#HP Inkjets
Barry:
Postscript is a computer programming language that is used by some laser
printers as well as most high end imagesetters. It is either in ROM in the
printer, or in a ROM cartridge inserted into the printer ( a cartridge that
would plug into an HP LaserJet as an example). It's commonly called a Page
Description Language, as it's mostly used for printing to Lasers. The
difference between using a standard laser printer (or the DeskJet, or other
dot matrix printer) is that Postscript (PS) printers are really computers
dedicated to printing, and as such are intellegent devices, so they can do
most of the "thinking" while the Amiga is then free to do other things. One
of the major advantages are scalable fonts, that is you can have a font at
ANY size you want, you're not limited to what your printer has, or to using
Bitmapped fonts, or using CGfonts, and making the Amiga do all the work to
figure out how to print the page. HP LaserJets are bitmaped devices just
like the DeskJet, and the only difference between them is the physical
method of printing (DJ sprays ink on the page, LJ uses a laser/drum/toner
similiar to a plain paper copier). For DTP use in my opinion Postscript is
the way to fly, and yes if you get a PS laser, you can specify how many
copies to print, and the printer will print them out while you're doing
something else with the Amiga. One way to see what Postscript output looks
like to the printer is to save one of your files as Postscript, send it to
a disk file, and then read the file with MORE or any other ascii file
reader. This is the actual "program" that gets sent to a PS printer, and
then the printer runs the program that makes your page. I hope I havn't
confused you too much, but it's late, and I hope I didn't make this message
hard to understand.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale