furuta@BRILLIG.UMD.EDU (Richard Furuta) (10/05/87)
I have received an announcement from Imagen of their PC Publisher Kit. This is a hardware modification to existing Canon CX based laser printers (such as the HP LaserJet and LaserJet+) that speaks Imagen's DDL (Document Design Language). (DDL is another language in the PostScript/InterPress class.) The kit consists of a PC add-in board, a printer conversion kit and cable, 22 typefaces (including Times, Helvetica, Helvetica Narrow, Lucida Sans Typewriter, and Courier. It also includes some conversion software. The sales literature emphasizes the "unlimited" scaling and rotation of fonts and graphics and the full page 300 dpi graphics. In addition to DDL, the kit emulates the HP LaserJet (PCL), the Epxon FX-80 and MX-80, the Diablo 630, the Qume Sprint, the NEC 3550/5110/7710, and the IBM graphics printer. The kit is intended to be used with an IBM PC (or compatible). Installation uses up 2.5 Mbytes of hard disk, 20 Kbytes of system memory, and one full-sized card slot. You also need to have the printer. This is Imagen's first DDL product. They say that volume shipping began September 8th. Price of the upgrade is listed as $1895. Imagen can be reached at (408)986-9400. --Rick