akm@geriatrix.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (06/05/90)
In article <22080002@hpvcfs1.HP.COM> robertt@hpvcfs1.HP.COM (Bob Taylor) writes: >Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but (I realize this is poorly >documented) the DeskJet and DeskJet Plus cannot handle a "temporary" >download - it's a firmware issue. When using the Windows soft font >installer, you must select permanent. The confusion arises because we >share the soft font installer with the LaserJet, which can do temporary >downloads. Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear - It follows that it is probably a bad idea to invest in softfonts + RAM cartridges for most people. When I last checked, (which was when I bought a RAM cartridge and softfonts), the price of the equivalent cartridges was lower... And, with the cartridges, you could get all the fonts, while with the RAM cartridge, you can't load them all... So much for any ideas of dynamically loading fonts... I am dissapointed in HP's documentation. I looked very hard in my Deskjet manual, and could find no mention a requirement that softfonts be loaded before the job is printed, which is what HP now tells me... kartik ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Department of Computer Science akm@oregon.BITNET University of Oregon
robertt@hpvcfs1.HP.COM (Bob Taylor) (06/06/90)
Softfonts + RAM cartridges can be a better value - but only if you are using a lot of fonts. You are correct - any given soft font plus a RAM cartridge does cost more than the equivalent cartridge font (that's why we make cartridge fonts), but the next time you buy a soft font, you don't have to buy a new cartridge - hence the savings. What the options are are: if you use just a couple of fonts - buy cartridges - they're cheaper and simpler if you use lots of fonts - buy soft fonts and RAM cartridges - they're more flexible and cheaper once you've bought several fonts. bob taylor HP Vancouver p.s. - the reason there is no mention of having to download soft fonts prior to starting a print job in the DeskJet manual is that until Windows 3.0, it wasn't an issue. Any application developer that wanted to download fonts to a DeskJet would get a copy of our developer's guide - which does mention this. If the developer did his job, the user would have no problem. I've brought this up to our marketing folks and we will attempt to make this clear in our future manuals.