BRADFORD@buasta.BU.EDU ("David A. Bradford") (01/21/89)
I am contemplating the purchase of an HP DeskJet printer. I would also be buying AmigaTex to use with it. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this combination and could answer the following questions: 1) How does AmigaTex handle fonts? Should I buy a font cartridge or the RAM expansion, or can I get by without either one? 2) What are the limitations of this combination? I use TeX on a VAX and can select from about half a million fonts (well, that may be a slight exaggeration). Will there be a limit on fonts per page or font size or any such limitation? Thanks in advance for any help. David Bradford Systems Manager Astronomy Dept. Boston University
amiga@athena.mit.edu (MITAUG Staff) (01/21/89)
In article <8901201838.AA12938@bu-it.BU.EDU> BRADFORD@buasta.BU.EDU ("David A. Bradford") writes: >I am contemplating the purchase of an HP DeskJet printer. I would also >be buying AmigaTex to use with it. I was wondering if anyone had any >experience with this combination and could answer the following questions: > >1) How does AmigaTex handle fonts? Should I buy a font cartridge or >the RAM expansion, or can I get by without either one? > >2) What are the limitations of this combination? I use TeX on a VAX and >can select from about half a million fonts (well, that may be a slight >exaggeration). Will there be a limit on fonts per page or font size or any >such limitation? > >Thanks in advance for any help. > >David Bradford >Systems Manager >Astronomy Dept. >Boston University David; TeX "uploads" its fonts to the printer in question except for dot matrix printers in which it does a graphic dump. Buying a font cartridge will not gain you any advantages with TeX ... you're probably better off getting more memory. Some 300 dpi machines have some font size limitations, as far as my memory serves me the HP desk jet does not have these limitations. If you have any more questions I can quote the info from the TeX manual (I don't have it with me now). I can be reached at carreras@lees.mit.edu or on BIX as "carreras". Ric Carreras ARPA: carreras@lees.mit.edu BIX: carreras
jac@ssibbs.UUCP (James Crotinger) (01/27/89)
In article <8901201838.AA12938@bu-it.BU.EDU>, BRADFORD@buasta.BU.EDU ("David A. Bradford") writes: > I am contemplating the purchase of an HP DeskJet printer. I would also > be buying AmigaTex to use with it. I was wondering if anyone had any > experience with this combination and could answer the following questions: > > 1) How does AmigaTex handle fonts? Should I buy a font cartridge or > the RAM expansion, or can I get by without either one? A font cartridge should not be necessary, I don't believe. The AmigaTeX printer drivers work by actually composing a bit image of the page in memory, and then sending that out as bitmapped graphics. So you'll need enough ram to hold a full page of graphics, I suspect. Tom mentions in his manual that he has used the DeskJet and that it does a very nice job. > > 2) What are the limitations of this combination? I use TeX on a VAX and > can select from about half a million fonts (well, that may be a slight > exaggeration). Will there be a limit on fonts per page or font size or any > such limitation? > The printer driver comes with the full distribution of normal TeX fonts (I believe the 300 dpi set is 8-10 disks). Plus you can get AmigaMETAFONT and generate your own fonts and your own sizes. Jim -- Jim Crotinger crotinger%mit.mfenet@nmfecc.arpa
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (01/27/89)
> > 1) How does AmigaTex handle fonts? Should I buy a font cartridge or > > the RAM expansion, or can I get by without either one? The font cartridge has no effect; it is totally ignored, as is the RAM cartridge. DeskJet limitations preclude the use of the RAM cartridge. > So you'll need enough ram to hold a full page of graphics, I suspect. This is the neat part; you don't. You can generate DeskJet output with perhaps only 150K to 200K of memory free in the system. So you 512K people out there needn't worry. > > 2) What are the limitations of this combination? No limitations on number of fonts, size of fonts, or selection of fonts. (Oh, perhaps you can't have more than 128 fonts or something on a page, but I've never run into a limit.) Of course, it will take 2-6 minutes to generate a page. I'd be happy to send anyone a disk with sample output from the driver so you can see how fast it runs on your printer and judge the quality of the output yourself. Tomas Rokicki, Box 2081, Stanford, CA 94309.
erickson@cbmvax.UUCP (Lee Erickson) (01/28/89)
In article <72@ssibbs.UUCP> jac@ssibbs.UUCP (James Crotinger) writes: >In article <8901201838.AA12938@bu-it.BU.EDU>, BRADFORD@buasta.BU.EDU ("David A. Bradford") writes: >> I am contemplating the purchase of an HP DeskJet printer. I would also >> be buying AmigaTex to use with it. I was wondering if anyone had any >> experience with this combination and could answer the following questions: >> >> 1) How does AmigaTex handle fonts? Should I buy a font cartridge or >> the RAM expansion, or can I get by without either one? > > A font cartridge should not be necessary... Any font OR RAM cartridges purchased wouldn't be used by the current AmigaTex Deskjet driver. I believe the laser printer versions DO make use of printer RAM to down load fonts into. A driver could possibly be written to use expansion RAM in the Deskjet in this fashion, if more speed was important. > Tom mentions in his manual that he has used the DeskJet and that it does >a very nice job. Very nice printing. SLOW speed using AmigaTex... ~2-4 minutes per page. >> >> 2) What are the limitations of this combination? I use TeX on a VAX and >> can select from about half a million fonts (well, that may be a slight >> exaggeration). Will there be a limit on fonts per page or font size or any >> such limitation? >> > > The printer driver comes with the full distribution of normal TeX fonts >(I believe the 300 dpi set is 8-10 disks). Plus you can get AmigaMETAFONT >and generate your own fonts and your own sizes. > With MF (METAFONT), you can even set the system up to automatically generate any font size not already present. > Jim > -- Lee Erickson - not working with, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!erickson or in any way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!erickson@seismo.css.GOV Commodore.
dvl@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Doug Larson) (01/28/89)
I noticed in the store that the drivers were sold separately; I saw a LaserJet driver, but no DeskJet driver. When you say it works with the DeskJet, does that mean there is a separate DeskJet driver or does the LaserJet driver work with the Deskjet? Doug Larson hplabs!hpda!dvl
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (01/29/89)
> I noticed in the store that the drivers were sold separately; > I saw a LaserJet driver, but no DeskJet driver. When you say > it works with the DeskJet, does that mean there is a separate > DeskJet driver or does the LaserJet driver work with the > Deskjet? Actually, the drivers are sold in groups---the laser printer series (which includes the DeskJet), the 9-pin series for Epson and compatibles, and the 24-pin series for the NEC P6 and Epson LQ. (Others on request.) It is possible the laser driver package you saw in the store did not include the DeskJet because the DeskJet is such a recent addition---in such a case, you can either buy the package from the dealer and get a free update from me, or go directly through me. (Anyone who buys a package from a dealer and gets `old' software gets a free update from me . . .) -tom