to_stdnet@stag.UUCP (08/28/88)
From: thelake!steve@stag.UUCP (Steve Yelvington) rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes... > >>> Don't let the speed issue stop you! It takes about 10-12 minutes for > >>> the computer to lay out a 300x300 dpi page for the LaserJet > > >>Ten to twelve minutes to lay out a single page? Using what? > > >I think you are talking about text dumps to the printer. These it does > >quite quickly. This discussion is about graphics. > >Ever used a Macintosh laser printer, I got very used to 45-50 minutes > >for a moderately simple graphic. > > Again, using what? 45 minutes a page? That is simply unusable. > Even full-page 300 dpi graphics shouldn't take more than a couple > of minutes a page, absolute maximum. I repeat, *what* *software* > gives you such poor performance? > > -tom This whole conversation reflects the basic public misunderstanding of laser printers. They are not fast; they just sound that way. It's not the software. It's the combination of the interpreted page description language, hardware bottlenecks, and the way complex graphics are drawn, redrawn and redrawn again as the image is built in the laser printer. If you pick up your daily newspaper, you probably will find an informational graphic produced on a Macintosh with a LaserWriter, Varityper VT600 or Linotype laser typesetter. A weather map, for example, may contain HUNDREDS of graphic objects, many hidden under subsequent layers as the map is modified. Even though these layers are not shown, they still exist, and they still are converted into a page-description language, transmitted to the lasersetter over a maddeningly slow serial connection, and reconstructed in a new bitmap by the CPU in the laser device. If the image requires a type font that is not resident in the laser device, the entire font description -- encoded in the page-description language -- has to be downloaded from the computer or file server. (The VT600 has its own hard drive, which speeds things up somewhat.) Obviously, all these conversions and reconstructions are going to take more time than simply dumping a 300dpi bitmap directly to the laser controller. That's why the Atari laser printer (this is the Atari conference, isn't it?) is so much faster. The GDOS printer driver creates the new image directly in the Mega's RAM from the GEM internal description, and the image is stuffed out the DMA port and into the laser printer. OK, so why isn't the world beating down Atari's door? * "Everybody knows" Atari only makes toy computers. * The typefaces currently available for the ST/Mega range from poor to horrible. They are simply not up to publication standards. * The software available for the Atari is only beginning to move into the "marginally acceptable" range. Consider: Timeworks Publisher vs. Quark X-Press; Migraph vs. Adobe Illustrator; ??? vs. Cricket Graph. * The Atari cannot import standard clip art graphics (available on CD-ROM from several services), which are intended for Macintosh and/or PostScript-based programs. I work in the newspaper industry, which has settled on the Mac standard. Graphics from the AP, Knight-Ridder, Newhouse, etc., can not be "massaged" on the Atari. * The Atari laser printer works on one machine. Any shop big enough to have a laser in the first place is likely to have three or four computers. Where is Atari's answer to Appletalk? Ethernet? Tops/NFS? Atari only has "sneakernet" and modems. * You have to hire a native guide to find an Atari dealer. | thelake!steve@stag.UUCP / ...rosevax!pwcs!stag!thelake!steve | Steve Yelvington/1392 Brandlwood Rd./White Bear Lake MN 55110 USA | "A member of STdNet -- to join, send mail to ftg!dwm@stag.UUCP"
tainter@ihlpb.ATT.COM (Tainter) (08/30/88)
>This whole conversation reflects the basic public misunderstanding of >laser printers. They are not fast; they just sound that way. This is bologna! Laser printers are fast, if all you want to do is what other printers can do. i.e. text and low res graphics. If you want to 'take advantage' of the capabilities then it slows down. There is however, an advertising technique which make them sound even faster than they actually are. It's "n pages per minute". A 10 page per minute laser printer can print 10 copies of the same page in one minute. That does not include transmission time or page layout time. > | thelake!steve@stag.UUCP / ...rosevax!pwcs!stag!thelake!steve --j.a.tainter