[comp.periphs.printers] Laserjet III rasterization of PostScript?

rsm@math.arizona.edu (Robert S. Maier) (10/29/90)

I'm thinking of buying a HP Laserjet III.  HP makes much, in its
advertising, of the Laserjet III's new rasterization technology: the
printer's resolution is only 300 dpi, but it allegedly scales the size
of dots as needed to improve the appearance of the printed page.

I'm a bit skeptical of that, because I plan on printing nothing but
PostScript.  That means I'll be plugging in a PostScript cartridge
(HP's, or the PacificPage cartridge, or ...).  Do available PostScript
cartridges actually support the new rasterization scheme?  If I print
text in Times-Roman, say, will the printed dots actually be scaled in
size to improve the appearance of the character outlines?  If so, will
this be true of all cartridges, even third-party ones?

-- 
Robert S. Maier   | Internet: rsm@math.arizona.edu
Dept. of Math.    | UUCP: uunet!arizona!amethyst!rsm
Univ. of Arizona  | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax
Tucson, AZ  85721 | FAX: +1 602 621 8322
U.S.A.            | Voice(POTS): +1 602 621 6893  /  +1 602 621 2617

jeffe@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (George Jefferson ) (10/29/90)

>I'm thinking of buying a HP Laserjet III.  HP makes much, in its
>advertising, of the Laserjet III's new rasterization technology: the


>I'm a bit skeptical of that, because I plan on printing nothing but
>PostScript.  That means I'll be plugging in a PostScript cartridge

I was skeptical too.  The Resolution Enhancement does work
with the HP Postscript cartridge.  No more jagged curves in
line drawings!

The jury is still out as far as text is concerned though.  Small point
sizes seem blotchy to my untrained eye.

I was pleased to see that the RET can be adjusted, Dark, Medium, Light
or _Off_ .

I would be very interested in a technical explination of the RET process,
so that we could make optimum use of it.  

--
please let me know if you see multiple copies of my postings
  (one copy of my opinion is one too many right :-)

-george   @sol1.lrsm.upenn.edu

fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes) (10/30/90)

In article <RSM.90Oct28204519@coral.math.arizona.edu>, rsm@math.arizona.edu (Robert S. Maier) writes:
> I'm thinking of buying a HP Laserjet III.  HP makes much, in its
> advertising, of the Laserjet III's new rasterization technology: the
> printer's resolution is only 300 dpi, but it allegedly scales the size
> of dots as needed to improve the appearance of the printed page.
> 
> I'm a bit skeptical of that, because I plan on printing nothing but
> PostScript.  That means I'll be plugging in a PostScript cartridge
> (HP's, or the PacificPage cartridge, or ...).  Do available PostScript
> cartridges actually support the new rasterization scheme?  

I was a bit skeptical too but I am now a believer.  I was working on our
new catalog a couple of weeks ago.  Due to an amazing set of circumstances
related to broken hardware and new software I ended up printing the sucker
on a LJIII at a local store instead of having it typeset.  The results
were pretty impressive.

The catalog is two colors, 16 pages.  Some of the stuff in the catalog is
pasted in (stats of covers of some of our pocket references, for example).
The catalog is printed on 50# book paper with a web press.  It is very
hard to tell the difference between pasted-in states (that are reductions
of work originally done on a Lino at 1200 dpi) from the text and other
graphics that came from a PostScript file.  On newsprint I doubt you could
see the difference at all.  On glossy paper, it would show, of course.

I also compared to output to what the same files looked like printed on a
Apple LaserWriter.  The bottom line is that HP did a real good job and it
all works fine with the HP PostScript cartridge.
-- 
Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155  (206)FOR-UNIX
     uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl or attmail!ssc!fyl            (206)527-3385

scapri@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (Sandra Capri) (10/30/90)

>I would be very interested in a technical explination of the RET process,
>so that we could make optimum use of it.  
>-george   @sol1.lrsm.upenn.edu

I have the electronic text of a brochure that we publish on LaserJet III. 
It has a section on Resolution Enhancement Technology.  It is too large 
to post here, but is acceptable for e-mail.  If anyone is interested in 
a copy of it, I will be happy to send it.  It is not exactly a technical
document, but it gives you a good layman's idea of RET.

(BTW, This is the same document I e-mailed to those who requested it a 
month or so ago)

Sandra Capri
internet: sandra_capri@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com
    uucp: hplabs!hpdmd48!scapri

jrc@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (Jim Conrad) (11/06/90)

The RET is accomplished with hardware, after the formatter has interpreted
the printer language.

JimC
jrc@hpbsrl