#HP 4 Series Printers
20 messages in this thread
Has anyone out there looked at the Hewlett Packard 4 series printers? I
currently have a DeskJet Plus, and am thinking of upgrading. I do some desktop
publishing and thought that it would be advantageous to go either the 600dpi or
post script route.
Pat
Pat: we highly recommend the HP4MP printer for use with our programs. We are
using one to develop the PageStream3 PostScript driver. If your needs are
greater, check out the HP4M. We used that as well and like it too.
Cheers,
Michael @ Soft-Logik Publishing Corp.
I upgraded to a 4MP recently. It's great. Postscript is great, 600 dpi
is great. Its a heck of a lot faster than a deskjet.
For me, I should maybe have paid the extra bucks for the 4M so that I'd
have more ppm and easier addon of ethernet card and the cooler
vacume-florecent display 🙂
— Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
— INTERNET:dale@iam.com
Well, currently I think the 4 and 4M are somehow in a difficult marketing
position. I doubt the price compared to the 4P/4MP is worth the extra
features. The 4Si/SiMX got pretty cheap too, so I rather would by the 4Si
nowadays if I need the I/O features and speed.
The 4P/4MP doesn't have the possibilities to get expanded like the 4/4M,
but the software in the 4P/4MP has been improved a lot compared to the
4/4M.
Also a lot of people do seem to look at competitors. TI has a pretty nice
machine with 2 250 page paper bins with Adobe Level II PostScript for the
price of the 4P (well, slightly higher). Though, the TI machine does has
some disadvantages… but for that price… I wouldn't mind…
— Wolf Faust, Am Dorfgarten 10, 60435 Frankfurt, Germany —
On the 4MP how do you switch between postscript and 600 dpi non PS? Since the
printer is mainly for my personal use (other than I do a quarterly 8-16 page
newsletter and I'm currently putting together a 400+ name telephone directory)
I think I'll aim for the 4P (that's the 4ppm, right?). I understand that it
can be upgraded to PS–which if I have the need, I can always do later.
Are there drivers available for these printers on CIS for the Amiga (since I
assume that HP only provides DOS and Mac drivers)? I'd hate to drop the bucks
and only get 300 dpi because of having to use older HP drivers.
Pat
The 4MP talks LaserJet talk (PCL5) and PS. 4P is the same without PS or
as much memory. They both do 600dpi, 4ppm. Send a job in either language
to the 4MP and it figures out what to do with it. PCL5 can be told to do
600dpi. There are Amiga PCL5 drivers around somewhere, though
I haven't dug one up since I use PS. If you use PCL5, FinalWriter and
PageSteam and whatever will be sending dots to the printer, even if all
you are printing is text. 600dpi is a lot more dots than 300dpi.
Go for the 4MP. It is so much nicer to have the built in postscript.
Things go to the printer a LOT faster than having to send dots. It's
worth every penny.
Besides, I think you get a 5mhz faster engine with the 4MP than with
buying a PS and memory upgrade (cheaper too).
— Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
— INTERNET:dale@iam.com
Dale–
Well, Y'all convinced me. I went ahead and bought the 4MP. Given my antiquated
equipment, it's a good thing (instead of buying the 4P), since I haven't been
able to find a driver to run the PCL5 side (in wordperfect, the HP Laser driver
does work, but at 300 dpi, I'm sure. WP also has PS drivers, so I don't have
any problems). One of the drivers in CIS requires version 2.04 or higher of
amigados (I'm still at 1.3). Called one of the few remaining local stores vis
a vis upgrading–they've had 2.1 on order from Cmd for a month. Checked with
Abel, and couldn't find it listed–so I sent a message to their Sysop. A
driver that I found in the HP SIG told me that I needed version 37 or higher of
Kickstart.
Well, one thing is a given when you buy new stuff for your computer, you'll
probably end up having to pay even more for some upgrades, peripherals, etc.
I'm not complaining–I love PS! I accomplished more in one evening on the
telephone directory I'm putting together than I could have with my DeskJet in 3
or more longer sessions! I'm excited! The only program that I can't get
anything to print from so far is GPFax. I'm hoping that once I upgrade my DOS,
that problem will be cured–meanwhile, I can convert faxes to IFFs and squint a
lot!
