[comp.sys.amiga] HP-Laserjet printing problem...

BPJ0%LEHIGH.BITNET@ibm1.cc.lehigh.edu (Bin) (05/07/89)

Hi,

I'm currently printing out some Dpaint drawings using the HP-Laserjet
driver on WB1.3 with smoothing in Black and White.  Using cmd I dump it
to a file which I upload to the machine connected to the HP and I print
it at 300 dpi.

However there's a problem.  It draws half the screen on one page then
display '20' on the display.  On hitting reset it proceeds to print out
the rest of the picture on another page and also feeds out another blank
page as bonus.

Is there a way to correct this so that the page is printed on a single
piece of paper, instead of three?

Thanks.
Bin

mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) (05/08/89)

In article <14869@louie.udel.EDU> BPJ0%LEHIGH.BITNET@ibm1.cc.lehigh.edu (Bin) writes:
>However there's a problem.  It draws half the screen on one page then
>display '20' on the display.  On hitting reset it proceeds to print out
>the rest of the picture on another page and also feeds out another blank
>page as bonus.

The '20' error code on the LaserJet indicates that the printer has run out of
memory.  You didn't say whether you had a LaserJet, LaserJet Plus, or a
Series II, all of which have different configurations and/or amounts of
memory, but on most models, there simply isn't enough internal memory to hold
an entire page of 300 dpi graphics (think about it; at 300 dpi in both
directions, if the printable page is 8" by 10", that's 7.2 million dots,
which is 900K bytes; if your printer only has 512K, it can't hold the entire
image, and laser printers, by their nature, must buffer an entire page worth
of output).

As for the extra blank page at the end, I would say that the printer driver
is putting out an extra form feed, but I don't think that that problem is the
one you are the most worried about.  My only suggestion for the first (main)
problem would be to either (a) scale down the physical size of your actual
printout, so that it uses fewer pixels (which will, of course, result in
poorer shading and dithering), or (b) switch to a lower resolution, such as
150 dpi (which will have the same results as above).  The other solution
isn't so much a solution as an alternative, which is to get yourself a
DeskJet or DeskJet Plus, which is an inkjet printer from H-P that prints at
the same resolutions as their LaserJet line (although quite a bit slower),
but because of the printing technique, doesn't have to buffer the entire
image in internal RAM before printing, and can thus do what the LaserJet
cannot, which is produce a full-page 300 dpi graphics dump.  And for a list
price of $799!

Oh, and a fourth alternative is also there, if your LaserJet happens to be a
Series II unit; buy more RAM for it (but the extra RAM will cost you more
than it would to buy a DeskJet!!!)
-- 
   - Mike Shawaluk 
       (mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com  OR  ...!uunet!marque!lakesys!mikes)
    "Where were you on the night of August 12?"

ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (05/14/89)

In article <606@lakesys.UUCP> mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) writes:
>The other solution
>isn't so much a solution as an alternative, which is to get yourself a
>DeskJet or DeskJet Plus, which is an inkjet printer from H-P that prints at
>the same resolutions as their LaserJet line (although quite a bit slower),
>but because of the printing technique, doesn't have to buffer the entire
>image in internal RAM before printing, and can thus do what the LaserJet
>cannot, which is produce a full-page 300 dpi graphics dump.  And for a list
>price of $799!

I recently ordered a DeskJet Plus (should be here this week...) and I
did a little experimenting with the deskjet printer driver, the
laserjet printer driver, and CMD.  It turns out that everthing I
"printed" (to a file using CMD) was exactly the same whether I used the
deskjet driver or the laserjet driver.  What gives?  I know the two
printers use the same "language", so why are there two different
drivers?  (They really are different drivers, too.  even different
sizes.)  They didn't do anything differently in the tests I ran.


-- 
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP

daveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Berezowski) (05/17/89)

In article <18028@cisunx.UUCP> ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) writes:
>I recently ordered a DeskJet Plus (should be here this week...) and I
>did a little experimenting with the deskjet printer driver, the
>laserjet printer driver, and CMD.  It turns out that everthing I
>"printed" (to a file using CMD) was exactly the same whether I used the
>deskjet driver or the laserjet driver.  What gives?  I know the two
>printers use the same "language", so why are there two different
>drivers?  (They really are different drivers, too.  even different
>sizes.)  They didn't do anything differently in the tests I ran.
>
	The HP_DeskJet has a character set which fully supports the
Amiga extended character set (codes 160 - 255) while the HP_LaserJet
does not.  That is the only major difference.