mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (08/04/89)
Okay, folks. I'm convinced. The DeskWriter is awesome. I went and checked one out today. I cooked up the nastiest Word 4.0 document I could dream up in font sizes from 7 to 72 point in all available styles, and a table with borders. It printed in under 2 mins, most of which time was spent processing the page before sending it to the printer. I set the document in Palatino, and it was printed in Palacio: HP's clone. Palacio is heavier than Palatino, but it's okay, and 7.0 will be out even- tually... I also tried some Bezier curves from Draw II (beautiful). I had a nasty SuperPaint 2.0 document ready too, but the dealer didn't have the software. He did print a really nice PageMaker doc with imbedded graphics, though. Looked good. ******QUESTION***** So, here's the question: Both times I've seen this engine demoed, (once on the Desk- Jet and once on the DeskWriter) I've noticed that one of the "scan" lines from the print head wasn't printing. This results in REALLY thin white lines on large black fields, and in poor text rendition if it coincides with the top or bottom of any of the characters... Is this a common problem? If so, can it be easily corrected by somehow cleaning the head, or is a replacement necessary? Also, is it possible to use a spooler with this printer (has this been answered). SuperLaserSpool would seem ideal (especially since I can upgrade from SuperSpool cheap ;-)) Thanks in advance! --Mike Standard disclaimers....
pfr654@csc.anu.oz (08/04/89)
In article <575@studsys.mu.edu>, stevej@studsys.mu.edu (jovanovic) writes: > I would like to buy a DeskWriter for my Mac II, and I'm hoping not to spend > too much more than $700. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any decent deals yet. > Someone posted that they bought one for $729, I think. Through an educational > discount program?? I'm a student at MU, but MU doesn't have any program going > with HP to provide student discounts. Please HELP!!! > (stuff deleted) Could someone in the US please post the latest prices for a DeskWriter advertised in the press there? The latest issue of US MacWorld I can get in Australia is June 1989, and I am almost desparate to buy one mail order from the States. In Australia, HP says the retail price is $2600, but with discounting that will go down to around $2000. At the US price of $729 mentioned above, it would work out to be less than $1500, including 20% import duty and freight charges, and the fact that the Oz $ is $us0.76. Thanks in advance. Phil Ryan, ANU Dept of Physics and Theoretical Physics.
hal@krishna.cs.cornell.edu (Hal Perkins) (08/15/89)
In article <608@csc.anu.oz> pfr654@csc.anu.oz writes: >Could someone in the US please post the latest prices for a DeskWriter >advertised in the press there? It's available at Cornell for $730 through the university. I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover that this is some sort of university discount.
David.Bolduc@f54.n382.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Bolduc) (08/17/89)
The prices I've seen are just under $900 here. -- David Bolduc via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!382!54!David.Bolduc INET: David.Bolduc@f54.n382.z1.FIDONET.ORG
maryw@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Mary Williams) (08/25/89)
> From mead@hamal.usc.edu Fri Aug 18 18:21:19 1989 > From: mead@hamal.usc.edu (Dick Mead) > Subject: Deskwriter > Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA > Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac > > on both sides of the paper and that worked fine, too. I also > confirmed that at least one spooler won't work, SuperLaserSpool. > The print dialog comes up, the spooled file is created, but nothing > to the printer. This is probably the one reason I won't buy a Deskwriter > > Now, if HP would like to re-write their driver (hello, HP?), then > I would be happy to buy one, and recommend them as an Imagewriter II > replacement to people who are always asking me what to get. But for > now, I'll just stick with my noisier and less pretty-printing, but > very spoolable, Imagewriter II. Sorry HP.. Posted for Bob Engel, DeskWriter product manager: * We recognize the value of spooling for DeskWriter. In the short term we are working with SuperMac who have expressed a strong desire to support the product via their SuperLaserSpool product. The longer term solution is Apple's System 7.0, which will provide spooling for any printer. Bob Engel Hewlett-Packard Vancouver Division
bh11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Braddock John Hathaway) (10/16/89)
Just a note on the Deskwriter . . . the 300dpi output is great, but there is a small drawback in that you have to have paper that won't bleed AT ALL loaded into the machine, or your 300dpi ouput looks more like it came off an imagewriter with delusions of grandeur. The best type of paper that I've found for use with the deskwriter is 25% cotton 20 lb stock (basically just nice typing paper). Using this paper has had me guessing which output came off laser, and which off my deskwriter. Just FYI, Brad
mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (12/06/89)
Greetings, I just wanted to add another data point to the HP DeskWriter success story. I picked mine up yesterday, and (since I finally got some money), set about paying the Shareware fees for all the software I keep using. I cranked out a letter to each of the authors, and printed them on the DeskWriter. Gorgeous! I also printed the envelopes on the machine, and its envelope feed is quite impressive. I wouldn't want to use it to print 1000 envelopes, but for the 10 that I did, it was quite painless. I've read articles from people complaining that it took 20 minutes/page, etc. I don't know what the problem they're having is, but the longest page I had was about 4 minutes, and that was solid graphics. Typical MS Word pages ran about 2 minutes. This, mind you, is on a Mac Plus!!!! I can hardly wait for the IIx! My only complaint: No Spooler. I hope that people don't say, "Well all printers will work in the background under 7.0" and let it go at that. I'd like to see SuperMac (whose excellent SuperSpool software I've been using for over a year) update SuperLaserSpool to print to the DeskWriter... --Mike