kibo@pawl15.pawl.rpi.edu (James 'Kibo' Parry) (07/24/90)
[] I have an HP DeskJet (original model) and soon I hope to have a Mac to use it with. What's the difference between the DeskJet and the DeskWriter? I know the DW has scalable fonts unlike the DJ (but I'll be using Adobe Type Manager, won't that give me the same sort of printing capabilities?) Are there any significant differences besides the built-in fonts? -- james "kibo" parry, 138 birch lane, scotia, ny 12302 <-- close to schenectady. kibo@pawl.rpi.edu _________________________________________________ kibo%pawl.rpi.edu@rpi.edu / Kibology / Anything I say is my opinion, userfe0n@rpitsmts.bitnet / is better! / and is the opposite of Xibo's.
pfr654@csc.anu.oz (07/25/90)
In article <CX1$Y=+@rpi.edu>, kibo@pawl15.pawl.rpi.edu (James 'Kibo' Parry) writes: > [] > I have an HP DeskJet (original model) and soon I hope to have a Mac > to use it with. > > What's the difference between the DeskJet and the DeskWriter? > I know the DW has scalable fonts unlike the DJ (but I'll be using Adobe > Type Manager, won't that give me the same sort of printing capabilities?) > > Are there any significant differences besides the built-in fonts? > > -- > james "kibo" parry, 138 birch lane, scotia, ny 12302 <-- close to schenectady. Yes James there are significant differences: The DW has a 57 kilobaud serial connection for the mac's serial port, as compared to the DeskJet's maximum speed of 19.2 kilobaud on either its rs-232 serial or centronics parallel port (the DJ+ has a higher possible speed on its parallel port, but then you would need a serial to parallel converter) This speed difference is the main problem: with the best software drivers for the DeskJet around, you'll be able to get about 4 to 5 minutes per 300dpi page of Macintosh text (as compared to the built-in courier that the DJ has, which can print at 2 pages per minute, but it is NOT the same character set as the Mac's courier [most text is fine, but the extra mac characters, like mu, sigma, and accents are not there]). One of the drivers, the MacPrint, allows the use of cartridge fonts mixed in with Mac fonts, so you could get fast (i.e. less than page per minute) output of ,say, 12 pt times, including the extra mac characters, since they would be catered for by the printer driver. I use the public domain printer driver for my DeskJet (called HPDJ 2.1 available by anonymous ftp from SUMEX); but it cannot do landscape printing (I also have the Grappler LS, which can do landscape printing, and can print from Hypercard 1.25 which the PD driver doesn't wish to do; but I don't like it much because it too often prints pages with white strips in the middle of the letters). The DW uses some compression, but so do most of the DJ printer drivers, for the downloading of the 300dpi raster of the page being printed. The DW has more RAM than the DJ (I think it is 512k cf 256k). The DW cannot take printer or RAM cartridges like the DJ and DJ+ can; but this doesn't matter since it is the speed of the image download which is important. I think the DJ prints a clearer page BECAUSE it takes longer to print each character and feed the paper through. The ink for all of these printers runs if wetted at any time after printing (although HP is rumoured to be working on a non-running ink). The DW has an appletalk port as well as the serial port (cf the centronics parallel and rs-232 serial that the DJs have), so it can be networked seamlessly. I think that the DW comes with the correct serial cable for a mac (mini-DIN 8), whereas the DJs don't come with a cable. Obviously also, the DW comes with its own driver and some fonts, which the DJs do not; and mac users must find their own drivers for the DJs (recommended highly are MacPrint and JetLink Express; with the public domain driver coming third because it is freeware). I like my deskjet, but if I could upgrade to the deskwriter for not too much money, I would do so. (I also use ATM and the ATM plus pack, allowing the use of all the LW+ fonts). The ability to print laser quality outweighs, for me, the lack in speed (after all, it is a home printer). *====*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===*===* Phil Ryan ANU Department of Physics and Theoretical Physics Canberra, Australia pfr654@csc.anu.oz.au phone:(61 6) 249 4678 fax:(61 6) 249 0741