alms@cambridge.apple.com (Andrew L. M. Shalit) (10/03/89)
First the moral:
When HP says "The DeskWriter is our supported Macintosh printer, not
the Laserjet IIP", you should believe them.
Now the rest of the story:
After spending a couple of days with a IIP and MacPrint software, I've
come to the conclusion that it isn't a desirable solution for printing
on the Macintosh. I'm going to try to return my printer to the store
where I got it; that failing, I'll sell it on the open market.
Disclaimer: I may not completely understand how this printer and
software are supposed to work. I may have missed something. This message
is based on my understanding after spending a few sessions of a couple
hours each trying to get acceptible performance out of the printer.
In the base configuration, the IIP is a very nice letter-quality printer.
It's small, light, and very cute. It's 300 dpi, but memory limitations
keep it from doing a full page at that resolution.
I thought the IIP came with Courier, Times, Helvetica, and Symbol, in a
variety of sizes. It doesn't. It comes only with Courier, in 10 and 12
point. Any other fonts have to be loaded from cartridges or built from
bit-maps in your computer.
Printing with a built-in font (i.e. Courier 10 or 12 point) is quite
fast, and doesn't eat up the printer's memory. However, printing
anything else is *very* slow. Slow means 2-4 minutes a page. Also,
using Macintosh fonts basically sends bits to the printer, so you
can't print a whole page of single spaced 300 dpi text. Of course, it
tries for 2 or 3 minutes before telling you it's out of memory.
MacPrint comes with 4 bitmap fonts. These come in huge sizes, so that
they can be scaled down for 300dpi printing (much like the laserwriter
SC, I believe). Each font takes about 350K. I had a couple of problems
with these fonts. First off, they give them non-standard names. So,
instead of 'Times' there is 'CS Times'; instead of 'Courier' there is
'CS Courier'. This means that if I have a thirty page document of
mixed Times and Courier, it won't use the MacPrint fonts. I'm
supposed to go through my document and manually change every use of
Times into CS Times. I guess they don't think people will be working
in mixed environments, where you want to print documents on one printer
or another. The other problem was that the quality of the screen fonts
(e.g. the 12-point of Times) was extremely poor. Some of the characters
just looked like splotches of pixels. You could only tell what they were
by the context within a word.
I managed to get around both the font problems, but it took a little
work. First, I renamed the fonts using ResEdit. Then, I replaced
the screen sizes with the same fonts from the Apple system. This may
have wreaked havoc with wysiwyg printing, but I don't really care about
that. I mostly just want nice looking text.
Even when I got the fonts basically working, I was still stuck by the
fact that I couldn't print a full page of letter quality text in anything
but Courier 10 or 12. There are two ways I could upgrade the printer:
buy a font cartridge (will give fast printing but for a limited number
of type faces; plus, the only cartridges come with non-standard named
fonts, e.g. TmsRmn instead of Times), or buy more memory (gives lots
of flexibility for $400, but still prints dog-slow). Instead I think
I'm going to sell the printer and price out a PLP from General
Computer.
sigh. Live and learn.
-andrew
disclaimer again: my opinions are my own, not my companies.jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) (10/04/89)
In article <ALMS.89Oct3121308@brazil.cambridge.apple.com> alms@cambridge.apple.com (Andrew L. M. Shalit) writes:
First the moral:
When HP says "The DeskWriter is our supported Macintosh printer, not
the Laserjet IIP", you should believe them.
Horse-puckey! The real Moral is: Read my review when it comes out,
so you know what you're getting in for! ;-) Seriously, your problem
is in the MacPrint driver, which I have also found unsatisfactory thus
far, especially in my Script Writing application, during which time
printing is AGONIZINGLY slow.
However, the Jetlink Express driver, which is not even tailored for
the IIP like MacPrint 1.2 (You ARE using the IIP driver in 1.2, arent
you?) Has some other niceties that would pacify you a bit.
First JLX has 4 outline fonts (Courier, Times, Helvetica, & Symbol)
for use with the driver; others are available (for a fee).
Second, they seem to handle certain things better (like printing in
the internal font).
HOWEVER, they can't handle printing multiple copies in certain docs
via chooser level COPIES options. Don't know why. Maybe because this
is a LJ II driver, not specifically an LJ IIP.
In the base configuration, the IIP is a very nice letter-quality printer.
It's small, light, and very cute. It's 300 dpi, but memory limitations
keep it from doing a full page at that resolution.
This is true.
I thought the IIP came with Courier, Times, Helvetica, and Symbol, in a
variety of sizes. It doesn't. It comes only with Courier, in 10 and 12
point. Any other fonts have to be loaded from cartridges or built from
bit-maps in your computer.
Yeah, I thought it came with more fonts also. There are 2 font
families included: a bunch of courier and one or two Line Printer
(like that would be real different from courier!;-) I was told on the
phone with HP, though, that the IIP had more fonts (I seem to recall
14 being the number bandied about) than the II. Anyone comment on that?
