#HP IIP
10 messages in this thread
Is Hewlet Packard LaserJet IIP printer a good buy?
I own an Amiga 500 computer with 2 disk drives and 1 MB or memory.
I use it for Desktop Publishing as a freelance graphic artist. Currently,
I use Pro Page 1.31 and Pro Draw 1 to do Postscript files which are later
taken to a Service Bureau for laser output at 300DPI.
Is the HP LaserJet IIP printer a good buy? What do I need to make it
workable with Pro Page and Pro Draw. Are the HP stock fonts compatible
with these softwares or do I need to buy a Postscript board?
Any information will be appreciated. Thanks! —————–>Hector
I have the IIP and like it, getting Postscript capability for about $1800
several months ago. Whether its good for you depends on what options you
get vs models such as the III that include some of those things as
standard. You'll need more ram, fonts or PostScript, paper tray, etc.
Ron
The best way to go is to get the PostScript cartridge for the IIP. It's
genuine Adobe but it's an HP product.
You will also probably want to add memory to the IIP – especially if you
use (or import) bitmaps in ProPage.
Only problem: you need to pull the cartridge to return to PCL; i.e. to do a
screen dump w/HP as your prefs printer.
In HP II Series, Adobe makes the cartridge and it's possible to switch
PCL/PostScript w/software. Think it comes with a PC program to do the
switch but it should be doable.
There is a prefs PS driver somewhere in these libs.. it works pretty well,
so you just select postscript from preferences and your screen dumps and
copy>prt: work right without touching the printer.
Hot coconuts! I had no idea! Thanks for the info Arnie.
Hector– I use the HP IIP with PPage 1.3 and PDraw 2.0. It works well. You
can use it in bitmap mode using the CG fonts from Gold Disk, or with
postscript by buying a postscript cartridge for it. In either case, you
need to add 2meg of memory to the printer. The costs are roughly (I'm going
from memory): Printer $950, Lower Paper Cassette: Free with printer until
end of year 2 meg memory board: $200 The above is all you need to use it
with the CG fonts. The print quality of the CG fonts is good. The
disadvantages are that it's slow (REAL slow), and you can't do as many
things such as rotate pages. To use postscript, add $350 for a postscript
cartridge. The one I have is from Pacific Data. I got all the above items
from DH systems in California. Their phone number is 800/747-HPLJ.
I bought a IIP several months ago (about $1000) and added memory (2 Meg) to
it. It isn't the fastest, but for the money, I'd call it a good buy. It
works with Pro Page, but the Amiga printer driver needs work: output is
shifted to the right on the page. This can be overcome by moving the
logical page to the left (yuck). There is a PostScript cartridge available
for the IIP, but it costs about $500 from my HP dealer. You would need more
than a Meg in your 500 to truly exploit PostScript, I suspect. Hope this
helps…
Jeff,
The shifted print in ProPage is only in ProPage. I don't get that problem
with other packages.
wmc
When I called Gold Disk, they blamed the problem on Commodore. Maybe other
software houses take the time to compensate for the problem; I seem to
recall a page shift if the Center function is off in Preferences, but it's
been awhile since I fooled with that stuff.
– via Whap!
A few months ago I purchased a HP Laserjet III and the quality is very
impressive, but the way things were handled with the Amigados drivers, the
printer was not outputting at the best level possible…
I am running on an Amiga 2000 w/3 Megs, 3 drives, and Amax II and I was
at witts end. Then I purchased the JetPage postscript emulator mailorder
for $339 and it is amazing! The greys are perfect and the resolution
enhancer functions with the cartridge to produce CLEAN output!
I would like to see a Postscript document (graphic only) made, and then
clock the output times using different postscript solutions… I took about
a month choosing the JetPage, and am totally satisfied. It only requires
1.5 meg in the printer and prints 23% (supposedly) faster than the other
carts.