#Color DeskJet Printing
09-Feb-92 15:48:05
Sb: #48760-#Color DeskJet Printing
Fm: Bradford K Levy 72170,1503
To: ROGER A. BRUCE 74206,3303
The Deskjet 500C is rated at 8 minutes per full page color, if provided
with data at full rate. The compression might help speed
wise (although I've seen the "compressed" mode of HP/GL-2 on the
LJIII take LONGER than the uncompressed, original HP-GL to the
same printer…). I've just finished writing a driver for the
500C for a program running on the IBM, and I would think the amiga
should be able to keep up with the horsepower involved, if the
driver is written right. One possibility "trap" that driver
writers can fall into on the deskjets is sending an end of graphics
command after each dot line. This triggers printhead movement,
even if the printer has lots of buffer left to hold more lines
before printing. Watch the printer closely on a sample printout.
If it prints very little per printhead pass, but the printhead is
moving almost continuously, this is probably the cause of the
problem. If the printhead has long delays between passes and
prints maybe 1/8th inch each pass, the problem is slow code in
other parts of the driver. Good Luck.
P.S. – HP does have a suggested formula for adjusting colors in
the driver to make blacks not so greenish, but it wouldn't work well
for fine lines, only solid areas. (The lines would end up fuzzy.)