mcolthea@sunb.mqcc.mq.oz.au (Max Coltheart) (03/27/91)
Jet and Laser Printers under $1,000 ------------------------------------ The announcement of the Apple StyleWriter, and Personal LaserWriter LS, makes for a difficult choice in the sector of the market occupied by the HP DeskWriter. Prices here at MIT for the Apple printers will be $375 and $850, with the StyleWriter on backorder for some time. The DeskWriter seems to be available at around $750 from several outlets. Any advice, particularly on the following matters, would be very welcome. Speed: Speeds for the SW and PLW-LS are 1/2 and 4 ppm, respectively. What is the speed of the DW? Ink: The SW is said to use non-waterproof ink. What about the DW? Power supply: The SW uses an external power supply, which could be replaced for use in the UK or Australia. I gather that the PLW-LS uses an internal power supply that could be replaced by a dealer. What kind of power supply does the DW use? Fonts: All printers come with four fonts, and the Apple printers use the '4 x fonts' system. Does the DW use this system too? How does one get around the problem that the fonts supplied do not include my font of choice - Palatino - and of course do not include customized fonts? Where does one obtain giant-sized versions of other fonts such as Palatino, and what is the likely cost. And is there any way to scale up customized fonts? ATM 2.0: What, if anything, is the relevance of the Adobe Type Manager here? Does it enhance the performance of any of these printers? Could it help get around the problem of scaling up fonts? Martin Davies Department of Linguistics and Philosophy MIT davies@athena.mit.edu __________________________________________________________ _
samalone@athena.mit.edu (Stuart A. Malone) (03/28/91)
In article <1404@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz> Martin Davies writes: >Speed: Speeds for the SW and PLW-LS are 1/2 and 4 ppm, >respectively. What is the speed of the DW? The DeskWriter prints 1 ppm in "Best" mode and 2 ppm in "Faster" mode. >Ink: The SW is said to use non-waterproof ink. What >about the DW? Same for the DeskWriter. Pages smudge if they get wet, but they are still readable. >Power supply: The SW uses an external power supply, which could >be replaced for use in the UK or Australia. I gather that the >PLW-LS uses an internal power supply that could be replaced by a >dealer. What kind of power supply does the DW use? The DeskWriter uses an external power supply that sits on the floor, with one end plugging into an outlet and the other into the DeskWriter. HP sells foreign power supplies, but you'd have to ask for prices. >Fonts: All printers come with four fonts, and the Apple printers >use the '4 x fonts' system. Does the DW use this system too? >How does one get around the problem that the fonts supplied do >not include my font of choice - Palatino - and of course do not >include customized fonts? Where does one obtain giant-sized >versions of other fonts such as Palatino, and what is the likely >cost. And is there any way to scale up customized fonts? There are currently three ways to get best-quality text out of QuickDraw printers like the SW and PLW-LS: install the appropriate 4x or 5x bitmapped fonts, use Adobe Type Manager and the appropriate PostScript fonts, or use the Apple TrueType INIT and the appropriate TrueType fonts. With the DeskWriter you have a fourth option: use the font software and fonts provided by HP specifically for the DeskWriter. TrueType has the advantage that it's free, and by some accounts, fast. ATM has the advantage that a large number of fonts are available, including Palatino. I've read that BitStream is selling TrueType fonts, but I don't know if Palatino is one of them. >ATM 2.0: What, if anything, is the relevance of the Adobe Type >Manager here? Does it enhance the performance of any of these >printers? Could it help get around the problem of scaling up >fonts? ATM will not make your printer faster, but it will allow you to use PostScript fonts on a QuickDraw printer. If your favorite font is available in PostScript format but not in TrueType format, then buying ATM and the PostScript font will allow you to print the font in best-quality on any QuickDraw printer. I hope this helps. --Stuart A. Malone samalone@athena.mit.edu
cycy@isl1.ri.cmu.edu (Cowboy) (03/30/91)
In article <1404@macuni.mqcc.mq.ozMartin Davies writes: >How does one get around the problem that the fonts supplied do >not include my font of choice - Palatino - and of course do not >include customized fonts? Where does one obtain giant-sized >versions of other fonts such as Palatino, and what is the likely >cost. And is there any way to scale up customized fonts? When I got my Deskwriter, there was an offer to get another set of fonts for free. I believe that included Palatino (I have it at home). The thing is it took a few weeks to get them, and by that time I had bought ATM. I'm happy enough with ATM that I don't use HP fonts anymore, even though they were very good. There just isn't that much variety, and now that I have fontographer, I design my own fonts (well... I'm trying to, anyway), and these need to be in postscript. HP has some more fonts that these two sets (created by Agfa, I understand), but obviously not as many as exist in postscript. Thus, I must use ATM now. (BTW, if you're into customised fonts, I highly recommend fontographer). -- -- Chris. (cycy@isl1.ri.cmu.edu) "People make me pro-nuclear." -- Margarette Smith