ucc19@jetson.uh.edu (10/04/90)
I'm trying to add Postscript capability to a HP Laser Jet II. Does anyone have any recommendations on a Postscript cartridge. What else would I need? I have the standard configuration. Can a person print a file formatted for a standard Laser Jet II while the Postscript cartridge is in the printer's slot? Any help would be appreciated. James Yee University of Houston, Computing Center jwy@uh.edu
kusumoto@chsun1.uchicago.edu (Bob Kusumoto) (10/09/90)
recommendations:
for a straight series II printer: The Adobe Postscript cartridge. Costs around
$300 street, comes with the cartridge (must be placed in left slot) and a
software package called Printer Control Panel, which is a TSR that switchs
between PS and PCL modes on the printer, depending on what is being sent to
the printer (it autodetects at the PC level and sends the correct mode to the
printer). I have this cartridge although I haven't played with it enought yet
because the vendor we bought the printer from screwed us with the memory board
and we don't have the required memory to run it (requires 1.5MB, recommends
2MB or higher). Its cheap, easy, effective. Has all 35 fonts, plus Adobe has
two optional cartridages for more fonts.
IIP/IID/III/IIID: get the HP Postscript cartridge. Costs around $450 street.
I haven't played with this one at all yet, but it does come with your standard
35 postscript fonts and can be placed in any slot. It forces you to use PS
and doesn't handle PCL documents while its in the machine but at least its
true postscript. They require 2MB per side of page, with 2.5MB per side being
optimial.
I'm pretty sure that with any PS option, you will have to have at least 1.5MB
per side of a page with 2.5MB per page being good. The pacific page cartridge
is an emulation, which is decent although not great, but it does allow you
to switch between PS and PCL modes. There are other options, one that I do
know of is called JetScript, which is a board for the PC and a board for the
laserjet which supposedly does high speed printing (I'm guessing that the PC
board does the interpreting and sends it quickly to the printer board for
the faster output rate). I'm not sure how great this is but I'd rather have
the memory board being in its slot rather than some PC to printer board option
but you may like what this does. I believe this this costs more though, $750.
There's also some other PS interpreters which work on the PC side and sends
PCL to the printer (can't think of the name of the company that comes to mind,
they do advertize quite a bit as of late so you can probably find out who it
is by scanning the magazines and papers for their full page ad). But for your
standard PS cartridge, stick with the HP or Adobe ones.
disclaimer: I don't work for any of those companys, I just use their products.
Bob
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