jw2b@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Sara J. Wagner) (09/20/90)
We are looking at buying Adobe Systems' PostScript cartridge to run on our HP Laserjet II. We have had a QMS PostScript board, but it has bit the dust, and the cartridge looks like a better solution since we plan to network eventually. Does anyone have any experience with this cartridge? Does it work well with WordPerfect 5.1 and Ventura 1.1 (or Ventura 3.0)? Thanks. Jane Wagner, Information Specialist BITNET: jw2b@virginia The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library INTERNET: jw2b@virginia.edu Box 234, UVA Health Sciences Center PHONE: 804-924-0188 Charlottesville, VA 22908 Opinions expressed are my own
mathrich@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Rich Winkel) (09/20/90)
In <1990Sep19.201508.16425@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> jw2b@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Sara J. Wagner) writes: >We are looking at buying Adobe Systems' PostScript cartridge to >run on our HP Laserjet II. >Does anyone have any experience with this cartridge? Does it work >well with WordPerfect 5.1 and Ventura 1.1 (or Ventura 3.0)? I just installed one on a HPLJII connected to a sun workstation. For what it's worth, it worked fine on several TeX output files. It seems a bit slower than our apple LWII though. Rich
jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) (09/20/90)
In a recent article jw2b@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Sara J. Wagner) writes: >We are looking at buying Adobe Systems' PostScript cartridge to >run on our HP Laserjet II. We have had a QMS PostScript board, but >it has bit the dust, and the cartridge looks like a better solution >since we plan to network eventually. > >Does anyone have any experience with this cartridge? Does it work >well with WordPerfect 5.1 and Ventura 1.1 (or Ventura 3.0)? I can't speak for WP or Ventura, but I've had pretty good luck with one (all of one week so far) in a Windows 3 environment (PageMaker, etc.). I haven't had an opportunity to try exhaustive tests, but so far the hardware looks OK. Last night I ran a quick test on a drawing in Drafix Windows CAD which wasn't excessively complex. The same drawing was output using a LaserJet II with the Adobe cartridge, the PacificPage Plotter in a Cartridge, and the bare-bones LaserJet PCL. The printer has 2.5 MB memory and is attached to a parallel port on a PS/2 model 70-121 (20 MHz). PostScript: 18 minutes; some minor mispositioning of text; dotted lines have wide-spaced dots HPGL: 5 minutes; same problems as PostScript; no way to force landscape output. (The HPGL output was reduced by the driver to fit on a portrait mode page.) PCL: 45 minutes; best quality output by far. Dotted lines are much closer and easier to follow. I do have some relatively minor problems with the Adobe cartridge: I was rather disappointed in the quality of the documentation which came with the cartridge. No sample PostScript files were included to test the installation. I get a strong feeling that the manual was designed by an artist (it *looks* nice) and written by a techie who helped design the product (it reminds me of Collosal Cave where you have to hunt for the treasures). It should have been written and edited by someone who never saw the product until the box was opened; there are too many unexplained or underexplained characteristics which repeatedly forced me to search the manual for better info. A design blunder (IMHO) is the strange use of the control panel: the ONLINE/ OFFLINE button works as one would expect, but the other functions are requested by holding down the MENU button and one other. For example, to switch between PostScript and PCL mode you hold the MENU button and press the + or - button. The light over the FF button seems to be unused; in PCL mode it lights up to indicate that you have unprinted material in the printer's memory. For Windows users the installation procedure updates the WIN.INI file with pointers to the appropriate .FON and .PFM files, but for some reason the screen font files (.FON) are provided at one point size per file. This generates a large number of distinct .FON files, and also clutters up the WIN.INI listing. (Mine is now up to 850 lines!) The installation procedure for some reason removes all blank lines from the [fonts] section of WIN.INI; I use blank lines to separate font categories, so that's an unnecessary irritant. Also, the manual concedes that the installation procedure may put the new WIN.INI lines in the wrong printer's section, and that manual editing may be required. In my case it cheerfully installed the .PFM files under [PostScript,NONE]...which isn't exactly the most useful assignment. The manual gives no guidance on the selection of screen or printer font sizes or weights. For unknown reasons, trying to display the Adobe-installed Zapf Chancery screen fonts from the FONTS application in Control Panel causes an "Application Error" message box to appear, and the FONTS application to close.
georgen@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (G. Ng) (09/21/90)
Has anyone had the chance to compare the Adobe PS cartridge to the
Pacific Page PS cartridge? How do they stack up against one another?
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