dmak@LYNX.NORTHEASTERN.EDU (09/07/88)
Original Message: }Date: 31 Aug 88 03:40:20 GMT }From: bnlux0!drs@sbcs.sunysb.edu (David R. Stampf) >Well, while everyone is laughing - there are two kinds of graphics - pictures, >and letters that are "drawn" on the page. When the atari laser printer >finally hit the stores last January, I had a few $K burning a hole in my >pocket, and gave it a lot of consideration until I went to a store and >saw it take about 10 minutes to print out a page using one of the page >makers (Personal Publisher I believe) which was mostly text. Since the >computer was essentially dead for that time, I walked away and bought something >that would keep me occupied rather than bored - a Mac. [ Rest deleted ] I beg to differ... My experience with my very own 4 month old Atari SLM804 laser printer on a Mega ST2 (mono) has been EXTREMELY FAVORABLE. In fact, when I switch over to a QMS-810 Plus PostScript(tm) compatible laser printer, I worry about whether everything's working fine -- it takes so long! The problem you experienced is with the way that particular software package (Publishing Partner from Soft Logic...not Personal Publisher, there is no such thing for the ST) prints; that program basically doesn't support direct GDOS output to the SLM804... It requires you to load the emulator software provided with the laser printer and send HP commands... A program like Timework's Publisher ST with full GDOS support is LIGHTING fast (as mentioned in another posting from a gentleman representing Atari Canada). The new version of Publishing Partner, PP II, is said to work best with the Atari Laser printer... Maybe if the right program was out at the time you looked at the ST system, you'd be using a different computer right now.. Incidentally, the only thing that slows the SLM804 under Publisher ST is, ironically enough, GDOS -- or rather, the way GDOS is set up. I'm not entirely familiar with the exact procedures that program goes through to print a document with multiple fonts/complex graphics etc.. but it seems to load certain GDOS fonts when needed and maybe write temporary files to disk... Once it's all loaded, you hear the whir of the printer and zoom, output of a VERY complex page in under 2 minutes -- seriously! (Same page on the QMS was about 10 mins. due mainly to the scanned art... neat thing is, Publish It! from Timeworks for MSDOS things is the same program -- working under GEM 3!) Sorry about the length -- just can't let anyone bad-mouth my favorite Atari add-on!! Nice job Atari!
jansteen@piring.cwi.nl (Jan van der Steen) (08/08/89)
I have some questions about image formats and the Atari SLM 804 laserprinter: I. What does IMG image format look like. II. What does IFF image format look like. III. How does one send an NxM bit image to the SLM printer. Think of Degas format, but in my particular case much bigger. IV. The local Atari dealer told me that spooling to the laser printer involves writting assembler code to access the DMA port. Does anybody have written this code, or written a higher level language (C) library routine. Jan van der Steen -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jan van der Steen, CWI the Netherlands jansteen@cwi.nl (or uunet!mcvax!jansteen) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-