[comp.sys.mac] Printing from a Mac to a NeXt laserprinter

spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu (D. Robert Spexet II) (02/18/90)

In article <1990Feb17.212036.4311@athena.mit.edu> bmwu@athena.mit.edu (Benson M. Wu) writes:
>	I wonder if anybody knows  whether it is possible to directly print 
>from a Macintosh computer  (II, IIcx,  IIci, or SE) to a NeXT laser printer.
>I wanted to do  this because  the NeXT laser printer is so much more cheaper
>than Apple's Laserwriter.  Please let me know what hardware and software
>are needed.  

If you mean sending the Macintosh PostScript output to the NeXT printer, the
answer is no.  The NeXT laser printer is cheaper partly because it is lack-
ing a printer-based PostScript interpreter.  (It doesn't need it since Dis-
play PostScript inside the cube itself does the imaging.)  However, the
Macintosh requires the printer to do the imaging, which is why the Laser-
Writers (except for the IISC) have built-in PostScript interpreters.  Since
the NeXT printer doesn't have the required PostScript interpreter, it won't
be able to create the images the Mac sends to it.

Sorry...

-Dennis R. Spexet II
 UUCP:		rutgers!umn-cs!ux.acs.umn.edu!spexet
 Internet:	spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu
 SnailMail:	Post Office Box 14909, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414-0909 USA

bmwu@athena.mit.edu (Benson M. Wu) (02/18/90)

----
Hi,
	I wonder if anybody knows  whether it is possible to directly print 
from a Macintosh computer  (II, IIcx,  IIci, or SE) to a NeXT laser printer.
I wanted to do  this because  the NeXT laser printer is so much more cheaper
than Apple's Laserwriter.  Please let me know what hardware and software
are needed.  
	Please reply by e-mail to bmwu@athena.mit.edu.  Thanks

					---- Benson

maul@asic.nsc.com (Rob Maul maul@asic.nsc.com (408) 721-7637) (02/21/90)

In article <1169@ux.acs.umn.edu>, spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu (D. Robert Spexet II) writes:
> In article <1990Feb17.212036.4311@athena.mit.edu> bmwu@athena.mit.edu (Benson M. Wu) writes:
> >	I wonder if anybody knows  whether it is possible to directly print 
> >from a Macintosh computer  (II, IIcx,  IIci, or SE) to a NeXT laser printer.
> >I wanted to do  this because  the NeXT laser printer is so much more cheaper
> >than Apple's Laserwriter.  Please let me know what hardware and software
> >are needed.  
> 
> If you mean sending the Macintosh PostScript output to the NeXT printer, the
> answer is no.  The NeXT laser printer is cheaper partly because it is lack-
> ing a printer-based PostScript interpreter...

Since I don't have a LaserWriter I can't extract the PostScript using the
Click-OK command-f stuff.  Is this right?  Does one need to purchase a
LaserWriter just to extract the postscript files?  My NeXT laser printer is
400 DPI, so I would not want to use a LaserWriter anyway.

I want to extract the PostScript and move it to my NeXT machine and print
it from there.  I already bought the MacLink software from DataViz to move
the file but, it would be even better if a daemon would run on the NeXT
waiting for spooled PostScript files.  Maybe a daemon that imitated the
LaserWriter protocol would do the trick.  This way additional software
for the Mac would not be needed.

Any Ideas?  Rob Maul maul@asic.nsc.com

anders@penguin (Anders Wallgren) (02/21/90)

Well, I have gotten lwsrv from the CAP distribution to work just fine.
(I did find the macps package pretty useful in generating the proper
prepfile).

anders

dennis@yang.cpac.washington.edu (Dennis Gentry) (03/09/90)

   From: spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu (D. Robert Spexet II)
   Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.next
   Date: 17 Feb 90 17:37:47 GMT

   In article <1990Feb17.212036.4311@athena.mit.edu> bmwu@athena.mit.edu (Benson M. Wu) writes:
   >	I wonder if anybody knows  whether it is possible to directly print 
   >from a Macintosh computer  (II, IIcx,  IIci, or SE) to a NeXT laser printer.
   >I wanted to do  this because  the NeXT laser printer is so much more cheaper
   >than Apple's Laserwriter.  Please let me know what hardware and software
   >are needed.  

   If you mean sending the Macintosh PostScript output to the NeXT printer, the
   answer is no.  The NeXT laser printer is cheaper partly because it is lack-

   [incorrect hypothesis about NeXT laser printer deleted]

This is wrong.  I regularly print Mac postscript output on a
cube's laser printer.  To produce a postscript file on the Mac,
press command-F (or command-K to avoid the PS header) just after
you click "OK" in a print dialog.  Move the file (probably named
PostScript0) to the cube (Kermit, ftp, zmodem, daynafile, or
whatever).  Print it using "lpr".