Printing with a built-in font (i.e. Courier 10 or 12 point) is quite
fast, and doesn't eat up the printer's memory. However, printing
anything else is *very* slow. Slow means 2-4 minutes a page. Also,
using Macintosh fonts basically sends bits to the printer, so you
can't print a whole page of single spaced 300 dpi text. Of course, it
tries for 2 or 3 minutes before telling you it's out of memory.
Bunkaroony. I can print a page full of 300DPI text (via ATM, for
instance) with my 512K IIP. I don't know why you can't, but I've had
no troubles doing it. Maybe my page full isn't as full as yours, but
I'd doubt that.
Also, the speed of printing is a direct result of the DRIVER. Make
sure you get the MacPrint 1.2, minimum, and read my review in Computer
Shopper in January (lead time, sorry;-) to see the differences between
the 4 commercial drivers for the mac.
Even when I got the fonts basically working, I was still stuck by the
fact that I couldn't print a full page of letter quality text in anything
but Courier 10 or 12. There are two ways I could upgrade the printer:
buy a font cartridge (will give fast printing but for a limited number
of type faces; plus, the only cartridges come with non-standard named
fonts, e.g. TmsRmn instead of Times), or buy more memory (gives lots
of flexibility for $400, but still prints dog-slow). Instead I think
I'm going to sell the printer and price out a PLP from General
Computer.
I don't know why you can't print a full page of text at 300 DPI...
would you care to email me a binhexed document for me to test?
Also, I suspect that ATM (and Sys 7.0, eventually) will make this
printer muy nicer. I'm reviewing ATM also, and can say that it really
makes my little IIP look like a PS printer. The text looks grand!
However, let me also raise my voive in annoyance at HP for pricing 1MB
of Ram at $370 (street). I was told that this is because HP is so
strict in their memory requirements that only the cream can be used,
but I find that answer unacceptable. 1MB simms are selling for ~$89
on the street, right? Why couldn't they have used this technology?
Is there a good reason for it? Who knows. Not me.
The other commercial Drivers that can run the IIP are:
Grappler LS (and new LX) from Orange Micro
Printer Interface IV from (oops, slips my mind)
Anyway, don't give up the ship just yet!
jas
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Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer
jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute
jas@isi.edu DELPHI: JSULLIVAN | University of Southern Californiaalms@cambridge.apple.com (Andrew L. M. Shalit) (10/05/89)
In article <9987@venera.isi.edu> jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) writes:
[stuff deleted]
However, the Jetlink Express driver, which is not even tailored for
the IIP like MacPrint 1.2 (You ARE using the IIP driver in 1.2, arent
you?) Has some other niceties that would pacify you a bit.
First JLX has 4 outline fonts (Courier, Times, Helvetica, & Symbol)
for use with the driver; others are available (for a fee).
Second, they seem to handle certain things better (like printing in
the internal font).
[more stuff deleted]
Also, the speed of printing is a direct result of the DRIVER. Make
sure you get the MacPrint 1.2, minimum, and read my review in Computer
Shopper in January (lead time, sorry;-) to see the differences between
the 4 commercial drivers for the mac.
Yep, I should have been clearer in my posting. The IIP seems like
a fine printer. The problems I was having were certainly driver
problems. I wasn't aware that there were so many other options.
Maybe I won't have to abandon ship just yet: : :-)
-andrewPER@PSUVM.BITNET (Polly Reese) (12/07/89)
I'm evaluating various printers for the Mac II. I'd like to get some response as to the HP LaserJet IIP. Has anyone done this and what is the general opinion to this configuration? Please reply to: PER at PSUVM
Gaige@InterCon.Com (Gaige B. Paulsen) (12/14/89)
I have a LaserJet IIP and have been using it with the JetWriter from Insight.
(I think this is still in the testing phases, but it will be out soon).
So far, I have found the combination to be great for low-volume, single-user
output needs. I use it at home (and networked LW's here at the office) for
printing a wide variety of documents (graphics, text, etc). Most commonly,
I use it with ATM which has turned out to be an exceptional match for the
print quality of the IIP.
For those who don't know, the JetWriter is an interface board for the IIP
which puts a 230kbps serial port on the back of the printer, thereby almost
eliminating the comm link as a speed barrier.
The printer prints best on fast machines ( I use it on my Portable and IIx,
and the IIx is about twice as fast), which makes since because the imaging
is done on the Mac.
Printing with the built-in or cartridge fonts gives a very fast response
from the printer (i.e. it keeps up with its 4ppm engine), but you don't get
a lot of font flexibilty.
As usual, the Insight drivers are well written and compatible with most apps
(I haven't found one yet that doesn't like it).
Caveats:
o This solution is for 1 printer to 1 mac solutions only (no network adaptor)
o For printing full pages of monospaced or small text in bit-mapped mode,
you will need more than .5MB of memory( which is included in the printer).
o Printing pages with lots of text in lots of fonts using ATM can be slow
(but the output looks great)
Advantages:
o Low cost (I got my LJ IIP for <$1000 at a local computer store, and
Insight says they will price the JetWriter at about $349 or some such).
o Great output (when coupled with ATM especially). [I am partial to Oblique
fonts]
Hope this helps!
Gaige B. Paulsen
Author
InterCon Systems Corporation
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