cr1@shark.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) (03/04/91)
Hi all... Maybe some of you out there can help out here. I'm relatively new to the Amiga world, and I've found that I'm having a hard time printing out good quality graphics. let me expand on this... I write a lot of papers and what not. I've tried various wordprocessors and I've found that when I use anything but the built in printer fonts on either of my printers( the Panasonic 1124 or the Citizen GSX 140, both 24 pin printers), I get absolute crap for quality. I'm using the Epsonq printer driver. Now, am I correct in assuming that it is the printer drivers fault for this? We can take the same printer over to the IBM and print out using practically any other package and get much better quality. Currently, I am using Pen Pal. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars buying all kinds of word processors because from what I can tell they pretty much all get the same quality. How can I fix this? Do I need a good printer driver? Where can I get one? Maybe I should add that what I am talking about when I say graphics is actually different fonts. Any help is appreciated. I've got a bunch of really bummed out people down here who are losing faith...
sdl@d74sun.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvinchouk) (03/06/91)
In article <27264@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@shark.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) writes: > I write a lot of papers and what not. I've tried various > wordprocessors and I've found that when I use anything but the built > in printer fonts on either of my printers( the Panasonic 1124 or the > Citizen GSX 140, both 24 pin printers), I get absolute crap for > quality. I'm using the Epsonq printer driver. Now, am I correct in > assuming that it is the printer drivers fault for this? I assume you are attempting to print text using Amiga bitmapped screen fonts. These often print poorly, due to: 1. Their inherently poor resolution (72 dpi?); diagonal lines show "jaggies" both on screen and on printout. 2. Since the vertical and horizontal resolutions of your printer both differ from the Amiga's screen resolution, the printer driver must rescale the font in both horizontal and vertical resolutions. For Epson LQ, neither horizontal nor vertical resolution is an integral multiple of the screen resolution. Therefore the printer driver scales irregularly in both dimensions, adding a little more here and a little less there. 3. Since the aspect ratio of your printer is different from the aspect ratio of the screen, the horizontal rescaling is different from the vertical rescaling. In ProWrite, you can force the program to use the printer's aspect ratio by turning off "Aspect Adjusted" in "Page Setup". To avoid all these problems, you should use a program that employs scalable fonts. For a program that outputs PostScript, there are PostScript drivers available for dot-matrix printers. I have found that TeX produces very nice printed output, no doubt because it employs its own scalable fonts and very high resolution bitmapped fonts. -- Steven Litvintchouk MITRE Corporation Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mbunix.mitre.org UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,necntc,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
dcoteles@bonnie.ics.uci.edu (David Domenick Cotelessa) (03/06/91)
In article <SDL.91Mar5232746@d74sun.mitre.org> sdl@d74sun.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvinchouk) writes: >To avoid all these problems, you should use a program that employs >scalable fonts. For a program that outputs PostScript, there are >PostScript drivers available for dot-matrix printers. I have found >that TeX produces very nice printed output, no doubt because it >employs its own scalable fonts and very high resolution bitmapped >fonts. Where do I get TeX? ***************************___*******/ *********************************** David Cotelessa | ,' \ __ / Member of the glorious pirate ship.* AKA "March Itsuka" | ( X \/ __ _ * AKA "RADBOY GO-o-o!"| `. ( /) T \ T /TT\ T ,' T\ * ---------------------| \ \_Z/ | ) | / || \ | / | \ * | \ / * |><: | /--|| \ |( |--\ * | ,- \ / | ) | / || \ | \ | \ * | / X I__/ I/ II \I `._ I \ * |( /_)_________________________________________* | \ /Address:: (dcoteles@bonnie.ics.uci.edu)* | `.__,' If Fails try:: (eaou020@orion.oac.uci.edu)* **************************************************************************
sdl@lyra.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvinchouk) (03/06/91)
In article <27D4B318.22968@ics.uci.edu> dcoteles@bonnie.ics.uci.edu (David Domenick Cotelessa) writes: > Where do I get TeX? The commercial version of AmigaTeX is from a company called Radical Eye Software. Several PD versions of TeX for Amiga also apparently exist. I ftp'ed my copy of (PD) PasTeX from the repository on ab20.larc.nasa.gov (128.155.23.64). Note: for a 24-pin printer like Epson LQ, you will probably need additional hi-res bitmapped fonts beyond the ones supplied with PasTeX. I ftp'ed the "gf" fonts from labrea.stanford.edu, and used the "gftopk" program supplied with PasTeX to convert the "gf" fonts to the "pk" format that PasTeX needs. PasTeX's printouts looked *very* nice on my NEC P6200 printer; almost laser printer quality. The only bug I have found is that the "DVIprint" printer program supplied with the latest release of PasTeX insists on inserting blank pages into the output, no matter what I do. I went back to using a DVIPrint program from an older release of PasTeX, which doesn't suffer from that bug. -- Steven Litvintchouk MITRE Corporation Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mbunix.mitre.org UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,necntc,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
