jdc@rama.UUCP (James D. Cronin) (06/17/88)
This file was originally downloaded from People Link, and then uploaded
to JABS, our users group BBS, where I obtained it. I would heartily
recommend writing to LaserGo to express interest in an Amiga specific
version of their PostScript interpreter, GoScript, the address is listed at
the end of the text file.
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ALL AMIGA USERS!! PLEASE READ THIS AND RESPOND!!! AMIGA NEEDS YOUR HELP!!!
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And now HAL, get ready to transmit the most important message yet!
In the following message(s?) I will try to describe my attempt and actual
purchase of a laser printer for my Amiga (1000 and 2000).
I will do this in order to relate to other Amiga users some of my findings
as far as laser printers are concerned.
Within the article itself though, exists the BIGGEST opportunity for Commodore
and its users, for one of the biggest breakthroughs in publishing history.
So read on..
I finally had it. I had 3 computers and 4 printers.
I hadn't decided to buy a laser printer because of its high price, but instead
in the past 2 years I had bought 2 new printers costing as much as one of the
low cost laser printers currently on the market.
Lets face it. I don't care if you put 150 pins on a printhead, nothing will
beat the output of a laser printer.
So I decided to sell all but one of my dot matrix printers, and put the rest
of the money needed for the purchase of a laser one.
I started reading a lot of IBM and MAC publications for reviews of Lasers.
The main thing that stood out of all the reviews was that most all of the
lasers were based in one of two different manufactured engines. (Now remember
I said most!!, not all.) Canon and Ricoh.
Now many of you may not know this, but Ricoh and Okidata have been sued by
more than 10,000 users with the backing of American express (buyers assurance
plan, remember?), for knowingly shipping faulty equipment and using their users
as beta testers.
Now, that didn't look too good to me as far as Ricoh engines were concerned.
Things got even worse when I started talking with dealers and a lot of users
of both type engines. After months of studying the subject, a clear winner had
emerged.
The engine of choice is the CANON SX. (PERIOD!) (Flames are welcome :-)
There are plenty of reasons why this is the case but what it really boils down
to is reliability, small type fonts being readable, reliability, and gray being
gray. Oh, did I mention reliability?
By the way, the Okidata Laserline 6 which as I said has a ricoh engine, is only
good for text applications due to a lack of memory expansion (It only goes to
512k).
The choice had finally boiled down to the following:
HP LaserJet-II Canon-SX HP
QMS PS-810 Canon-SX Postscript , HPGL, HP, EPSON etc..
Star Laser Canon-SX HP, Epson, Diablo...
Canon LBP-8II Canon-SX
NEC LC-890 Ricoh Postscript, HP, Diablo.
Destiny LaserAct I/II Ricoh HP
Okidata Laserline 6 Ricoh
Okidata was ruled out because of what I said earlier. Plus, came the fact a bit
later, about the defect in the Ricoh engine, so really all the Ricoh engines
left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I was really attracted though, to the
NEC LC-890 but ruled it out after seeing a page that was a bit gray.
The NEC laser is one of the few lasers that uses a LED array (fixed head,
single row) instead of a laser beam.
I really wanted to buy the PS-810 but I just knew I could not afford it. The
QMS PS-810 lists for something like $5495 (the lowest price I found was $3800).
The HP laser is build like a tank. HP is known for one of the most reliable
companies with some of the most loyal customers around (even more loyal than
Big Blue or Atari (phhhht, yeachh).
Since the HP Laser-II is one of the most supported printers as far as third
party hardware and software is concerned, I decided to go with that one.
I bought mine for $1549 with toner and letter paper tray. I also got a 1Meg
expansion for $290. The memory expansion is really and absolutely necessary!!
All these postscript printers don't come with 3Megs for no reason;
Then a day after I bought my Laser Jet, I SAW IT!!
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WARNING !! WARNING !! THIS IS NO RUMOR !! THIS IS TRUE !! WARNING !! WARNING
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I saw an add for a full blown POSTSCRIPT INTERPRETER. This baby is not a
hardware solution (QMS sells a $2495 Postscript IBM card for the Laserjet-II).
Its done all in software and uses your current computer hardware as the actual
postscript hardware. It comes with 13 Bitstream fonts (equivalent to the Adobe
fonts). I've been playing with it for a week now and there is nothing it won't
handle. Speed wise is as fast as the LaserWriter II. It can be made (with the
right hardware) to execute faster than the new LaserWriter NTX (the new
68020/68881 based postscript from Apple).
The only drawback of all this, is that (you guessed it) runs on MS-DOS (aka IBM)
based computers.
