michaela@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Michael Albo) (01/10/89)
I have come across the name of a printer driver for using NON - imagewriter printers with the Mac. The name I am familiar with is EPSTART or something similar. Unfortunately I cannot find an address or phone # for the company who distributes this software; I think their name is SOFTSTYLE. If anyone knows more about this could you please post that information or e-mail it to me so that I can order of copy of this driver. Thank you.
bmartin@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Brian Martin) (01/13/89)
In article <2269@iscuva.ISCS.COM> michaela@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Michael Albo) writes: >I have come across the name of a printer driver for using NON - imagewriter >printers with the Mac. The name I am familiar with is EPSTART or something >similar. Unfortunately I cannot find an address or phone # for the company >who distributes this software; I think their name is SOFTSTYLE. Yes, they still exist and are located here in Hawai`i. They moved recently so I don't have a current office address, but their phone number is (808) 396-6368 Their old address (I assume the post office will forward) 7192 Kalanianaole Highway Suite 205, Honolulu, HI I used their Printworks for the Mac, Laser version, for over a year with a HP-LJ+ compatible and was very happy with the products functionality and reliability. The only drawback is that the printer should have 1MB or more, as the driver creates a full-page bitmap for download to the printer. SoftStyle is an entrepreneurial success story. Craig Slayter, the founder of SoftStyle, started out with a hardware add-on called the MacEnhancer and a line of printer drivers for the Mac. From a small company tucked away in a suburb of Honolulu, selling mostly by mail-order, they built up a successful track record. About six months ago, they were bought out by Phoenix Technologies, and are now the Pacific/Asian division of Phoenix. As a part of the buyout, Craig was appointed general manager for the Pacific/Asian division. ==== Brian K. Martin, M.D. Department of Psychiatry John A. Burns School of Medicine University of Hawaii and Martin Information Systems, Ltd. 1103 9th Ave., Suite 203 Honolulu, Hawai`i 96816-2403 Voice (808) 733-2003 Fax (808) 733-2011 ARPA: uhccux!bmartin@nosc.MIL UUCP: {uunet,dcdwest,ucbvax}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!bmartin INTERNET: bmartin@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (01/13/89)
Your in luck! First off, forget EpStart, its old and out-of-print and many Spectre users with newer printers are having problems with it. Buy SoftStyles new PrintWorks, Version 3.5 (Dot Matrix). Its sold by all the major Mac mail order houses (just grab an issue of Mac World or Mac User and flip through the ads.) I'm using my Epson LQ-850 with almost no problems and the problems I'm having are definitely due to System conflicts and not due to PrintWorks. There are only two programs which are causing trouble - MicroSoft File and one PD File Indexer - both of which seem to want to override PrintWorks - everything else works fine including Word 3.0. Pete
pool@blake.acs.washington.edu (Jonathan Pool) (01/14/89)
Article 3490's rave review of SoftStyle isn't the whole story. I bought Epstart from them for my Epson FX-100 and SoftStyle was rarely helpful in diagnosing the bugs and providing workarounds. Then I bought their Printworks, Epson version, which they had advertised as doing everything Epstart did and more. It was a disaster, and their advertisement was false. The print quality in "high" mode was much worse than just using the built-in printer fonts. Adjacent words even overlapped. SoftStyle either failed to reply to my letters documenting the problems or sent me perfunctory notes evading the fact that they had falsely advertised the product. They claimed that someday they might make it do what I wanted. SoftStyle has almost consistently behaved like the typical irresponsible software vendor, not like those few vendors (e.g., Microsoft) that actually reply to letters and calls, actually diagnose problems, and actually fix bugs. If anybody buys from SoftStyle before trying out a demo version or seeing a sample of various print styles printed on the very same printer you are going to use, you are asking for trouble. (Another thing SoftStyle did was charge my credit card about a year before shipping the product, and it didn't reverse the charge until after about the 3rd request.) --Disclaimer: my only connection with SoftStyle is that I am a --dissatisfied customer.