mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) (03/28/91)
I just bought a Laserjet III and at some point would like to add Postscript support. If I bought a cartridge like Pacific's, do I really need to add memory if I don't want to do anything too complicated? If so, how much memory do I need? Thanks in advance for any insight. -- Mark McWiggins Integration Technologies, Inc. (Intek) +1 206 455 9935 DISCLAIMER: I could be wrong ... 1400 112th Ave SE #202 Bellevue WA 98004 mark@intek.com Ask me about C++!
dhosek@EULER.CLAREMONT.EDU (Don Hosek) (03/30/91)
In article <9103281732.AA04893@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU>, mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) writes: > I just bought a Laserjet III and at some point would like to > add Postscript support. If I bought a cartridge like Pacific's, > do I really need to add memory if I don't want to do > anything too complicated? If so, how much memory do I need? The HP cartridge requires 2M of add-on memory. This leaves plenty of memory for even my most complicated jobs. I personally wouldn't touch a non-Adobe PS cartridge. They may be cheaper but conversations with people who've gone with clones (including PP) have indicated that most of them wish they'd have bought real Adobe. Don Hosek dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu Quixote Digital Typography 714-625-0147
lsh@polari.UUCP (03/31/91)
In article <9103281732.AA04893@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) writes: >I just bought a Laserjet III and at some point would like to >add Postscript support. If I bought a cartridge like Pacific's, >do I really need to add memory if I don't want to do >anything too complicated? If so, how much memory do I need? You need a minimum of 1.5mb of memory to use postscript on a LaserJet, I think. The III comes with 1mb, so you need at least 512k more. Usually you can only get it in 1mb increments, the more the merrier. I don't know a lot about Postscript, but I believe the interpreter just won't be able to build a page without the minimum amount of memory. Do look into the Pacific Page cartridge with memory bundled along with it -- an excellent cartridge at a reasonable price -- ------- ======= ------- ======= ------- ======= ------- ======= ------- ======= uw-beaver!sumax!seattle!lsh -- lsh@seattle Lee Hauser If I pay for access, I don't have to disclaim ANYTHING!
henry@ZOO.TORONTO.EDU (Henry Spencer) (03/31/91)
In article <9103281732.AA04893@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) writes: >add Postscript support. If I bought a cartridge like Pacific's, >do I really need to add memory if I don't want to do >anything too complicated? If so, how much memory do I need? In general, for PostScript you *must* have enough memory to hold an entire page worth of bits. The LaserJet firmware converts characters (etc.) to bits on the fly as the paper goes through, but PostScript can't do that. A megabyte is marginally adequate to hold an 8.5x11 sheet, but you need some extra for work area, so 1.5MB is the working minimum. Make that 2MB for legal-size paper. In general, more is better, especially for complex PostScript. The dealer who's selling you the cartridge should be able to tell you how much memory it needs. -- "The stories one hears about putting up | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology SunOS 4.1.1 are all true." -D. Harrison| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
ptm@jake.tmc.edu (Peter T. Murphy) (04/05/91)
I am having problems with my HP LJ III hanging off of a Netware file/ printer server. Since the Netware did not come with a LJ III driver, we are using the LJ II driver in it's place to drive our LJ III. For text, we do not have much trouble, but graphics suck. I've tried writing to a LJ IIP from my workstation, on the theory that, if the LJ II driver on the server is filtering out LJ III datastream, then I'd try writing to the printer as a LJ IIP (which the III is supposedly upwardly compatible with), in the hopes that the LJ II driver would pass it through OK. Life improved, but not completely. Is there, anywhere, a HP LJ III printer driver for a Netware V2.15? Peter Murphy Lead Prog - Data Comm Wayne State University - Detroit I'net: pmurphy@cms.cc.wayne.edu B`net: pmurphy@waynest1.bitnet
evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) (04/05/91)
