mrsmith@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Mr. P. H. Smith) (01/24/90)
I have an SE and I am thinking of buying an HP DeskJet or DeskWriter printer, but I don't know if it works well with music printing programs. Has anyone used one of these printers for this purpose? Do you need any special software or hardware? Also, I saw an ad in the NYTimes for a DeskJet with "GoScript" postscript software. Is this necessary for printing, say, Finale files? What's the difference between DeskJet, DeskJet+, and DeskWriter? Thank you very much. Paul H. Smith mrsmith@ai.mit.edu
mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (01/24/90)
Well, I've got a DeskWriter, and I couldn't be happier. It's quiet, reasonably fast, makes nice output (just don't get it wet...). It's also quite economical. I saw one posting that claimed the price difference was something like $35 versus about $100 for a laser (I guess that's cost/some number of pages). Regarding music printing, I don't think HP makes a scalable version of Sonata or some such font, but you may be able to find one in a 4x bitmap which can be scaled down... The original question included mention of something called GoScript that I gather does PostScript -> QuickDraw conversion, or something similar. anybody know anything about it? --Mike
aoki@husc8.HARVARD.EDU (Edwin Aoki) (02/02/90)
Regarding the DeskWriter vs. PostScript output. (I think with regard to music programs). Yes, the PostScript is much better. BUT, have you seen the DeskWriter running under Adobe Type Manager? I don't want to start an ATM war, but the PS fonts I use with ATM and the DeskWriter (primarily Symbol and NewCenturySchoolbook) seem to work great. Now, if the QD stuff (a la braces and slurs) can't match up, then that's a problem, but it seems to me that for most applications (esp. since you mention a PS font or something for $80), the DeskWriter can appropriately simulate a PS printer. Then again, I don't own a DeskWriter (though I'm seriously considering it), so I wouldn't necessarily know. -Edwin Aoki (I reviewed ATM for the _Harvard Computer Review_) (aoki@husc8.harvard.edu/aoki@husc8.bitnet)