is the result of two things. One, it runs in graphics mode. It takes longer for the ImageWriter to output bit images than to output text. Second, it goes through Apple's printing software. One of the programmers here has been working on that part, and has made some significant improvements. That may not be much consolation. It's still going to take a long time to print a page of text compared to AW Classic. ------------- According to April's A+, Appleworks takes 53 seconds to print a one-page letter in NLQ mode on the Imagewriter II. Applworks GS takes almost 5 minutes. With the improved print driver, it should take about 3 minutes. But, this is still three times as long as when using the Imagewriter's built-in fonts. The primary problem lies not with Appleworks GS, but with Apple's print driver. Claris is doing more than they should have to by improving Apple's own print driver for Apple's own printer. Apple should be the one improving this print driver. From a user's point of view, Apple could make an amazing improvement in the performance of its Print Driver by helping the program to print in NLQ mode as well as the draft mode currently allowed for. With this improvement, Appleworks GS would be able to print plain-text documents just as fast as Appleworks and would only have to switch to graphics output if the user wants to use fancy fonts, colors, etc. From a programming standpoint, this may be difficult to implement. But, 3 minutes per page is too long for the GS to print at. The Mac takes far less time to print a page using the same printer and graphic commands like the GS. Chip ____________________________________________________________________________ | Chip Welch "Apple ][ Forever!" | | Chipmunk Computer Systems | | CU Box L3058 BITNET: LWELCH@COLGATEU.BITNET | | Hamilton, NY 13346 GEnie: CWELCH3 | `----------------------------------------------------------------------------'