In article <9104021822.AA17798@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> dhosek@EULER.CLAREMONT.EDU (Don Hosek) writes: > >In article <9103281732.AA04893@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU>, mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) writes: >> I just bought a Laserjet III and at some point would like to >> add Postscript support. >I personally >wouldn't touch a non-Adobe PS cartridge. They may be cheaper but >conversations with people who've gone with clones (including PP) >have indicated that most of them wish they'd have bought real >Adobe. My jury's still out on Pacific Page. It's a good bit cheaper than the HP Adobe cartridge, and it's faster, but it has a few quirks. My main beef is that it won't allow bin-switching on the Laserjet IID/IIID or IIP with the second bin attached. It also has a slight letterspacing difference from Adobe, but I'm told this is being fixed in the new release. Ah, the new release. Pacific Data is the only company I know that has an upgrade policy for *hardware*. For $99 plus exchange, they'll switch any PacificPage cart for the newest version. If the new cart, version 4.0, fixes the letterspacing problem (a subtle one, which only shows up when using dvips), then I'll have no qualms with PP. I certainly can attest to the support department which has been helpful and available. And the cost of the original cart plus the upgrade is still hundreds less than I would have spent on the HP cart. On the other hand, I have two experiences of being burnt golden brown by experiences by awful HP dealers, who were fully supported in their mediocity by HP. I'll give the company the benefit of the doubt, that the printer division supports its products better than the Vectra division does. If not, we Laserjet owners had all better hope these things work well without support. I'm just damned scared to talk to that company anymore. -- Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario evan@telly.on.ca / uunet!attcan!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504 "This is the mother of all playoff series!" -- Calgary hockey announcer
evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) (04/07/91)
(Honest folks, I don't make a habit of following up my own postings.) In article <1991Apr5.044905.555@telly.on.ca> I wrote: >My jury's still out on Pacific Page. It's a good bit cheaper than the HP >Adobe cartridge, and it's faster, but it has a few quirks. My main beef >is that it won't allow bin-switching on the Laserjet IID/IIID or IIP with >the second bin attached. It also has a slight letterspacing difference >from Adobe, but I'm told this is being fixed in the new release. > >Ah, the new release. Pacific Data is the only company I know that has an >upgrade policy for *hardware*. For $99 plus exchange, they'll switch any >PacificPage cart for the newest version. > >If the new cart, version 4.0, fixes the letterspacing problem (a subtle >one, which only shows up when using dvips), then I'll have no qualms >with PP. UPDATE: My version 4.0 cart came yesterday. Yes, it does fix the letterspacing problem. According to the specs on the box, PP 4.0 is supposed to be compatible with Adobe PostScript version 51.9. Yes it is faster, especially on graphics. A 130K gif file that was printed using the 'gif2ps' program took 3:41 to print on the old PP cart, 1:47 on the new (a 52% improvement). Text using built-in fonts is also faster but not as dramatically. My sample dvips test offered times of 2:19 versus 1:55 (21%). (Then for those who are still impatient, PP has announced an Intel i960-based accelerator card (to fit in the slot normally occupied by add-on memory) that claims even faster Postscript processing. Is this the first RISC-based PostScript engine officially announced?) There are also a number of more cosmetic changes. The manual looks more polished, but still has a a way to go to match the slickness of the HP cartridge's documentation. The cart itself looks a bit neater, sporting some of the embossed racing stripes etc. Like, wow. It now can now work with as little as 1.5 Meg RAM as opposed to the previous minimum of 2.5. That still sounds like it could impose some limits. The PP still does not support duplex printing on the IID or IIID, nor bin switching on those printers or the IIP with the second bin attached. Further, there appers to be no forthcoming fix from PP for this. The HP cartridge comes with documentation on the 'statusdict' commands that enable these features for their implementation, and is still the only route for users who need this feature. The HP test page is also prettier. -- Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario evan@telly.on.ca / uunet!attcan!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504 "This is the mother of all playoff series!" -- Calgary hockey announcer