U12570@UICVM.BITNET (ED GARAY) (03/26/88)
I will try to briefly answer some of the questions you posted on the Laser-Lovers electronic list a few days ago: a) There are all sorts of hardware/software products to connect a printer with Ethernet (XNS and TCP/IP). PostScript should transmitt well. The main question is to select a couple of printers that will suit your needs, and then, inquire about available communications hardware to connect them to your system. Companies like Paradyne, Network Systems Corporation, Xerox, and SPUR, for example, have products to connect small and big Xerox laser printers to varied system configurations. b) There are a lot of products supporting PostScript. If PostScript is very important to you, I take it you want a PostScript printer. There are several varying in price, resolution, etc. The Agfa-Gaveart P400 is a 400 dots per inch PostScript printer with excellent print quality. There are a couple of 600 dpi printers like the VariTyper, Printware and Siemens machines. Lots of 300 dpis, also. I have heard the QMS PS-800 or 810 are some of the best 300 dpi PostSript printers. There are versions of TeX for IBM MVS and VM/CMS systems. For more information, contact Maria Code, of Standford University, at (408) 735-8006. There are a couple of TeX DVI to PostScript converters as well. c) Here are the University of Illinois, Chicago Campus, we use Waterloo Script, GML, IBM DisplayWrite, WordPerfect, TeX, Ventura Publisher, DISSPLA, Tell-A-Graph, CueChart and SAS/Graph to create text and graphics documents that are printed on Xerox 4045/2700/8790 300 dpi laser printers, and Linotron 202 typesetters. Of course, the levels of support vary according to the printer's capability and software availability. It takes A LOT OF WORK to support this type of mix-and-match environment. d) For high-speed laser printers (40 pages per minute of more) Xerox has the best printers -- based on my own experience. As for low volume laser printers, it's anybody's ball game. Your current and future printing applications should be the main factors in making your selection. Note that most small laser printers that cost little money to buy, end up costing a lot of money in consumables and maintenance, in the long run. As for resolution, I agree, the higher, the better. High-res printers are beginning to come down in price. There are several quality resolution typesetters that can process PostScript and InterPress data streams. The Linotronic 300, for example, can optionally handle PostScript. e) Decentralized desktop publishing is usually an attractive alternative, but it can easily become a headache and very, very expensive. Providing the faculty with individual PCs, desktop publishing software and a laser printer is cost-prohibited. In any case, wether they are standalone PCs or networked together, intelligent (and very expensive) publishing workstations, or mainframe systems, it would be ideal if you could set and enforce some standards and have, at least, one common "output" language, like PostScript, TeX DVI, ,InterPress, or IBM's AFPDS. Among Xerox's InterPress, Imagen's PDL, Adobe's PostScript and others, I would pick PostScript since it is readily available, it's a real thing, a defacto standard, and very powerful. Please note that the above are, for the most part, my personal opinions. While I have experience with several of the products mentioned, some of the statements are based on ongoing conversations I have with colleagues, reading material, editorials, etc. I hope you find some of this useful. Good Luck. Best Regards, Edward Garay u12570@UICVM.bitnet To: RCDILAA@HDETUD1