news@sun.uucp (news) (09/15/87)
What's been said already by most of the people on this subject is quite true:
Most people use their laser printers for final-quality output (I do), and
if you want high-quality output, then you have to go to a typesetter, and
at this point something like PostScript is quite useful. At lower resolutions,
PostScript printers are much like any other 300 DPI printer, and if you have to
go to a PostScript typesetter, most DP packages allow you to proof your output
on a non-PostScript laser printer. However, there are some caveats that are
understood here: first, you aren't doing any complex graphics on your laser
and then going to the typesetter with them (I mean PostScript graphics, like
Illustrator, MacDraw, Cricketdraw, etc., or halftones); second, you're not
doing anything special with your fonts, i.e., you're not using a lot of them
at a lot of different sizes or orientation, as most bitmapped lasers don't
have enough memory for lots of downloadable fonts (and when you start using
lots of them, the transmission time slows these printers down to the speeds
experienced with PostScript printers).
Note that there are a LOT of fonts available for PostScript printers, and
more are going to be available over time (about 200/year from Merg, and
200/year from Varityper). This selection just doesn't exist for most
laser printers, and on some (not HP's) the fonts are noticably worse than
those on a LaserWriter (at 10 and 12 points). Although I don't think all
of Adobe's fonts are great (Times Italic needs work), overall, their fonts
are better than most other laser printer manufacturers' (although Bitstream
may change all that with their Fontware product).
As for nobody doing high-quality graphics on their typesetter, that depends
on what you mean by "high-quality." I've seen Illustrator output from a
Linotronic that surpasses most pen-and-ink drawings, and I've seen halftones
from an L300 that are sharp and crisp: 150-line screens with dots sharper
than can be made with a stat camera. I've also seen color separations
(both from Illustrator files and from scanned images) made on a L300 that
rival the best digital color separation systems on the market (those costing
$1,000,000 and up). Contrary to popular belief, a 4 x 6 halftone doesn't
take 3 hours to print on a Linotronic. We can print one in about 10 minutes
at 1270 DPI, and about 30 minutes at 2540 DPI (the screen angle and frequency
have almost no effect on the print time).
Pat Wood
Editor, The PostScript Language Journal
P.S. We'll be running color seps on the cover of our next issue, both from
Illustrator and from a color scanner, all produced on an L300.
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