[comp.text.tex] Textures and Deskwriters

c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Walter C3arlip) (04/11/90)

I remember reading a while ago that Textures (a Macintosh implementation
of Knuth's TeX) is able to print to an HP Deskwriter, but with difficulty.
Can someone fill me in?  What are the difficulties?  Is there a workaround?
Is the output acceptable?  

I would expect output to rival that of a laserwriter, since both are
300DPI.

Alternatively, can anyone recommend alternative printers for use with
Textures?

Thanks for the information.

--Walter



_____________________________________________________________________________
Walter C3arlip 				c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu
(the "3" is silent)			c3ar%zaphod@UCHIMVS1.bitnet
_____________________________________________________________________________

jeff@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu (Jeffrey C. Kantor) (04/11/90)

I've been using this combination for some time, with good results for
documents consisting mainly of text, and some problems with documents with 
complex math or figures.

The basic difficulty is that the HP Deskwriter Driver doesn't appear to be
fully in tune with TeXtures.  With version A01.00, it was necessary to
include a \voffset and \hoffset, and to print the typeset document at 25%
magnification in order to get the text properly positioned on the page at
nearly the correct size.   With the newer version of the driver, A02.00, this
workaround is no longer necessary.

However, one big problem still remains.  Math characters which stretch
over several lines, such as braces and the brackets surrounding matrices,
are not always printed.  It's not clear what the problem is.  But it does
mean that final, publication quality technical documents with complex math
cannot always be done on the Deskwriter.  This problem is very unpredictable,
sometimes the document is printed OK.

Another problem is that PICT type figures are not centered correctly in
figure or picture environments.  This may be a problem with Textures rather
than the Textures/Deskwriter combo.

These are my major problems with what is otherwise an excellent setup.  If
only these minor glitches could be fixed (HP, are you listening?)

BTW, this combination also doesn't work well with SuperLaserSpool.  It may
be necessary to include the CM fonts in with the system fonts in order for
things to print correctly when spooled, but I haven't experimented with this
yet.

Hope this helps.

Jeff Kantor
Notre Dame