gersh@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (John R. Gersh) (11/15/89)
I've had a Deskwriter for a couple of weeks, now, and am entirely satisfied with it. To address some topics covered in recent postings: Intended Use: I stress that I like the DW _within the context of my needs._ I bought it as an Imagewriter upgrade, not as a scaled-down laser printer, and viewed in that light it performs very well. I'm using it at home for general correspondence, listings, and various small print jobs. System Requirements: I have a Mac IIcx, 4 Mb RAM, 80 Mb disk, so I've seen no performance problems or memory limitations. The largest document I've printed so far is a 20-page MacWrite II document. It printed without any hitches, in 10 minutes. I did have one interesting moment, though: I was trying to print a MacDraw document that contained a large bit-mapped object (part of a screen dump). The DW quite happily printed everything in the document _but_ the bit-mapped object. No crash, no out-of-memory alert, just an incomplete print job. I increased MacDraw II's multifinder memory allocation by 200K or so and the document printed fine. Compatibility: The only problems I've had are the well-documented ones with Red Ryder 10.3 (Supposedly fixed with White Knight - anybody tried it?) and Vantage. Everything else I've tried works fine (MW II, MacDraw II, FullWrite, SuperPaint, Think C (listings), Mac Allegro Common Lisp (listings), Reflex, a few others. Print Quality: Just great. I bought a ream of standard xerographic bond in a stationery store. The output on this paper, using the HP fonts, is just about comparable to a laser printer. In some respects it's even better. (e.g. a hairline is noticeably thinner and crisper on the DW than with a Laserwriter Plus.) Ink: Ah, the dreaded water-soluble ink. I thought long and hard about this factor and decided that for my uses it was not crucial (I can see that in many other situations it might be.) A couple of things I considered: For years I have been writing checks and addressing envelopes using an ordinary Pilot felt-tip pen. Guess what? Its ink is just as water-soluble as the Deskwriter's (at least on the papers I experimented with). I've had no problems with the pen; I expect no worse from the DW. Remember, too, that laser-printed pages are also not permanent. Ever put a xeroxed or laser-printed page up against a plastic notebook in your briefcase? The print pulls off the paper when you pry them apart. I've damaged many more pages through this phenomenon than I've spilled coffee on! So, I concluded that while the ink is a problem, it's one I can live with. Overall: I'm quite satisfied with the ease of use, performance, and print quality of the Deskwriter, again within the context of my system and usage. I no longer need ear plugs while printing :-), and the DW is a ball to watch. Special Note: The December MacWorld has a brief review of the DeskWriter (p. 206). While generally favorable, the review contains an illustration claiming to be an example of DW text and graphics. I don't know how MacWorld generated the illustration, but it is not, repeat NOT, a worthwhile DW example. It appears to have been printed entirely at 72 dpi, including lines of text purportedly in HP outline fonts. I can only guess that the entire illustration, including text, was produced in MacPaint or some other bit-mapped application with a 72 dpi limit. If I were HP I'd be quite upset about the picture! - John Gersh --------------------------------------------------------------------- gersh@aplvax.jhuapl.edu {backbone!}mimsy!aplcen!aplcomm!gersh The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins Rd., Laurel, MD 20707 (301) 953-5503
isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) (11/16/89)
In article <3886@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> gersh@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (John R. Gersh) writes: >Special Note: The December MacWorld has a brief review of the DeskWriter >(p. 206). While generally favorable, the review contains an illustration >claiming to be an example of DW text and graphics. I don't know how >MacWorld generated the illustration, but it is not, repeat NOT, a >worthwhile DW example... Both MacWorld and MacUser do the same brain-dead illustrations. The DeskWriter on p. 206 is a prime example. The fonts weren't the DW outline fonts, the graphic was a 72dpi bitmap (or a postscript), it's both unfair to HP and also shows that a moron was responsible for doing the comparisons. MacUser did something similar with the LaserWriter IISC a couple months back. Ken -- Ken Hancock '90 | DISCLAIMER: I'm graduating and looking for Consultant | a job, so I'll stand by my words. Computer Resource Center |============================================== Dartmouth College | EMAIL: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu