TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (03/23/90)
(This is for someone named Seymour; yet another case of the original From: line being eaten by some mailer somewhere): You asked about how well or whether an HP DeskWriter would work with a GS. I don't know specifically aboutt the DeskWriter, but I've been using a DeskJet with my GS for a couple of years now; I think the two are fairly compatible. It works fine with nothing fancy for straight text without any driver, e.g., I use it once in awhile with classic appleworks. I don't remember anymore evenhow I set up the printer definition. I use it most heavily with WordPerfect; there I had to do some of my own printer definition files because the ones that came form WPCorp eventually weren't quite right. (Somehow I volunteered to be a beta tester for them awhile ago, so I haven't the foggiest idea what comes out in normal distribution.) For other things like the occasional picture I slip in an Epson emulation cartridge and use the now apparently standard Epson driver. Works great. I'm only sorry (the usual lament) that I bought it about six months before the DeskJetII. TMPLee@dockmaster.ncsc.mil
TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (03/24/90)
Date: 23 March 1990 10:18 est
From: ALBRO%NIEHS.BITNET at CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: RE: DeskWriter & GS
I too wanted to use the deskjet with my IIgs, but HP said the Epson emulator
dropped the resolution to that of an Epson printer. If that's the case,
why spend the money for a deskjet, instead of just buying an Epson printer
in the first place? Since you're using it, could you comment on what using
the Epson emulator REALLY does to the resolution? Thanks!
(It seemed useful to send this to the whole list.)
That's a bit tricky to answer. First of all, unless you are using a
draw program (as opposed to a paint program) for graphics, you only get
screen resolution, which is only 80 dpi or so in 640 mode, no matter
what printer you use. Second, the highest graphics resolution on the
Epson emulator cartridge (which I assume is the same as on a real Epson)
is 240 dpi, which is not all that much coarser than the 300 dpi
resolution of the DeskJet itself. Third, when printing any of the
standard fonts the Deskjet uses the highest resolution it can; its only
when using software downloaded Epson fonts that you get a
(slightly)lower resolution. I don't know what resolution the standard
Epson driver supports when used with a draw program since I don't have
one, nor whether it allows soething like AWGS to use the "print twice as
big characters at half the resolution" trick with screen fonts since I
don't have that either.
Not a lot of help, I'll admit, but I don't think the situation is as bad
as HP seemed to want to make it.