la062594@zach.fit.edu ( John Karp) (02/02/90)
I am currently using the EPSON LQ Printer Driver which I purchased at an
EPSON dealer here locally. As I recall, it cost around $45. The program came
on two MAC disks and included System 6.0.2 , as well as a cable to hook a
MAC PLUS to the printer (I sold mine to someone for $10, which made the driver
a bit more affordable.) As there is mention made in the manual about a
program called Printworks, I believe this program was used to write the
driver originally, so buying Printworks might be another option. The driver
works in 180 x 180 and 180 x 360 modes, and does a very good job printing.
ATM does work quite well with it. As far a Imagewriter emulation goes, the
driver uses standard MAC fonts, but for good print quality, you must have
a font 2 1/2 times larger than the one you wish to use installed in the system,
i.e. if you want to use a 10pt. font, you must have the same font installed
at 25pts. There is also a desk accessory included to allow you to match the
internal fonts of the printer to the screen fonts of your choice....
John P. Karp
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Ikassover@control.crd.ge.com (David Kassover) (02/09/90)
I am attempting to attach an Epson LQ1500 printer to a Mac Plus. My particular printer has a SERIAL interface board, which means Grapplers are useless, since the output end of same are all Centronics. Furthermore, I believe that the LQ1500 (which is about 4 years old) and Imagewriters of the same vintage are, in fact, identical. I have gotten so far as to connect the LQ1500 to the mac, use the chooser to select the IMAGEWRITER, and cause Word to print something. Nothing appears at the print head. By using an RS232 breakoutbox, I have detected that there are actually bits going down into the printer. Furthermore, the printer works just fine when connected in the normal way to my VAX. I have scanned through the multivolume work entitled something like "INSIDE THE MACINTOSH", which says that the default printer and modem port selections are 9600 baud, eight bit characters and TWO stop bits. Setting the printer to accept two stop bits is an experiment I will try, probably some time in the next week. I will also try to convince the local Epson representatives that there might be a driver I could just buy. (but I would rather not, at this point) In the meantime I would appreciate any clues that could be supplied in this matter. I will post whatever works, if any. Please reply by E-mail, since articles seem to evaporate very quickly around here (halflife seems to be 2 days) Thanks again
ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (02/10/90)
In article <5163@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> kassover@control.crd.ge.com (David Kassover) writes: >I am attempting to attach an Epson LQ1500 printer to a Mac Plus. >My particular printer has a SERIAL interface board, which means >Grapplers are useless, since the output end of same are all >Centronics. > True.. grappler uses roms inside the cable/box.. and it must be hooked up to mac type ports etc... besides.. grappler is $200! Anyway... i ended up buying the Epson LQ Software pack from the local store.... $60... though others have seen it for $45.... it comes with a cable.. i left that in the box.. kept my LQ800 hooked to the parallel port... i flipped a few dip switches... and installed the driver... i didn't follow the directions in the manual as they involved about 135 swaps of the floppy.... actually, i DID follow the instructions the first time... but because the installer didn't recognize my drive.. it defaulted to trying to set up the boot disk on a floppy.. with only ONE Disk Drive... this meant lots of swaps just for the damn System to do its job... after 135 swaps.. it didn't create a proper disk.. so i decided to copy the files ONTO my drive FIRST, then install the drive there... The driver comes with System 6.0.2 .. it reported that my System 6.0.3 wasn't desireable... so i had to do the usual.. boot off a floppy etc.. create a new system folder in a different partition (fortunately i have several partitions) and install the Espon driver in the new folder with 6.0.2 (which doesn't work with sound/GCR by the way).. (as far as i can tell). The software installed in less than a minute this way.... I then added to this new system folder all the stuff i had in my original system 6.0.3 folder... I don't know exactly the differences between 6.0.2 and 6.0.3, except that David told me sound doesn't/might-not (?) work with 6.0.2/GCR... i had sound working with 6.0.3 ... Anyway, i spent 3 hours trying to make contacts with Espon in california and with 3 local epson dealers... no one had any comments to make regarding the driver working with 6.0.3 .. as a matter of fact.. most people i talked with didn't know the product they were selling.... I understand this is rather typical with Epson.. trying to get support is pulling teeth... Otherwise.. i have had an easy time printing from WriteNow, Hypercard and from Canvas - an incredible object oriented slash paint program... that keeps my wife between me and my ol' ST.... -kevin