slc@hoptoad.uucp (Steve Costa) (06/06/89)
I'd like to hear from people using the HP Deskjet or Deskjet Plus printer. How well does the Amiga use its capabilities? Does it do a good job in desktop publishing applications? I'm particularly interested in whether the current driver is strictly pixel-oriented, or whether it is able to use the line-drawing capabilities of the printer. I've heard that a Postscript emulator has been written for use with the IBM. I assume it's too optimistic to hope that such a thing has been done or planned on the Amiga. However, since I have an IBM that I occasionally turn on, I suppose I could use it as a printer controller. Has anyone seen the output of this emulator, and how decent is it? Any other observations on the Deskjet would be appreciated.
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (06/06/89)
(Steve Costa) writes: > I'd like to hear from people using the HP Deskjet or Deskjet Plus printer. Okay! Here I am! > How well does the Amiga use its capabilities? Does it do a good job in > desktop publishing applications? I'm particularly interested in whether > the current driver is strictly pixel-oriented, or whether it is able > to use the line-drawing capabilities of the printer. I hate to rain on the parade, but the printer doesn't have general vector capability---it can draw horizontal and vertical rules, but you have to be really careful in how you specify them or the printhead will go wild. But even working on a pixel by pixel basis, the DeskJet Plus is very fast; it dumps a full page of 300 dpi graphics in a minute. > I've heard that a Postscript emulator has been written for use with the > IBM. I assume it's too optimistic to hope that such a thing has been done > or planned on the Amiga. Why do you assume? The Amiga is much more forefront than the PC. A PostScript interpreter has already been done and should appear in comp.amiga.binaries anytime now. It ain't perfect, but it's pretty good. > Any other observations on the Deskjet would be appreciated. Drawbacks: The ink is water-soluble. Just don't read the letters in the rain, and you'll be fine. Drawing large black areas can cause the ink to pool---it'll dry fine. The output quality depends highly on the paper used and the *side* of the page used---experiment before deciding on a paper to use. The envelope feeding is the best I've seen on any printer, laser or otherwise. It's actually very usable! The DeskJet Plus is several times faster than the DeskJet at graphics. It's worth the extra bucks. The printer is highly recommended. I can't imagine why anyone would get a dot-matrix printer if they can afford one of these. ($700 at Fry's for the DJ+!) -tom
ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) (06/07/89)
In article <7549@hoptoad.uucp> slc@hoptoad.UUCP (Steve Costa) writes: >I'd like to hear from people using the HP Deskjet or Deskjet Plus printer. Yo. >How well does the Amiga use its capabilities? Does it do a good job in >desktop publishing applications? I'm particularly interested in whether >the current driver is strictly pixel-oriented, or whether it is able >to use the line-drawing capabilities of the printer. Well, it doesn't do real great when using any of the fancy features like cartridge or soft fonts, landscape mode (Plus only), proportional fonts, or the like. In fact, the Preferences printer device doesn't know about this kind of stuff at all to my knowledge. However, text output looks wonderful, and I think everything works. (I'm having trouble getting 12 pitch rather than the default 10 pitch, but I haven't looked at it too hard.) Graphics is another story. The graphics capability of the 1.3 drivers is improved tremendously over 1.2 and earlier, so that it's possible to get decent printouts. You still have the problem that the screen resolution is so much lower than the printer resolution, so if you print it out large, it will be blocky. If you work with large bitmaps (in dpaint or express paint) and print it out with integer scaling, you can get some decent results. The bottom line is it depends on your software. I bought my Plus mainly for use with AmigaTeX. This is a great combination! Other software that is capable of generating graphics for high resolution devices should also work well. This hopefully includes PageStream, Professional Draw, but I can't verify it. (I probably will soon, though.) Professional Page will still give blocky output, from what I hear, since it's mainly geared for Postscript. Any software (i.e. WordPerfect) that strictly uses text mode should work quite well. Oh, yeah, the PlotOnJet program recently posted on the net gives *wonderful* "plots" of Aegis Draw{+,2000} files. >I've heard that a Postscript emulator has been written for use with the >IBM. I assume it's too optimistic to hope that such a thing has been done >or planned on the Amiga. However, since I have an IBM that I occasionally PrintScript exists for the Amiga. It is not a complete interpreter, and comes with a very limited selection of fonts, but for the price (around $79?) I've heard nice things about its output. It's slow though. >Any other observations on the Deskjet would be appreciated. I would recommend the DeskJet Plus wholeheartedly if it weren't for the potential problems with the applications software. This situation should definitely improve as time goes on. For now, I might suggest that you find out just how the specific software you want to use does with it. The only software that I can verify gives professional- looking graphics is AmigaTeX* and Draw+/PlotOnJet. Some others I may get a chance to try out soon. *AmigaTeX does text, yes, but it does as a bitmap, because it supplies its own fonts, and the DeskJet doesn't have enough ram to download all the necessary fonts. So, in that sense, it's graphics. And the actual graphics (using PiCTeX) are very nice, too. -- Eric Kennedy ejkst@cisunx.UUCP
