dchun@alcor.usc.edu (Dale Chun) (10/18/90)
We just got lucky enough to just get stuck with an HP Laserjet II with 4.5mb that is about 1-year old. It is in excellent condition and it works just fine minus some little problems. We would like to add postscript to this printer. Does anyone have any suggestions, comments and/or other info? JetWare offered to sell us a postscript cartridge for $350 and Abobe never returned our call. Pacific Data cannot be located, so anyone have any suggestions on what to buy, avoid or complain about? ...dale ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ name: Dale C. Chun | * 2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2. PLAYMAC Technical Support | * Hack First, Ask Questions Later. email: dchun@aludra.usc.edu | * MAC; Maybe A Computer, but probably a toy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dale_Chun@f110.n771.z3.fidonet.gen.nz (Dale Chun) (11/02/90)
FSC-Control: UFGATE newsin 1.27
From: dchun@alcor.usc.edu (Dale Chun)
We just got lucky enough to just get stuck with an HP Laserjet II with
4.5mb that is about 1-year old. It is in excellent condition and it
works just fine minus some little problems. We would like to add
postscript to this printer. Does anyone have any suggestions, comments
and/or other info? JetWare offered to sell us a postscript cartridge
for $350 and Abobe never returned our call. Pacific Data cannot be
located, so anyone have any suggestions on what to buy, avoid or
complain about?
...dale
* Origin: SpringBoard Communications (3:771/110)
SEEN-BY: 771/110 150 170 180 772/20
FSC-Control: PATH: 771/110 marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (11/06/90)
Dale_Chun@f110.n771.z3.fidonet.gen.nz (Dale Chun) writes: >FSC-Control: UFGATE newsin 1.27 >From: dchun@alcor.usc.edu (Dale Chun) >We just got lucky enough to just get stuck with an HP Laserjet II with >4.5mb that is about 1-year old. It is in excellent condition and it >works just fine minus some little problems. We would like to add >postscript to this printer. Does anyone have any suggestions, comments >and/or other info? JetWare offered to sell us a postscript cartridge >for $350 and Abobe never returned our call. Pacific Data cannot be >located, so anyone have any suggestions on what to buy, avoid or >complain about? I just bought two of QMS's JetScripts from HP Direct. Their number is (800)538-8787. I paid $495 each for them. I thought I could save myself a ton of disk space (tens of MBs) by using Post$cript instead of downloadable soft fonts. They go in OK and are fairly easy to set up. I set it up so that if I select LPT1, it uses normal LJ II mode and if I use LPT2 it uses Post$cript mode. It consists of a card for the PC and one for the I/O option slot in the printer. The cards are connected by a cable. You leave the old printer cable in place too. It doesn't use up a font cartridge slot. It requires a device driver in CONFIG.SYS. I bought these for my two secretaries. They've been bitchin' about problems printing ever since then. I told one to just go back to the old way of doing things. The other complains that it takes a lot longer to print graphics (logos) with PS mode. She also complained that the PS version of Times spaces things differently than the HP soft font version of Times (TMSRMN). I also found out that if you eliminate the device driver from CONFIG.SYS, you can't print even in LJ II mode. The jury is still out. I think they may turn out to be useful if I can eliminate all those soft fonts from the hard disk. It would save in backup time and allow us to use smaller disks. But my secretaries are generally opposed to change. All aspects of the job must be improved or not change to go with new technology. If just one aspect of the job doesn't work as well or as fast, then they drag their feet. They're not my only users who suffer from this. If my users won't let me delete the old soft fonts, then I've wasted the taxpayers' money. :-( I'll give it six months before I decide if the JetScript is worth having. Let us know how things turn out. -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future
jw2b@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Sara J. Wagner) (11/06/90)
In article <marshall.657838841@wind55> marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: >>Dale_Chun@f110.n771.z3.fidonet.gen.nz (Dale Chun) writes: >>[description of newly acquired HP] >I just bought two of QMS's JetScripts from HP Direct.... >I bought these for my two secretaries. They've been bitchin' about >problems printing ever since then. I told one to just go back to the >old way of doing things. The other complains that it takes a lot longer >to print graphics (logos) with PS mode. She also complained that the PS >version of Times spaces things differently than the HP soft font version >of Times (TMSRMN). I also found out that if you eliminate the device >driver from CONFIG.SYS, you can't print even in LJ II mode. > >The jury is still out. ....My secretaries are >generally opposed to change. We have two Laserjet IIs with the QMS boards. They have been very useful to us, especially since we converted to WordPerfect, which has a printer driver for the board. We do all of our brochures, flyers, newsletters, etc. on our PCs with PostScript, and I recently formatted our annual report as well. I think they are marvellous. I do understand your point about people resisting change, though. What kind of software are your secretaries using? Does it have a PostScript driver? Yes, PostScript printing through the QMS board takes more time. I think the end product is worth it. We now have a new wrinkle. One of our boards failed after many years of service, and the estimated cost to repair was $350. However, for $297 (list price $495 - 40% educational discount) we can get the Adobe PostScript cartridge, which seems to do everything the QMS boards did, and can be used over a network. Since we plan to network in the future, this is the better deal for us (especially given the current budget crisis in Virginia). We haven't received the Adobe cartridge yet, so I can't say how well it works. Jane Wagner, Information Specialist BITNET: jw2b@virginia The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library INTERNET: jw2b@virginia.edu Box 234, UVA Health Sciences Center PHONE: 804-924-0188 Charlottesville, VA 22908 Opinions expressed are my own
marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (11/07/90)
jw2b@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Sara J. Wagner) writes: >In article <marshall.657838841@wind55> marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: >>>Dale_Chun@f110.n771.z3.fidonet.gen.nz (Dale Chun) writes: >>>[description of newly acquired HP] >>I just bought two of QMS's JetScripts from HP Direct.... >>[I previously talked about some minor (*I* believe) problems with the >>JetScript.] >>The jury is still out. ....My secretaries are >>generally opposed to change. >We have two Laserjet IIs with the QMS boards. They have been very useful >to us, especially since we converted to WordPerfect, which has a printer >driver for the board. We do all of our brochures, flyers, newsletters, >etc. on our PCs with PostScript, and I recently formatted our annual >report as well. I think they are marvellous. I do understand your point >about people resisting change, though. What kind of software are your >secretaries using? Does it have a PostScript driver? They use Word 5.0 and, if I beat on them hard enough, Word for Windows. Yes, they both have Post$cript drivers. > Yes, PostScript >printing through the QMS board takes more time. I think the end product >is worth it. I haven't found it to be any better than the Bitstream soft fonts we've been using. We do get a few extra point sizes. We didn't create as many different sizes with the Bitstream fonts due to disk usage. We do have sizes up to 127 points (over a MB per font at this size). >We now have a new wrinkle. One of our boards failed after many years of >service, and the estimated cost to repair was $350. However, for $297 (list >price $495 - 40% educational discount) we can get the Adobe PostScript >cartridge, which seems to do everything the QMS boards did, and can be >used over a network. Since we plan to network in the future, this is the >better deal for us (especially given the current budget crisis in >Virginia). >We haven't received the Adobe cartridge yet, so I can't say how well it >works. I'd like to hear about your experiences. We have two other LJ IIs on roll-around carts that the rest of the branch use. I didn't get the JetScript for these as they require a board in the PC. If it isn't too slow (my users HATE slow), I'll get a couple. >Jane Wagner, Information Specialist BITNET: jw2b@virginia -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future
shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) (11/08/90)
jw2b@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Sara J. Wagner) writes: >We now have a new wrinkle. One of our boards failed after many years of >service, and the estimated cost to repair was $350. However, for $297 (list >price $495 - 40% educational discount) we can get the Adobe PostScript >cartridge, which seems to do everything the QMS boards did, and can be >used over a network. Some months ago, Elek-Tek (Skokie, IL) was blowing out JetScript, including a couple MB of RAM for ~$300. Call 800-395-1000 for info. I have no connection with them except as an occasional customer.
nee@cf_su14.Salomon.Com (Robert Nee) (11/09/90)
>We just got lucky enough to just get stuck with an HP Laserjet II with >4.5mb that is about 1-year old. It is in excellent condition and it >works just fine minus some little problems. We would like to add >postscript to this printer. Does anyone have any suggestions, comments >and/or other info? JetWare offered to sell us a postscript cartridge >for $350 and Abobe never returned our call. Pacific Data cannot be >located, so anyone have any suggestions on what to buy, avoid or >complain about? According to a colleague of mine the best PostScript option for a LaserJet II is the PostScript Cartridge from Adobe. He claims that the performance of this cartridge blows away all the others plus it is cheaper (about $299). This makes sense to me. Adobe is the creater of PostScript and knows its ins and outs. Who better to create a low cost, TRUE (not some clone hack) PostScript option for laserjets! I haven't actually used this cartridge but maybe someone who has can post. Robert Nee
kusumoto@chsun1.uchicago.edu (Bob Kusumoto) (11/11/90)
We actually have this cartridge and its great!
We currently have it hooked up to a novell server (netware 286 v2.15c) and
using a remote non-dedicated print server software called LANSpool. The
cartridge comes with some DOS floppies that include a program called Printer
Control Panel, which is a small, 5k-15k TSR that autodetects your print
jobs and switches between PS and PCL modes. Although we had to give the
capture command some command line options (nt nff nb, no tabs, no form feeds,
no banner) but the thing works beautifully, whether its a WordPerfect document,
or what most hardcore users of the printer tend to do is send PS from our
Sun via TRANSCRIPT, through MS Kermit 3.0 to the CAPTUREd port to the printer.
Works like a charm. The speed is comparable to an Apple Laserwriter IINT or
IINTX, although its kinda weird when it switches between PS and PCL modes (it
does a self test in the new mode, which takes about a minute one way).
At $300 street price or less, its definately worth it.
Note: we have 4.5MB on our printer, but Adobe requires at least 1.5MB in the
printer, and more is recommended. I usually use this rule of thumb: 2MB for
single sided letter sized page and 2.5MB or single sided legal sized page.
Bob
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