[comp.os.vms] Printserver40

PDreyer@HI-MULTICS.ARPA (Phil Dreyer) (06/16/87)

  We have a Printserver 40 on our network here, and it is a uvaxII with
a postscript engine which can process ANSI, Sixels, Regis, and Tektronix
documents (translating into postscript).  The system is built on
Digital's VAXELN operating system, and the print services software runs
on the uvaxII subsystem of the datacontroller.  Decnet is used to access
the printer.

Some personal comments however;

We have had the printer here for several months and some interesting
limitations have occured.  You cannot have pages greater than 132
columns because of a software limitation.  This has proven to be a pain
in the neck for our Ingres users.  You cannot use forms like you can set
up with the LN03's.  Digitals suggestion was to put the control
character sequences in the files themselves.  hardly a workable
solution.  From what I have seen so far all you get for your 40k+ is a
printer capable of handling approx 40 pages a minute and can do
landscape mode printing.  Sure you can do postscript, but the cost of an
LN03+ is so cheap, you're better off buying three of those and running
them instead.

We are having meetings with DEC on these issues and issues of
maintenance.  they have been coming in to fix the printer an average of
once a week.  This gets to be annoying with a lot of users depending on
your printers.