My third computer is an AT and that is what I am using it with. I use the
bridge board on my 2000 to transfer files from Professional Page to IBM format
and I then have them printed with THE!! program.
PRICE?? Hold on to your seats.. $195 including the 13 fonts.
Now here comes the money maker. I talked with the programmer (a real nice
fellow, unfortunately, he does not use an Amiga) and from what I understand
they are marketing the program themselves. They are much like a garage type
operation. I talked to him on the phone and I got him really exited about the
Amiga. He was telling me how hard it was to do the program and the dictionaries
that postscript uses, for the IBM architecture (you know, 64k segments, 640k
memory limit. No wonder Adobe uses the linear architecture of the 680x0 for
their controllers) and I tried to tell him how much easier would be to do it
for a 68000 computer with gobbles of memory and a blitter. He really sounded
exited. He did tell me that some ATARI people have been talking to him about
doing it for the ST.
COMMODORE ARE YOU LISTENING???? We should not loose this opportunity.
Everybody has been talking about low cost laser printers. The dumb Atari laser
printer (just the engine), can be had for $1500 which is NOT a bargain,
especially when you can buy a SMART one for less than that.
But imagine this. A POSTSCRIPT LASER PRINTER for $1500.
Now you are talking at the $5000 market. (That is how much current generation
postscript printers are going for.)
You also corner the market by actually buying the rights to the program and
bundling it with your Amiga computers/laser printers.
It will cost less to buy the computer with the printer than to buy just a
postscript laser printer.
And since the program was written as to run in a small memory system (640k)
you win in that you don't have to require megabytes of expensive (memory prices
are sky rocketing) ram chips.
The Atari Laser printer requires a Mega ST with 2-4 Megs of memory and it is
not compatible with anything. They are just trying to write some drivers for
some of their publishing software.
Even if Commodore is not listening, I talked with the programmer and he said
that if there is enough demand he will do a port for the Amiga.
So monday morning, you all start calling in for your requests. Even if you buy
the program for use with your Bridgeboard or your clone don't forget to tell
them that you will like to see it running at native Amiga mode. This is very
important.
And now for some more good news.
YOU SAID YOU CAN NOT AFFORD A LASER PRINTER????
No problem. The program has drivers for HP DESKJET (no memory expansion
required), Proprinter, Epson FX and Epson LQ.
Output from the Deskjet is at the same resolution as the Laser, 300DPI.
If you would like to see a output page from my LaserJet-II, send me your
Postscript file and I will process it for you. I can then capture the output to
a file with the actual printer specific data, which you can then feed to your
printer.
Send me your toughest postscript code. I will even tell you how long it took
to process it.
THIS IS THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY FOR COMMODORE. I HOPE SOMEONE IS LISTENING.
Ok. Here is the information. I hope this doesn't get in the hands of the
enemy. If you have a path to BIX or Usenet, please post it where someone from
Commodore could see it.
Even if Commodore does not act on this information, post it on every Amiga BBS
you know. If enough of us call, we may see it after all ported to the Amiga.
Harv, you may remove the top part (the one about laser printer selection), if
you (or anyone else) cross-posts this to any of the other networks. On the
other hand, if you like, you may leave it as is.
Thanks.
(A postscript interpreter for your Laser Printer, InkJet or Dot Matrix printer)
Currenty Supports the following printers:
HP LaserJet-II (needs at least 1Meg)
HP DeskJet (no extra memory required)
Canon LBP-8II (needs at least 1Meg)
Canon Bubblejet BJ130 (no extra memory required)
Proprinter (no memory)
Epson FX (no memory)
Epson LQ (no memory)
Hardware required: Amiga 2000 with Bridgeboard
or IBM-PC/AT/386
Program will run 200% faster if EMS memory present
program will run 400% faster if coprocessor present
program will run 800% faster if EMS & coprocessor present
program will run 900% faster with Amiga 2000 + bridgeboard
+PC Elevator/386 + EMS + 80287 or 80387 (coprocessor)
wishlist : Program will scream if ported to native Amiga mode with
68020/68030 (David?) 68881.
Name of the program: GoScript Price: $195
Company Information: LaserGo
9235 Trade Place
Suite A
San Diego, CA 92126
Tel: (619) 530-2400
Fax: (619) 530-0099
PS. Ever since I got this program I've been spending my days & nights next
to my printer with the Adobe bible on Postscript next to me, trying every
example in the book. Not only everything works but Postscript has made a
believer out of me. Its amazing the things you can do with it with only a
text editor. I am convinced that the future of publishing belongs to
Postscript.
I just hope that someone from Commodore is listening.
Bill Kefalas.
--
James D. Cronin UUCP: {...}!rochester!tropix!rama!jdc
Scientific Calculations/Harris