Thanks for the help.
Pat
Pat,
with the HP4 you don't have to go either 600dpi or PostScript as there are
PS versions available of all HP4 printers (these have an 'M' as the ending
of their names). At work, we have some HP4Si printers, and we wouldn't
want to give any of them away. They're fast (16 ppm, built-in Ethernet
adaptor), reliable (so far) and the printouts are the best I've seen so
far from a laser printer.
We also had a test drive on the 'baby' HP4L (4ppm/300dpi + RET/from about
1400DM = about 825 US$) and were rightly impressed by its print quality,
quiet operation and comfortable driver programs for DOS and Windows. Ok,
it's a bit on the slow side, but as a SOHO printer it's just about
perfect. If you really want to go 600dpi but do not need the speed there's
still the middle range with 4ppm/600dpi (from about 1300 US$).
On the other hand, HP have just released their new DeskJet 520 (b/w) and
560C (colour) inkjets with 300x600dpi (b/w)/300dpi (colour) and RET. So if
you're on a tight budget (or want to do the occasional colour printout)
you could always go for these…
Ciao,
// Chris coming in from Germany
\X/ on AutoPilot 1.061……….
<<SOHO printer>>????? What's that?
I can pick up the 4ppm, 600 dpi printer for around $950 where I live. Sounds
better than $1300! I currently have a DeskJet plus, which I've been overall
very pleased with (especially since they changed the inks and they don't run as
easily when a paper gets wet).
How many pages, on average, can the cartridge of one of the HP4's put out?
Pat
Pat,
I have the LaserJet-4m. I would have to say, if you can swing-it, make
sure you get a PostScript model. There are so many fonts available, and
with the ability to manipulate them via TypeSmith — you have lots of
flexability.
For flexability in paper stock, call PaperDirect and ask for their
PaperCatalog 1-800-A-PAPERS.
Joe Maulucci >>> Accadia Electronic Arts
Buffalo, New York
I'm leaning towards the 4P–which I understand can be upgraded to PS. Since
this is for personal use (with some minor amount of DTP for a boat club that
I'm a member of), I think I'll stick to the cheaper printer.
Are there printer drivers available for the Amiga?
I ordered some papers from PaperDirect a few months ago, and have been deluged
with their catalogs! I'm amazed that they can make money, given what their
printing and mailing costs must be. Their papers are impressive. I bought,
among other things, one of their business card papers. I get tired of ordering
500 cards, and using maybe 50 before I change room numbers or phone numbers.
It's nice to be able to print 10 at a time when you need them, and always keep
them current. A friend of mine who's a printer figures that some of his
business is bound to go down with the wealth of paper stocks PaperDirect has.
Have you tried any of their foils?
Pat
Patricia, there is a printer driver available in the libraries. Download
HPLJ4.LZH from the printer driver library.
You should consider getting the 4MP model. The printing is much faster
with DTP programs when using postscript. Also, using the above driver
(mine!), printing pictures at 600 dpi looks like #%#%$% because CBM's
dither matrix is too small (4 by 4). But output at 300 dpi is beautiful
due to the finer toner (blew away the output on the 3P I used to have).
For the price difference, you get the postscript SIMM, and a faster CPU in
the printer. You can get more information online if you type GO HPPeriph,
and check out the LJ4 library. You will find announcement and spec sheet
files for all models of the LJ4 family.
If you have a fax machine, you can get information from HP First,
1-800-333-1917. Press 1 when the lady starts talking to put you into HP
First, and follow the menus. To make things short, here are a few
document ID numbers:
9634 HP Deskwriter 310 (mac environment)
9635 HP LJ 4MP
9636 HP ScanJet IIcx
9637 HP Deskwriter 310 (pc environment)
9638 HP LJ 4P
I don't have the document ID numbers for the other models of LJ4 printers
– sorry.
73, Kelly
Kelly–
Thanks for all the info on the HP contact numbers. If you scanned some of the
other messages, you may have seen that I decided to take the plunge and buy the
4MP. I'm really pleased with it–particularly the postscript side–makes DTP
printing a breeze!!!
I downloaded your driver. Although it worked with Maxiplan and Superbase, I
couldn't get it to work in dot matrix mode in Ppage (a mode I'll probably never
touch again) and with GPFax. In both cases, the programs and the printer acted
as information was being passed along, but when the page that was printed was
blank. I set the printer, while using GPFax to 300dpi, and it made no
difference. The same thing happened with the regular (for the 2, I believe) HP
printer driver.
Then I decided to use the DeskJet printer driver (setting the printer again at
300 dpi, but I'm not sure that made any difference), and the damdest thing
happened. I got my fax printed out. It makes no sense to me, but hey, it
worked. (I had even left a message on the Supra bulletin board to see if there
was anything they could do for me.)
I have no idea why your driver didn't work with those two programs. I do know
that there are certain things that I've never been able to do with GPFax (e.g.,
create faxes out of Ppage products). It may be that my kickstart is too old,
or GPF just doesn't like Amigados 1.3.
Thanks again–
Pat
Pat, I bought a 4MP for my parents business Mac a while ago. I loved it
so much that I just ordered my own and it should be here tomorrow. It is
an excellent printer. I'm especially happy that I can hook up my Amiga
and Mac to it at the same time.
..DonovaN
PMFBI,
Pat,
I have no trouble printing from Ppage to Gpfax. GPfax has it's own driver
& when it's booted up and you are in Pp, you just print in dot matrix. It
should say GPfax in the pp printer dialogue box. It then makes a file in
GPfax out, ready to send. You can view it in GPfax "fax out". Or am I
telling what you already kow & doesn't work for you <G>?
I leave Kelly's driver as my main one in Prefs, but alway print from PS in
Pp. You don't have to change anything in Prefs to print PS or to print Pp
to GPfax. Read his docs again. He gave me great settings in printer Gfx to
print out a fax. I'll email them to you.
Gracia, on AutoPilot from Cooleemee, NC
Hi Pat,
First of all, congrats on getting the 4MP. You will not regret it.
My driver works fine under 1.3 (not 1.2, though). Most likely something
isn't set up correctly in preferences. I sent Gracia a message with the
settings I use, and believe Gracia said she was emailing you a copy of the
message. To save time practicing/testing your preference settings, use
the graphicdump command from WB or the shell to dump your WB screen to the
printer. Should be much quicker then using a program such as PPage or
GPFax for testing. Also, for testing, use 300 dpi (density setting 4) to
save a little time.
One thing to be very careful of – DO NOT play with preference settings
while GPFax is running and the printer driver is enabled in it's control
panel. When printer driver is enabled while GPFax is running, it makes
changes to the preference settings, such as the driver being used, so you
can really foul things up if you start changing them – especially if you
hit SAVE in preferences -> this will wipe out your SAVED preference
settings.
GPFax is supposed to work under 1.3, so that shouldn't be a problem.
MaxiPlan and Superbase are text based applications, so should work with
just about any printer.
I still have to play with creating faxes!
Have fun and 73,
Kelly
Pat,
There should be a HP4 driver available here. Check the libs section.
I tried the foils, I find that they tend not to cover fully. Perhaps, I
am doing something wrong — just no time to play :-(.
Joe Maulucci >>> Accadia Electronic Arts
Buffalo, New York
Joe
Kelly told me about his printer driver. I tried it, but it didnt's work with
Ppage (which I wouldn't use anyway, since I've finally discovered
Postscript–much to my delight) or with GPFax (but the deskjet driver does
work????). I assume that it's in part because I'm still using 1.3. I've got
an upgrade on order–hopefully it'll come soon, and all my woes will be soon
cured (wouldn't that be wonderful!!!)
I'll let you know how I do with the foils, once I get them
Pat
Pat,
I use PostScript when supported and Kelly's driver for everything else.
It is good that you are upgrading your workbench. Some companies, no
longer support 1.3.
BTW on PPage I use a setting of 90lpi for density for printing PostScript
to black and white.
Joe Maulucci >>> Accadia Electronic Arts
Buffalo, New York