HEIMBIG@WSUVM1.BITNET (Bruce Heimbigner) (05/12/88)
Several people have asked about the HP DeskJet. I ordered one for the
student lab I manage here at Washington State U. it came in last week
and has been in solid use since. Observations:
-quality- (of output) is variable, generally better paper produces better
results, but not necessarily, 100% cotton rag paper produces output
indistinguishable from laserjet, but the cheapest paper we have
is also very good, in general photocopy paper is good but some are
better than others. The manual warns about this and suggest try before
you buy a bunch paper. Resolution is 300*300 and dot size is either the
same or very similar to a laser.
There is a draft/letter quality panel button, in draft the print head
goes twice as fast prints half as many dots uses half as much ink,
and looks better than any pin printer. Letter quality is laser quality.
Remember this machine, like a laserjet, uses single sheet cut paper and
autoloads it from am approx. 100 page compartment.
-compatibility- the deskjet is compatable with the anything that will
run a HP laserjet or jet plus or jet II. Lotus and MS Word (on a PC
sorry no ST's in the lab to try out) with laserjet as the printer diver
both worked fine. Also the manual came with a disk with drivers for Word,
WordPerfect, lotus 123 and Framework. Also we bought an epson FX 80
emulaton cartridge which works fine, hi res but with epson fonts and
use epson printer drivers (haven't tryed graphics with the epson emulation).
With the high degree of compatibility to hp laser jet I would not buy the
Epson emulation cartidge.
As far as I can tell the cartidges for the deskjet/laserjet are software
compatible too, that is the same drivers will for a particular cartridge will
work for either printer. However they are definately not the same physical
cartridge (ie you cannot exchange cartridges)
-cost- list $995, $750 at the local hp dealer, on bid we got ours for $475
from the local hp dealer. (here's a shocker this baby is manufactured in
Vancouver WA.)
-speed- is said to be 240 draft and 120 letter quality, but it just isn't
as snappy as HP's other printers, ie page eject is slow compared with 2934
(tho it is considerablely faster than an epson). About 2 page per minute in
letter quality and 4 page per minute in draft, (compare laser 8 page/min with
no such thing as draft). Also there is a 16K buffer but if you send
characters to the printer fast then the printer stops printing while it
receives the data, this allows you to get on with your work but slows down
the printing proccess.
Bye
Bruce Heimbigner
Email: Snail mail:
HEIMBIG@WSUVM1.bitnet N.W. 324 True Street
OR Pullman WA 99163-3347 (USA)
BIX:bheimbigner (but I don't get on here very often)
----"It's all very well in practice,
but in theory it just doesn't work."FRANK@aslcl1.sdr.slb.COM (06/24/88)
I just bought a HP DeskJet and thought I'd report my experiences.
1. Reviews in Current Notes and ST Applications (June) are accurate.
2. It works great with TimeWorks DTP LaserJet GDOS driver.
3. It works even better with Migraph DeskJet GDOS driver.
4. For some applications you might want the Epson FX-80 emulator
cartridge. Makes DJ work like Epson but text is 300dpi at
100cps. Its better than Epson cause compressed type is also LQ.
Graphics is only Epson quality thou with Epson cartridge.
5. Epson cartridge works fine with Epstart and Magic Sac.
6. DJ can be used in native mode for text if you use Serial driver
and Typewriter mode that comes with MS Word. Great quality type
but only one font type per document.
7. Not only is DJ FAST but it is whisper quiet. My Supra totally
drowns it out.
It so impressed my local Atari dealer that he will be carrying DeskJets.
He says he will sell them at $800 (List Price is $1000). Call Dave
at Computers to Grow (713) 777-1673 for more info.
The DeskJet is a perfect match for the ST, it works fine with all
ST memory configurations 512K and up. With a 1040, Timeworks DTP and a
DeskJet, you can have a true DeskTop Publishing System for under $2000,
although a hard disk would speed things up.
To me the DeskJet is "power without the price". As long as Atari wants $1995
for their Laser, the DeskJet offers the most price/performance!
I have no affiliation with either Computers to Grow or Hewlett Packard, other
than being a satisfied customer.
Brazil - It's only a state of mind.
Bill Frank FRANK@aslcl1.sdr.slb.com by Relay.CS.NETrokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (09/03/88)
The problem isn't lack of RAM, it's poorly allocated RAM. The 16K RAM they have they give entirely to the input buffer. There is no way to split this up between graphics and the input buffer. If they would give you 8K of grapics memory and 8K of input buffer, graphics prints would go twice as fast. And that little RAM cartridge you can buy? All that RAM goes to downloaded fonts only. With that memory used for graphics, bit map dumps would go four times as fast. If anyone is looking for the HP DeskJet SoftFonts information, I just finished moving and dug up that information, so send me your address and I'll send you a copy. There are some interesting limitations and some interesting power; for instance, you really print text at 600 dpi horizontally . . . -tom
lbl@druhi.ATT.COM (Barry Locklear) (09/05/88)
In article <3814@polya.Stanford.EDU>, rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes: > If anyone is looking for the HP DeskJet SoftFonts information, > I just finished moving and dug up that information, so send me > your address and I'll send you a copy. There are some > interesting limitations and some interesting power; for instance, > you really print text at 600 dpi horizontally . . . > > -tom Tom, I tried to reach you by mail, but somewhere down the line (decwrl, I think) a system didn't like your address. I'd like a copy of the SoftFonts information. My address is ...att!druhi!lbl. Actually, if you get enough requests, you might want to post it. Thanks, Barry
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (09/07/88)
For DeskJet information, send me your physical mail address; it's 24 pages of stuff. A couple of bucks to help with the postage and copying would be nice but is certainly not required. My physical address in case Email doesn't work is Tomas Rokicki, Box 2081, Stanford, CA~~94309. -tom
jvte@euraiv1.UUCP (Jan van 't Ent) (09/08/88)
>> also re: article <3814@polya.Stanford.EDU>, by (Tomas G. Rokicki): >> If anyone is looking for the HP DeskJet SoftFonts information, > .. I'd like a copy of the SoftFonts information .. > Actually, if you get enough requests, you might want to post it. Me too! Jan van 't Ent; USENET: ..mcvax!eurtrx!euraiv1!jvte BITNET: vantent@hroer5
wxh@a.lanl.gov (Billy Harvey) (04/11/89)
I just bought an HP Deskjet for a steal ($599). It was a dealer's demo, and he gave a full warranty. My problem is getting it to work with my ST. From the articles posted to this news group I read nothing but happiness and success using it. Mine will do the printer self test fine, but it won't print anything form the desktop or from within Flashl. Reading the printer manual makes me think it should accept straight ascii text fine. If nothing unusual needs to be done to use the printer with an ST, my problem may be worse - my old printer died due to a lightning strike! It was quite a while ago, so I'm not sure if it was connected via the printer cable to the computer, the printer was plugged in though :(. Fortunately the computer, etc. was unplugged. I guess I'll have to borrow someone's printer to see if my computer is ok -- if it isn't, any suggestions on self help with the repair - the computer works fine otherwise, but is long out of warranty. Ability to do it myself isn't a problem. As long as I have some attention about the Deskjet, who has interesting software/drivers for use with it? Any recommendations on must-have font cartridges? How about the RAM cartridge with downloadable fonts? In sum, I like the quality I saw demoed, now I just want it to work!! Thanks. Billy Harvey wxh@a.lanl.gov