If this error has already been corrected in the mac group, I
apologize for wasting your time.  It had apparently passed
without comment in comp.sys.next.

Dennis Gentry
(dennis@cpac.washington.edu)

spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu (D. Robert Spexet II) (03/09/90)

In article <DENNIS.90Mar8223400@yang.cpac.washington.edu> dennis@yang.cpac.washington.edu (Dennis Gentry) writes:
>
>   >	I wonder if anybody knows  whether it is possible to directly print 
>   >from a Macintosh computer  (II, IIcx,  IIci, or SE) to a NeXT laser printer.
>   >I wanted to do  this because  the NeXT laser printer is so much more cheaper
>   >than Apple's Laserwriter.  Please let me know what hardware and software
>   >are needed.  
>
>   If you mean sending the Macintosh PostScript output to the NeXT printer, the
>   answer is no.  The NeXT laser printer is cheaper partly because it is lack-
>
>   [incorrect hypothesis about NeXT laser printer deleted]
>
>This is wrong.  I regularly print Mac postscript output on a
>cube's laser printer.  To produce a postscript file on the Mac,
>press command-F (or command-K to avoid the PS header) just after
>you click "OK" in a print dialog.  Move the file (probably named
>PostScript0) to the cube (Kermit, ftp, zmodem, daynafile, or
>whatever).  Print it using "lpr".
>

No, I don't believe that I am wrong.  Reread the question--it doesn't refer
to transferring the Mac Postscript output to the cube, it refers to a the
possibility of a direct connection of the NeXT laser printer to a Mac, so
that the Mac can print on the NeXT laser printer, *without having to go
through the cube*. (<--very important distinction.)

Now, I understand that if you are using lpr to print anything, that the
cube's Display Postscript interpreter takes care of the image processing,
and bit-blasts the output to the printer.  This is a very important dis-
tinction, as the Apple LaserWriter has a built-in Postscript interpreter,
and doesn't need to have a computer to do the imaging for it.

So what's the point of all this?  I claim that you cannot hook a NeXT laser
printer to a Mac, and have it display Postscript output.  That was the
question that was asked, and I believe my answer stands.

Thank you kindly,

-Dennis R. Spexet II
 UUCP:		rutgers!umn-cs!ux.acs.umn.edu!spexet
 Internet:	spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu
 SnailMail:	Post Office Box 14909, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414-0909 USA

dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) (03/10/90)

In article <DENNIS.90Mar8223400@yang.cpac.washington.edu> dennis@yang.cpac.washington.edu (Dennis Gentry) writes:
>>>	I wonder if anybody knows  whether it is possible to directly print 
>>>from a Macintosh computer  (II, IIcx,  IIci, or SE) to a NeXT laser printer.
>>If you mean sending the Macintosh PostScript output to the NeXT printer, the
>>answer is no.  The NeXT laser printer is cheaper partly because it is lack-
>This is wrong.  I regularly print Mac postscript output on a
>cube's laser printer.

They key word here is "cube".  If you have a "cube" and a printer, you can
print Mac PostScript.  If you want to use the $2000 NeXT printer without
the $6500 "cube", you're SOL, because the NeXT printer does NOT know
PostScript.  It is the "cube" that knows PostScript.

The printer knows something much simpler than PostScript; it's called, "DMA".
Macintoshes, of course, don't know "DMA" even for their disk drives, much
less for their printers.
--
Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office
Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu  UUCP: {convex,uunet}!uiucuxc!dorner

cattelan@cs.umn.edu (Russell Cattelan) (03/10/90)

spexet@ux.acs.umn.edu (D. Robert Spexet II) writes:
>No, I don't believe that I am wrong.  Reread the question--it doesn't refer
>to transferring the Mac Postscript output to the cube, it refers to a the
>possibility of a direct connection of the NeXT laser printer to a Mac, so
>that the Mac can print on the NeXT laser printer, *without having to go
>through the cube*. (<--very important distinction.)

Yes this is quite correct THERE IS NO POSTSCRIPT ENGINE IN THE PRINTER!
Why should there be one works well for me.

>Now, I understand that if you are using lpr to print anything, that the
>cube's Display Postscript interpreter takes care of the image processing,
(npd and associated filters)
>and bit-blasts the output to the printer.  This is a very important dis-
>tinction, as the Apple LaserWriter has a built-in Postscript interpreter,
>and doesn't need to have a computer to do the imaging for it.

This does bring up and interesting point has anybody tried to use 
the cap software that would allow the mac to spool its jobs to the
the cube (like any other printer on the the appletalk network). 
I think there is the software already written to do this? I don't
remember I will have to check on this when I have some time.


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<> :-{             :-\<>  Russell Cattelan       University of Minnesota    <>
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