ewilts@janus.mtroyal.ab.ca (Ed Wilts) (03/07/91)
In article <27264@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>, cr1@shark.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) writes: > > I write a lot of papers and what not. I've tried various > wordprocessors and I've found that when I use anything but the built > in printer fonts on either of my printers( the Panasonic 1124 or the > Citizen GSX 140, both 24 pin printers), I get absolute crap for > quality. I'm using the Epsonq printer driver. Now, am I correct in > assuming that it is the printer drivers fault for this? We can take > the same printer over to the IBM and print out using practically any > other package and get much better quality. > > Currently, I am using Pen Pal. I don't want to spend hundreds of > dollars buying all kinds of word processors because from what I can > tell they pretty much all get the same quality. > > Any help is appreciated. I've got a bunch of really bummed out people > down here who are losing faith... My answer to this has been to use KindWords from The Disc Company. It's a low-cost word processor whose main claim to fame is to produce output using its SuperFonts. I get fairly good output on my trusty old RX-80. Your font options are limited by what the program supplies, but the output, IMHO, is worth it. KindWords is available separately or included in the "Deluxe 500" package from Commodore. I bought it a few years ago, and just got it again bundled with my A3000 on the educational plan. Want to buy a copy? ... -- .../Ed Preferrred: Ed.Wilts@BSC.Galaxy.BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA Ed Wilts Alternate: EdWilts@BCSC02.BITNET (604) 389-3430 B.C. Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8
cleland@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Thomas Cleland) (03/08/91)
>In article <27264@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>, cr1@shark.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) writes: >> >> I write a lot of papers and what not. I've tried various >> wordprocessors and I've found that when I use anything but the built >> in printer fonts on either of my printers( the Panasonic 1124 or the >> Citizen GSX 140, both 24 pin printers), I get absolute crap for >> quality. I'm using the Epsonq printer driver. Now, am I correct in >> assuming that it is the printer drivers fault for this? We can take >> the same printer over to the IBM and print out using practically any >> other package and get much better quality. > Options include: 1. TeX (send me mail if you can't find Radical Eye's address) 2. KindWords (someone said, don't know myself) 3. Output in PostScript (e.g., with ProScript from ProWrite), then use a Postscript interpreter like PixelScript from Pixelations or the PD "Post" program (shareware?)--this gives perfect output if you use PostScript compatible fonts (several of ProWrite's are, at least). 4. Dump your text into PageStream (has a ProWrite import module included, prints out perfect output using either its own fonts or Compugraphic fonts; I think Adobe Type 1 too. 5. Some fonts are better than others--avoid the 'gem' fonts, try PD fonts, packaged fonts, or the CBM alternative fonts (Times, etc). They might be passable (esp. with ProWrite's ability to force printer aspect ratio) 6. Wait for the next Workbench release with scaleable system fonts (not a good idea). I mean, the fonts are a great idea; waiting for them isn't. Thom Cleland tcleland@ucsd.edu
rmm20@ccc.amdahl.com (Robert Mitchell) (03/09/91)
In article <27D4B318.22968@ics.uci.edu> dcoteles@ics.uci.edu (David Domenick Cotelessa) writes: >In article <SDL.91Mar5232746@d74sun.mitre.org> sdl@d74sun.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvinchouk) writes: > >>To avoid all these problems, you should use a program that employs > >Where do I get TeX? > I love these openings! Go straight to your Amiga store and ask for AmigaTeX, by Tom Rokicki. By all accounts an excellent, albeit pricy, implementation. If you are a cheap hacker like me, you can port the entire TeX and LaTeX package from labrea.stanford.edu for free, and learn a LOT about the source and internals in the process. If you have not used bitftp before, this is a good chance to. One of the advantages of getting the Stanford source is that Knuth works out of Stanford, and the latest 3.1 is there. I use this version on my 2000, with output to an HP deskjet. I also use a Sun PostScript printer at work, and I literally can see no difference in output quality. - Robert Mitchell -- UUCP: rmm20@juts.ccc.amdahl.com DDD: 408-746-8491 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 205, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 BIX: bobmitchell
Quang Ngo <quang@csufres.csufresno.edu> (04/18/91)
Hi! Is there any Postscript printer driver for the Amiga? How about LaserJet IIP? Thanks, -Quang (quang@csufres.CSUFresno.EDU)
vinsci@nic.funet.fi (Leonard Norrgard) (04/24/91)
>Is there any Postscript printer driver for the Amiga? Yes, PostDriver from Soft Service. Send mail to info@soft.fi for more information, or orders@soft.fi to order. The driver is a complete text and graphics driver, with lots of options. >How about LaserJet IIP? Sorry, don't know about that. > >Thanks, > >-Quang (quang@csufres.CSUFresno.EDU) -- Leonard