bclee@.berkeley.edu (Bob C. Lee) (03/05/91)
Hi! Lately I've been shopping for a printer. Then I read a spec sheet on the Laserject IIP. It appeared to be the one printer that whould fit my needs. So, some questions for you: 1. I couldn't remember what I read, so, is a PostScript printer? 2. What is the best price for it, as you've seen? Where? 3. Any happy owner out there want to share with me their joy in laser printing with a IIP? Follow-up or reply, I don't mind. Thanks in advance! G'day, ...B.o.b...
tchi@sal-sun44.usc.edu (The Answer Company) (03/06/91)
In article <1991Mar5.075302.26116@agate.berkeley.edu>, bclee@.berkeley.edu (Bob C. Lee) writes: |> |> Hi! Lately I've been shopping for a printer. Then I read |> a spec sheet on the Laserject IIP. It appeared to be the |> one printer that whould fit my needs. |> |> So, some questions for you: |> |> 1. I couldn't remember what I read, so, is a PostScript printer? |> |> 2. What is the best price for it, as you've seen? Where? |> |> 3. Any happy owner out there want to share with me their joy |> in laser printing with a IIP? |> |> |> Follow-up or reply, I don't mind. |> |> Thanks in advance! |> |> |> G'day, |> |> ...B.o.b... 1. The HP IIP is NOT a PostScript printer. It uses HP PCL as its page description language. To make it a PostScript printer, you need to get 2 more MBs of memory and a PostScript cartridge and most likely an AppleTalk connector (unless you want to drive it from the serial port.) 2. The price averages around $900 (?). However, you can get the OKI laser printer (I forget which model, Oki-400?) for $684 at SoftWarehouse. It emulates HP PCL and has a LED engine instead of a semiconductor laser engine. I saw it at the SoftWarehouse in Torrance, CA. To go to PostScript on the HP IIP will cost in the area of $1600-1800. Not worth it since it's very slow. If you want PostScript, check out the TI printers or the QMS PS-410 (my choice). 3. Again, very slow. If you already have a HP printer around then it would make sense to get the hardware/software to make it work for the Mac. Otherwise, for $999 you can get the GCC PLP II QuickDraw printer. I've used a HP LaserJet III with all the PostScript stuff added on and boy was it slow (and for ~$2200) Someone please verify all this? I'm doing this from memory... Tony Chi tchi@usc.edu
bsherman@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Bob Sherman) (03/06/91)
In <1991Mar5.075302.26116@agate.berkeley.edu> bclee@.berkeley.edu (Bob C. Lee) writes: > Hi! Lately I've been shopping for a printer. Then I read > a spec sheet on the Laserject IIP. It appeared to be the > one printer that whould fit my needs. > So, some questions for you: > 1. I couldn't remember what I read, so, is a PostScript printer? > 2. What is the best price for it, as you've seen? Where? > 3. Any happy owner out there want to share with me their joy > in laser printing with a IIP? I have been using an HP IIP on my Apple GS for the past 6 months, and have just about taught the thing to dance.. It does beautiful work..And works well with the GS.. Yes, It can do Postscript, but you have to purchase it extra in addition to the machine, and you will have to purchase at least 2 megs of additional memory (which I suggest even if you do not use postscript.) The best price I have seen recently was about $850 in a recent copy of the bay area edition of Computer Currents. So pick up a copy and check out the ads. I do not remember which advertiser had that price.. -- bsherman@mthvax.cs.miami.edu | | MCI MAIL:BSHERMAN
john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (03/07/91)
In <1991Mar5.075302.26116@agate.berkeley.edu> bclee@.berkeley.edu (Bob C. Lee): > Then I read a spec sheet on the Laserject IIP. It appeared to be the > one printer that whould fit my needs. This is a LaserJet, so it will not transparently with the Mac. You will need to get a Mac+ to ImageWriter 1 cable to make it work, and purchase a printer driver (such as MacPrint). The fonts supplied with the printer drivers will probably not have the variety that you want, so you will need to get Adobe Type Manager. > 1. I couldn't remember what I read, so, is a PostScript printer? No. You will not beable to print stuff from programs that require PostScript. It will, however, work with most business related programs, and work well with word-processing, spreadsheet, and database programs, as well as most paint and draw programs. The IIP is supported by Freedom of the Press, which is a postscript emulator. > 2. What is the best price for it, as you've seen? Where? $799. Check out the back of Byte or PC Week. You also need at least 1Meg of additional memory to work with the Mac (in order to get a full page of graphics). > 3. Any happy owner out there want to share with me their joy > in laser printing with a IIP? It works well if you are on the cheap. Expect to wait 2 minutes per page while printing. The horse-power of you Mac will directly affect printing speed since the Mac will be doing all of the work (whereas postscript speed depends more on the printer horsepower). I use an EPL-6000, MacPrint 1.2, Freedom of the Press Lite, and ATM. -john- -- =============================================================================== John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications ...uunet!rosevax!tcnet!wd0gol!newave!john ===============================================================================
Adam.Frix@p18.f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (03/10/91)
john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks Iii) writes:
JAW> This is a LaserJet, so it will not transparently with the Mac.
JAW> You will need to get a Mac+ to ImageWriter 1 cable to make it
JAW> work, and purchase a printer driver (such as MacPrint). The fonts
JAW> supplied with the printer drivers will probably not have the
JAW> variety that you want, so you will need to get Adobe Type Manager.
Yeah, if you're talking about the $700-$800 plain-Jane LaserJet IIP. For $1599 street ($2195 retail) you can get it with more RAM, AppleTalk, and PostScript v52.2 (same as the Apple Personal NT). In effect, you get the functionality of an Apple Personal NT (which uses the identical print engine as the HP) for about $800 less. The HP controller uses a 10 MHz 68000; I don't know how this combined with the HP PostScript cartridge compares to the 12 MHz 68000 processor on the Apple-designed Personal NT cont
roller board. I've heard it's slower. For $800 and identical PostScript, and identical fonts, I can handle a bit slower.
The HP IIP for the Mac (as it's called, available at your HP dealer as we speak) doesn't come with the lower 250 sheet letter size paper tray, like the Apple Personal NT does; I think that doohickey retails for $195.
(And as for cables, a standard Mac to ImageWriter II cable will substitute just fine for LocalTalk cabling if all you're doing is hooking up one computer to one printer. I did just that for about a month, and it worked dandy.)
I think for $800 less than the Apple, the HP IIP is a good deal. And, of course, one can buy the plain HP IIP for $800 or so to begin with, and add the memory and AppleTalk and PostScript later.
(Hint: anyone getting the HP IIP over the Apple Personal NT might want to see if he can dig up the Apple LaserWriter driver version 6.0.2. Nice stuff.)
--Adam--
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Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
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INET: Adam.Frix@p18.f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORGJKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (03/11/91)
The IIP works quite well with the Mac. It does not have Postscript, but
you don't necessarily need Postscript. If you get the IIP and a printer
driver such as LaserJet Express or Freedom of Press, the IIP can give you
results that look as good as a LaserPrinter! I'd also recommend a printer
font manager such as Adobe Type Manager (actually, I recommend it no matter
what printer you get) but the need for Postscript I have found is overrated.
It does NOT take 2 minutes to print per page as another poster has claimed.
With a Mac Plus, ATM 2.0, and LaserJet Express I get a page about every 45
seconds, and that is using 3 Adobe Type 1 fonts per page. My IIP has 3.5
Megs of RAM in it... You will need to expand your RAM no matter what you
do - the 512K it comes with won't get you far.
Kurt
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