yon%consl4.mro4.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com (David Yon) (02/18/91)
Hi there, I've got an original HP Deskjet with a 128K RAM cartridge. When using Windows 3.0, it didn't take me long to figure out that I needed something better than the standard DESKJET.DRV for decent font handling. (Macintax for Windows won't even work with the Deskjet, for example). So I went out and bought SuperPrint, which cured all my screen and printer font handling, and even allowed me to use Macintax for Windows. So right now I have something like 50 fonts using foundries ranging from Intellifont and Adobe to simple HP Laserjet Softfonts. (Yes, I'm a big fan of Superprint). The one thing that I don't like about Superprint, is that it can be unbearably SSSLLLOOOWWW. Between the time it takes to generate the fonts, and then send the image as a raster to the printer, I get an amazing performance hit. Just yesterday I tried printing out something from DOS just using the built-in Courier and was reminded of just how quick this printer is when you just send it vanilla text. I also tried downloading some fonts that I got from Compuserve, and found performance to be similarly fast when using soft fonts. However, when I try to load these fonts (sample Helvetica and Tms Rmn from Elfring) into Windows using the standard DESKJET.DRV driver, bad things happen. First of all, the driver incorrectly reports the point-size of the fonts. It reported the 10-point Tms Rmn as "Tms Rmn 0pt", and the 12-point as "Tms Rmn 600pt"! Ugh. When I switch to the deskjet driver and attempt to print something out using these fonts (from Windows/Write for example), it's very clear that a) the image is being sent out as a raster, and b) the font being used is not the one I downloaded. It looks like the driver is trying to approximate the font and is thus sending it as raster (which is only marginally faster than SuperPrint), rather than use the downloaded font and just send the document in ASCII (which would be *very* quick). Has anyone run into this and found a solution? How are other Deskjet users dealing with fonts under Windows? My resume, for example, only uses two sizes of Roman in italics, normal, and bold. It seems a shame to have to live with the speed of SuperPrint when I have suitable soft fonts for simple documents like this. Any help greatly apreciated. David Yon CASE Consultant please reply to: yon@world.std.com
U39648@uicvm.uic.edu (From The Mind Of) (02/19/91)
I too, have had NO luck in getting soft-fonts to be recognized by Windows. Microsoft sent me to Hewlett-Packard, and HP sent me the latest Windows "Deskjet Family" driver, and still no luck. I think my driver's version is 03.10.00A. In any case, it might be noted, that HP's soft-fonts that they sell seem to work. But every font I've run into from other sources has the same 0pt problem, and HP was unable to help me. Just a side note, the Deskjet 500 Scalable font driver for Windows will work just fine on your DeskJet, and should be considerably faster than SuperPrint. However, it can't import fonts from all the sources SuperPrint supports, nor does it scale fonts on-screen (you have to build them ahead of time), nor does it replace the PrintManager with a spooler that takes less system time like SuperPrint. But it does seem to be the fastest print-time compared to SuperPrint, ATM, and FaceLift. It also correctly seems to work with most applications that use graphics to the printer, and unlike the DeskJet family driver, seems to support some gray shading. - Darius ========================================================================= BITNET: U39648@UICVM | "Don't set fire to strangers." Internet: u39648@uicvm.uic.edu | - Mr. Zarniwoop
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (02/19/91)
In article <91049.100507U39648@uicvm.uic.edu> U39648@uicvm.uic.edu (From The Mind Of) writes: >I too, have had NO luck in getting soft-fonts to be recognized by Windows. There seems to be enough interest to post this rather than to email it to individual people. I had an original deskjet with a 128k ram cartridge and TmsRmn and Helv soft fonts. HP sent me an upgrade offer that went something like this. I could upgrade a deskjet to a deskjet 500 for $225. I could upgrade a deskjet+ to a deskjet 500 for ~$169 I did. Involved shipping the thing to (at least in my case) HP at Corvallis, Oregon. Along with my upgrade (which I got in 4 days: a record?) I got a coupon for a free offer of the scalable fonts driver. I think the deadline for that offer is real soon now, might be Feb 28th, but I can't remember when it is. I also got ATM, and am running ATM with the driver that recognizes the deskjet 500. (This last I got off a bulletin board...) I currently use the soft fonts, ATM's fonts, the zillion fonts from cica. Kinda fun... kartik -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Research Assistant, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-3989 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202