ilsa@well.UUCP (ilsa) (06/07/89)
In article <7549@hoptoad.uucp> slc@hoptoad.UUCP (Steve Costa) writes: >I've heard that a Postscript emulator has been written for use with the >IBM. I assume it's too optimistic to hope that such a thing has been done >or planned on the Amiga. Not *too* optimistic--I bought PrintScript a month or two ago from Pixelations and I'm pretty happy with it. It only comes with two fonts, Times and Helv clones, though. And it's not complete PostScript; for instance, it supports only rectangular clipping paths. You do need a couple of megs of memory to do complex pages (giant stroked font outlines with graphics, f'rinstance) at 300dpi. You can use it with any Preferences printer, and it comes with a couple of drivers (for DeskJet & LaserJet) that use the printers' RLE capabilities to speed things up a bit...in my experience a 300dpi page that takes 25 minutes to print via Preferences takes about 20 with the Pixelations driver. (Yeah, minutes! It's a lot cheaper than getting a PostScript printer, but slooow...(same for the pc-clone programs, though)) For my purposes (letters, flyers, Charm School propaganda) it's a good deal.
monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (06/07/89)
In article <9748@polya.Stanford.EDU> rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes: > >The DeskJet Plus is several times faster than the DeskJet at graphics. >It's worth the extra bucks. > >-tom Does anyone know if the DeskJet is upgradable to the DeskJet Plus and if so how much the upgrade is?? Is it a Hardware differance or new software? Please E-mail unless you feel the whole net would benifit. Monty Saine " All side effects are effects." " We can never do merely one thing." " --First Law of Ecology"
jn15+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jerome Lamont Napson) (02/06/90)
Could anyone witha DeskJet printer post or send me mail about your thoughts on the disadvantages and advantages of the printer. I'm graduating in May and I can get one here at school for $475.00 I'm wondering whether it's a bargain or if I should just leave it alone and get something else. -Jerome
marco@hpuamsa.UUCP (Marco Lesmeister TSS) (02/07/90)
I think the deskjet is a really GREAT product. You get laserjet quality for the price of a matrix printer. It's well supported on the Amiga as well, I know, because I tried it. You could also think about buying a deskjet plus for more speed, or if you want a laserjet (I don't know why) a laserjet IIP Good luck with it, because it's really a bargain, Marco Lesmeister |\ /| hpuamsa!marco (6544) | \ / | Systems Consulting | \/ | Hewlett Packard Holland | |____
sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (02/09/90)
marco@hpuamsa.UUCP (Marco Lesmeister TSS) writes: >You could also think about buying a deskjet plus for more speed, or >if you want a laserjet (I don't know why) a laserjet IIP I just read (in BYTE I believe) that there is a POSTSCRIPT cartridge out for the HP laserjet II. So the guy who was wondering whether to get an HP laserjet II, or a postscript printer... now you can have both. -- John Sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps. Accessable via Starlink (Louisville KY) sparks@corpane.UUCP <><><><><><><><><><><> D.I.S.K. ph:502/968-5401 thru -5406 Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.
daves@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Dave Scroggins) (02/16/90)
>>You could also think about buying a deskjet plus for more speed, or >>if you want a laserjet (I don't know why) a laserjet IIP >I just read (in BYTE I believe) that there is a POSTSCRIPT cartridge out >for the HP laserjet II. So the guy who was wondering whether to get an >HP laserjet II, or a postscript printer... now you can have both. Or you can get a Deskjet and Pixelscript to print postscript. I would recommend getting a DeskJet Plus if you can get the same kind of deal. The price you quote for a DeskJet is pretty good though. I am very happy with mine - great graphics (if only black and white/ greyscale). It really is as good as a laser printer. The ink will smear if you get it wet, but then again your not supposed to get your printouts wet anyhow. While it is not as fast as a laser jet, it is more than quick enough for a single user. Is you want to print postscript files then you can get Pixelscript. The Demos I have seen are great, and it does a good job. HOWEVER -- it doesn't work too well on a 512k machine. :-( (Then again -- now days lots of good software won't work on a 512k machine.) Dave S.