mcguffey@muvms1.bitnet (Michael McGuffey) (05/16/89)
We have a user interested in printing "post cards" on a laser printer. Either a DEC LPS40 (8 cards per 11x17 sheet) or Apple LW NTX (4 cards per 8.5 x 11 sheet) will be used. I'm wondering about the following items: 1. PRINTING ON HEAVIER WEIGHT PAPER. A local offset printer uses 32lb paper for post cards, and the US Postal Service requires that the paper be .007 inch thick. Can the above printer engines print on paper that thick/heavy? 2. TWO-SIDED PRINTING. The user wants to print an address on one side of the card and mail-merge style message on the reverse side. Other than the front-to-back and sheet-to-sheet alignment, what problems will we run into printing on both sides? Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Are there any other caveats? Thanks, -- michael ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael McGuffey, Senior Software Applications Analyst Phone: 304/696-3212 University Computer Center FAX: 304/696-3601 Marshall University BITNET: mcguffey@muvms1 Huntington, WV 25755-5320 Internet: mcguffey%muvms3@wvnvms.wvnet.edu
ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (05/16/89)
I can't tell you about the LPS40, but I've run card stock through an older laserwriter and can share my experiences. First, it is hopeless to put postcard thickness stock in the paper tray. In the Laserwriter the paper makes a very tight turn coming out of the tray which the cardstock can't do. The manual feeder is cranky, but works. The Laserwriter II's may be slightly better than this, as the paper from the tray and the manual feeder follow the same path. The first problem is that 4 postcards on 8.5 by 11 stock consume the paper exactly. This means that you must get the registration exact, plus, you can't print to the borders because of the approx half inch margins that the printer won't print on. I ended up finding it easier to print 3 up horizontally to avoid this problem. As for double sided printing things work OK, but be careful. Running something through twice faced the same way up causes problems and jams. -Ron
zben@umd5.umd.edu (Ben Cranston) (05/17/89)
In article <May.16.12.34.57.1989.3513@ron.rutgers.edu> ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) writes: > ... In the Laserwriter the paper makes a very tight turn coming out of > the tray which the cardstock can't do. ... The LaserwriterII's may be > slightly better than this, as the paper from the tray and the manual > feeder follow the same path. What is perhaps more important, on the II you can open the back and get a straight paper path through the machine so the paper does not have to take that tight bend. This made all the differance in the world in trying to laser print onto stickon label stock. Using manual feed on the LW II (with MDQS Ron! :-) I can reliably print to 33 per page 1 x 2.75" mailing labels and 9 per page 2 x 2.75" minifloppy labels. With the proviso that Ron speaks of: you cannot print the little strips of space where the printer will not print. This has not been a problem for me. I used MacDraw to make a template of where the label borders are. I move the text or graphics to where I want them. My last step before printing is to delete the template (a single "grouped" item). I then use the "f-key" trick to get a postscript file and a locally developed file send program to send the file into the printer queue. I always arrange for a header page that says Load Label Stock, so I just manual feed one paper and if it is my job I can manual feed the label stock at that point. Gotchas: If you're doing graphics use the Precision Bitmap Alignment option to avoid aliasing due to the 288/300 dot mismatch. In any case use the Larger Print Area option to reduce the size of the unprintable bounds. These options will affect your templates, so build them with the options on. Some label stock is asymmetrical, so make sure you manual feed it consistently. -- Copyright 1987 Ben Cranston (you may redistribute ONLY if your recipients can). umd5.UUCP <= {seismo!mimsy,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben zben @ umd2.UMD.EDU Kingdom of Merryland UniSys 1100/92 umd2.BITNET "via HASP with RSCS"