mc2818@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu (02/20/89)
Questions about the LaserWriter IISC: I am considering buying a IISC, and have a few questions that I hope someone can answer. 1) Since the IISC only has 4 built-in fonts, how readily available are downloadable fonts esp. made for the laserwriter i.e. not bitmapped? 2)Are graphics outputs using QuickDraw close to the printers that use PostScript? I mean, I'm not that picky, but if there is a huge difference, even I can notice it. 3)Does having more RAM in your computer speed up the printing process? Thanks a lot, Mike mc2818@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu
holland@m2.csc.ti.com (Fred Hollander) (02/21/89)
In article <46700103@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu> mc2818@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > >Questions about the LaserWriter IISC: > > I am considering buying a IISC, and have a few questions that >I hope someone can answer. > >1) Since the IISC only has 4 built-in fonts, how readily available >are downloadable fonts esp. made for the laserwriter i.e. not >bitmapped? The IISC *does* require bitmap fonts. For best results, you should have the font 4x the size you're printing. Don't know about availability. >2)Are graphics outputs using QuickDraw close to the printers that use >PostScript? I mean, I'm not that picky, but if there is a huge difference, >even I can notice it. The text is close if you have the exact font size in the style you're using (see above). Scaling to an odd size looks pitiful. Pasting graphics from Illustrator to FullWrite, for example, also looks pitiful. You will need to limit your graphics to quickdraw and bitmaps should be 300 dpi (I know at least SuperPaint offers this feature). >3)Does having more RAM in your computer speed up the printing process? The IISC prints very fast - it's QuickDraw. RAM is more critical for a PostScript printer (in the printer) for processing and caching font bitmaps. Anyway, whether RAM would help in the Mac would depend on the application doing the printing. You can't add RAM to the IISC. Fred Hollander Computer Science Center Texas Instruments, Inc. hollander@ti.com The above statements are my own and not representative of Texas Instruments.
casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres) (02/22/89)
In article <46700103@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu> mc2818@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > >Questions about the LaserWriter IISC: > > I am considering buying a IISC, and have a few questions that >I hope someone can answer. > >1) Since the IISC only has 4 built-in fonts, how readily available >are downloadable fonts esp. made for the laserwriter i.e. not >bitmapped? Actually there are no built-in fonts; the IISC fonts live on the Mac. Apple only provides Times Roman, Helvetica, Courier, and Symbol, but at MacWorld I talked to two different big-league font suppliers who are offering a wide range of fonts suitable for the IISC. To clarify, these are bitmap fonts, i.e. the IISC does not use PostScript downloadable fonts. >2)Are graphics outputs using QuickDraw close to the printers that use >PostScript? I mean, I'm not that picky, but if there is a huge difference, >even I can notice it. The only huge difference is with the few graphics programs (such as Cricket Draw and Adobe Illustrator) that only care about PostScript printing and do 72-dpi bitmap output to all non-PostScript printers. A not-so-huge differ- ence is that with the IISC you can only get good-looking text in normal, horizontal orientation -- except with MacDraw II, which renders rotated text as a 300-dpi bitmap for the IISC, giving a result that is competitive with PostScript. >3)Does having more RAM in your computer speed up the printing process? It sure does. 2 MB is nice, and more is even nicer. Also, you really should have a hard disk to use the IISC, because of the space occupied by the fonts. David Casseres