dan@s3sol.scubed (Dan Peterka) (03/29/91)
Well, we grabbed the LaserWriter 6.1 drivers and thought we had it made. It eliminates the need for LaserPrep (apparently sending complete, standalone PS to the printer - as some have noted, output is larger), which will make future upgrades nicer when printers no longer need reiniting each print job. Beware, however, that it is apparently critical to install the v1.3 Backgrounder along with the driver. If you don't, background print jobs will die and complain about damaged files. Having encountered this, we had to go back and de-install 6.1 until we figured out why. I'm not sure what's in Backgrounder 1.3 that's so different (why isn't there a readme file explaining the need to do this? - it has not been necessary to use the installer to change print drivers, so many don't), but it is. We haven't gotten around to seeing if Backgrounder 1.3 is compatible with Systems prior to 6.0.7. Has anyone else? -- _________________________________________________________________________ Dan Peterka S-CUBED 3398 Carmel Mtn Rd. dan@scubed.com (619) 587-8338 San Diego, CA 92121 _________________________________________________________________________
gpw@lanl.gov (Geoff Walsh) (04/02/91)
dan@s3sol.scubed (Dan Peterka @ S-CUBED, A Division of Maxwell Labs; San Diego CA) wrote about the new Apple LaserWriter 6.1 driver and said: ... stuff deleted > We haven't gotten around to seeing if Backgrounder > 1.3 is compatible with Systems prior to 6.0.7. Has anyone else? I've been using the new LaserWriter 6.1 driver with system 6.0.5 on both a IIx and a IIci without any problems. The files I've found I need are: LaserWriter ver 6.1 Backgrounder ver 1.3 PrintMonitor ver 6.1. The LaserPrep file is no longer needed. I haven't had any problems with the system crashing or anything. The nice things about the new driver are that the Black and White or Color/Grayscale option is sticky - the driver remembers the setting. It also generates PostScript files which you can name with a standard file save dialog box. The PostScript files can be moved as is to a Unix system with a color laser printer, such as the inexpensive new Sun color laser printers, and printed. A nice surprise is that the new LaserWriter Font Utility program has an option to turn off the printer start page with the Start Page Option in the Utilities menu. Here's a question for the experts on the net: I sometimes run with the regular (non-Multi) Finder so that I can use all the memory on my machine for one program. I'm using TOPS Spool version 3.0, and it doesn't seem to work with the LaserWriter 6.1 driver. The driver bypasses TOPS Spool and prints directly. If I go back to the old LaserWriter driver (ver 6.0.2), LaserPrep (ver 6.0.1) and PrintMonitor (ver 1.3), TOPS Spool works just fine. Is anyone out there using the LaserWriter 6.1 driver successfully with TOPS Spool? If so, what is your configuration and did you have to do anything special to get it to work? Is there a newer version that does work, or is the software new enough and different enough that it won't work with the TOPS Spool software? Post or EMAIL, and I will summarize for the net if there is any interest. Geoff Walsh R & D Associates (213) 645-1122 ext 363 gpw@lanl.gov
wnn@ornl.gov (04/04/91)
In article <19850@lanl.gov> gpw@lanl.gov (Geoff Walsh) writes: > >I'm using TOPS Spool version 3.0, and it doesn't seem >to work with the LaserWriter 6.1 driver. The driver bypasses TOPS Spool >and prints directly. That does not surprise me. Tops Spool must be using some very dirty hack, because every time Apple released a new version of LaserWriter, Tops had to come up with a new version of Tops Spool to get it to work again. Usually that has taken several months, so don't hold you breath. However, in our experience, Tops Spool requires less RAM, is more compatible, and runs much more smoothly in the background (without the user noticing a slow-down) than Backgrounder. I only hope that System 7.0 will at least match the background printing capabilities of Tops Spool, to relieve us from this silly eternal upgrade-catch-up game. Wolfgang N. Naegeli University of Tennessee & Oak Ridge National Laboratory Internet: wnn@ornl.gov Bitnet: wnn@ornlstc Phone: 615-574-6143 Fax: 615-574-6141 (OrchidFax) QuickMail (QM-QM): Wolfgang Naegeli @ 615-574-4510