gillies@cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) (01/31/91)
Yesterday I noticed that the HP IIP laser printer price has dropped to about $895 from new york city mail order businesses. This is only about $200 more than a deskwriter. Is anyone using a IIP with their macintosh? How well does it work, and can you compare it to a deskwriter? With the prices so close, a laser printer would seem to be preferable to a deskwriter for many reasons (less c/page, no smearing, better halftoning, etc).
brion@cbnewsh.att.com (brion.n.feinberg) (01/31/91)
From article <1991Jan31.054635.6992@cs.uiuc.edu>, by gillies@cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies): > > Yesterday I noticed that the HP IIP laser printer price has dropped to > about $895 from new york city mail order businesses. This is only > about $200 more than a deskwriter. Is anyone using a IIP with their > macintosh? How well does it work, and can you compare it to a > deskwriter? > > With the prices so close, a laser printer would seem to be preferable > to a deskwriter for many reasons (less c/page, no smearing, better > halftoning, etc). This isn't quite so simple. You will need to upgrade the IIP to 1 Meg of RAM. Last I checked, that cost over $200 for 3rd party kits. You will also need to buy MacPrint - that's another $90. MacPrint works great, but it is slow (unless you use only the built in fonts in the printer). If you don't already own ATM, you will need it with the IIP, but is isn't essential for the DeskWriter. Other issues to consider: DeskWriter works on LocalTalk and can be shared on a network. You will have to buy a NetSerial to share a IIP. Also, the DeskWriter driver allows page size scaling (25% - 400%) just like the LaserWriter drivers. You can't do this with MacPrint (my ONLY gripe with MacPrint). In my previous job I had access to a LJ II, so I used MacPrint and loved it. In my new job I had to buy a printer, so I bought a DeskWriter. I am happier with the DeskWriter because it is so much faster, although you are correct that the quality isn't as good as a laser printer. Brion brion@homxb.att.com
hugh@dgp.toronto.edu (D. Hugh Redelmeier) (02/03/91)
gillies@cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) writes: > Is anyone using a IIP with their >macintosh? How well does it work, and can you compare it to a >deskwriter? We (my family) use an HPIIP with a Mac+ for light-duty printing. - We use the PD DeskJet driver from Finland. It is great! - This driver will use the IIP's bitmap compression if you don't tell it you are using an LJ (DJ's always had this compression but the IIP is the first LJ to support it) - Printing is fairly slow (19.2K BPS vs bitmaps). - We use 150DPI resolution for speed & to reduce the collection of font bitmaps that we need. - We only have the standard 512K RAM in the printer. This has not been a problem. Perhaps it would be if we used 300DPI. - Others say that this setup would be improved by the use of ATM. Hugh Redelmeier {utcsri, yunexus, utzoo, scocan}!redvax!hugh When all else fails: hugh@csri.toronto.edu +1 416 482-8253