joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) (03/23/90)
Folks, My wife uses a Mac and I have an Apple IIGS. Currently we share a borrowed AppleTalk Imagewriter II for our printer. Both of us can access it through appletalk and it works pretty well. My wife wants higher quality output and we might have to give up the AppleTalk imagewriter soon. The obvious choice would be a LaserWriter. Unfortunately, as you all know, these babies are prohibitively expensive. We looked at an HP DeskWriter today. Its print quality is very good and I think it will do what we need for the Mac. We won't be able to share it over appletalk, I know it is not an ApplTalk device. I would expect to have to talk to it serially, with a data switch, but.... Its a Mac-only printer right? questions 1) If I had a serial switch, and hooked the Apple IIGS and the Mac to it, can it print in "DUMB" mode? Can I have it use an internal font, and simply print text sent to it? Could I use it this way for Apple listings, plain documents and such? 2) Has anyone heard of, seen or worked on a GS/OS printer driver for this printer? If so, where? If not, can anyone give me a contact at HP to call about getting the info I would need to write a driver? 3) What's involved in writing a driver? I have TML Pascal and have done a variety of programming projects but my systems programming, and especially Apple IIGS systems programming experience it extremely limited. (I read magazines and newsletters and read APDALOG and can follow along in the Toolbox books.) In the worst case, I will have to buy two printers, a DeskWriter for her and an ImageWriter for me, but I really don't want to do this. Are there drivers available for any other high quality printers that could possibly interfact to both the Mac and Apple IIGS (Besides the Apple Printers)? Suggestions or comments are welcome. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Seymour
diz@pro-gsplus.cts.com (Steven Disbrow) (03/24/90)
In-Reply-To: message from joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu My old roommate and I shared a HP DeskJet between an AT Clone (his) and a IIGS (mine). Basically, we ran (long!) cables from his machine and mine into an AB switch box. The output from that box went to another that allowed us to select between the DeskJet and an ImageWriter. His AT had a whole slew of DeskJet drivers, but, since the GS has no such drivers, I had to use the optional EPSON emulation cartridge and print to it using the EPSON driver. The output was less than wonderful. We started to write a driver for the thing a couple of times, but It never worked out. The information you need to write a IIGS printer driver is in one of the Apple II TechNotes... forgive me, but I forget exactly which one. However, it might not be necessary. One of my more reliable sources has told me that a certain company (who makes one hell of a great IIGS specific HD Backup program), will be releasing a set of IIGS drivers for ALL HP printers at either the spring or autum AppleFest. But, it's just a rumor. Diz -My- Name: Steven W. Disbrow - Publisher of GS+ Magazine | My Inane Quote: Address: POB 15366, Chattanooga, TN 37415 (U.S.A.)________| "What's all Voice: (615) 870-4960 |ProLine: diz@pro-gsplus |<-other | this then?" BBS: (615) 875-4607 |America Online: Obnoxio |<-stuff | Mr. Python