risto@cad.Berkeley.EDU (Risto Mutikainen) (08/05/88)
I don't know if this is addressed before, I have not seen... For me it appears that all the text IW LQ prints seem to be in boldface, by appear. Text is just too heavy, especially Times and Helvetica - Courier looks better, but who wants fixed font everywhere. Yes, I am using the right paper lever setting and printing in the best mode, 216 dpi. Setting the lever for thicker paper makes dots disappear from upper and over edges of print head pass. And yes, the ribbon is quite new, printed perhaps 50 pages. I checked the fonts (bitmaps), they look just all right. Next thing to suspect was the actual point or pixel size, what the print head prints. To my surprise (and explaining the 'boldface mode') the points overlap significantly, here is the table: theoretical fill /% observed fill /% 100 100 50 90-95 25 70 12.5 50 The printing was made from bitmapped pictures with 66% reduction, so that every one/2nd/4th... point was printed. The fill was checked both just by eye and by measuring the reflected light, they gave similar results. So, 100% fill (black) and 50% fill (standard desktop) look almost similar, when printed in best mode. In summary, even though there is 216 dpi on the output, it does not mean that the printed pixels are 1/216th of inch size, they are more like 1/100th or so. To get good-looking text output, one needs to use trimmed fonts, the normal font gives already the boldface - at least with my printer. Luckily, I got the Fontastic+ just a week ago and can trim the fonts, it just takes some time... Does anyone know about slim fonts of sizes 27, 30, 36? With the larger sizes print quality is of course better, the proportional fattening of the fonts is smaller. Or has Apple released modified versions of those fonts for LQ to make them look natural? Accurate graphics drivers (printing e.g. the fills in best mode - I don't know if there are any available except with the 66% reduction) will screw up the output, even though they print 'correctly'. ... lots of normal disclaimers ... Risto Mutikainen risto@cad.Berkeley.EDU, risto@ucbcad.bitnet