#Adobe PostScript
32 messages in this thread
I'm thinking of purchasing Adobe's PostScript cartridge for the HP
LaserJet II. I have a IIP to be exact, and am interested in printing from
the following sources:
ProWrite 3.0
Professional Page
Professional Draw
A2088 IBM Bridgeboard
as well as any others I can get away with. Does anyone out there
have this cart, and can you give me some info on how you find it to use?
Also, I have 1.5 megs in my IIP, the box seemed to indicate that was
enough… true or false?
Finally, the price I am quoted is $350, which sounds pretty
reasonable. But it's from a Mac dealer, and they don't seem to know much
regarding iinterfacing it with the Amiga.
J.R.
You probably need 2.5 meg in the IIP; I know that the Pac Data PS emulation
cartridge does need 2.5 meg. To use postscript with prowrite you also
need ProScript. To use PS with software on the bb you need software that
supports ps, and some does.
Ron
Ron,
Yeah, I knew that Pac Page needed that much memory, but apparently
this one does not (or so it would seem). I already have ProScript and never
have gotten a chance to use it, but….ProWrite 3.0 and above have
PostScript printing built-in to its print menus, that's why I was asking
about that.
J.R.
You still need to buy ProScript for those menu items to work, and note that
the version of ProScript does not fully support the current version of
ProWrite.
Ron
Wonderful. This is getting expensive…
J.R.
Yep; my IIP ready to go for PS printing was, last spring, about $1800. That
should be down to about $1600 or so by now.
Ron
You are referring to actually buying the PRINTER, the CARTRIDGE and
necessary MEMORY with that figure, yes? I already have the PRINTER and 1.5
meg of MEMORY, so I should be looking at less….
J.R.
JR,
Pickup the PostScript driver from the forum here and install it as anyother
preferences printer driver would be installed. Then all the packages that
do not supply their own PS driver (a la PageStream) will output properly to
the printer.
Let me know how the cartridge works out, cause I'm trying to decide Pacific
vs Adobe myself. This Weeks PC magazine has a little blurb on both and each
seems to have advantages in areas the other does not.
wmc
Wayne,
So this PostScript driver will basically completely replace my
LaserJet driver to print PostScript from ALL my programs? That sounds too
good to be true…I figured I'd be stuck with ProPage and ProWrite pretty
much. Hope I read your message right…!!
J.R.
…going PostScript this Friday!
JR,
Yep, just put the PostScritp dirver in the devs/printers along with the
HPLaserJet diver and select the Postscritp in Prefernces. If you ever need
to go back to HP, just pull the cartridge and select the HP driver in
preferences.
wmc
Wayne,
So I take it you are using this then? If so, with what printer and
which programs have you used it on? Also, is there any way to select the
font you wish to print from this way?
Thanks,
J.R.
J.R.:
The Postscript printer driver in the libs here simply takes the information
from a standard ascii file and converts it to postscript code. It
therefore can take normal text, or things like "DIR > PRT:" from the cli,
and output to a postscript printer.
If you set preferences to "DRAFT", it will output Courier (so that spacing
is consistent, for tables, for example). If you set preferences to
"Letter", it will use Times-Roman, which is proportional.
Now, it works pretty well with most wordprocessors, too. BUT — it has
some limitations regarding format controls. It won't always give you what
you want if you are being fancy.
I use it at work all the time, since I normally print into a postscript
printer. For most text, and ALL system output to printer, as well as
things like code, docs, etc., it works great. If I want to get fancy, I
either use Professional Page, or if I want to get sorta fancy, I dumpt the
text over the BridgeBoard, and use WordPerfect 5.x output in postscript to
the same printer.
?|^] Ray Lewis
OK, gotcha. Thanks for that data…I should be getting my Pacific
Page postscript cart tomorrow (Tuesday), so I'll get some hands-on
then…at least that driver exists, so I don't have to do any weird
switching from cart to internal fonts on my LaserJet IIP…
J.R.
Note that the files that Pac Data includes for the pc for switching between
pcl and ps can easily be adapted for use in Amiga script files.
Ron
Great…that's good to know. So you can easily send a CLI command
to switch back and forth when necessary, eh?
Thanks,
J.R.
Ron:
I have an HPIIP with the Pacific Page cartridge too. I use the
PostScript driver and was unaware that changing Preferences to 'letter' for
output quality would cause it to select a different font. I am fond of the
times-roman font too. Just wanted to say thanks for the info!
-D. Cattell
Which Printer Driver are you using in WP5.x? I have a HPIII , 22866 bb and
WP5.1 on the BB. My current problem is getting postscript output to disk
from the BB side, that I'd like to then transfer to Amiga side, then out to
printer using PixelScript–but I can't seem to find the right postscript
printer driver on WP. Is LaserWriter a Postscript driver? Any
suggestions? What is the worst problem is how to print a graphic in EPSF
I've imported into WP. Since WP is on the BB and my PS emulater is on the
Amiga side, I've been stuck. Help!!!! (Thanx in advance).
Tim Trompeter
– via Whap!
Tim,
Yes LaserWriters are postscript. Are you sure that there is not a generic
postscript driver for WP? I know there is for the VAX version.
wmc
I don't know if I've just not installed part of my printer drivers or what,
but can't find a generic PS driver (at least on the hard disk…have to dig
out the originals…). And what I do have installed isn't even a
Laserwriter, just the Imagewriter, and I (think) that's not PS.
– via Whap!
Wayne,
Only some of the LasterWritters are postscript (the NT and NTX) the
lesser expensive one is NOT postscript.
-Jason-
Tim,
The EPS graphic isn't a problem at all. Once you have the correct driver
the EPS code will just be dropped in properly. The real problem is getting
the right driver. MOST LaserWriters are Postscript. Check your WP manual
for printing to a PostScript file.
Malcolm
J.R.
I've lost track of the "this" you referred to in your message. If you mean
the postscript cartridge, no. I am familiar with users of it and their
experiences – enough so that I will possibly be getting one soon. As for
font selection, you need packages that work with or supply their owm PS
font metric files. Then you select the font you want from the menu. Most
DTP programs support Postscript. In the vanilla wordpro you are looking at
ProWrite with its postscript add-on module, or excellence! with its
included postscript fonts. (Someone else will have to speak to
WordPerfect.) If you use a stnadard word pro a la scribble! etc you would
end up with the PostScript default font which I believe is Times (or
possibly courier??) Someone with IIP and PS cartridge could anser that for
you.
If you mean the LJP package, yes. Part of it's set of requesters is one to
request which font you want.
wmc
J.R.,
I believe the Adobe PostScript cartridge only works with the older
LaserJet II series (full size), not the IIP. I don't think Adobe has any
other cartridges yet either.
So you probably either have to wait for Adobe to come out with a model
for the IIP, or get the Pacific Data cartridge.
Lloyd
Lloyd,
Good to hear from you again! Thanks for the info…looks like I'll
be shelving that idea for awhile then…although I will double-check with
the store, I made sure to specify that I had the IIP.
So far it sounds like more trouble and cash than it's probably
worth. The Pacific Page cart is far more expensive, and (I think) does not
include the fonts in the cartridge (or does it?). Plus it requires 2.5 meg
of memory in the printer, which is an added cost at this point.
Oh well.
J.R.
J.R.,
Data Pacific has a specific cartridge for the IIP (though I think it
will work with the III too). It is about $100 cheaper than the one for the
II. It *does* include the fonts in the cartridge. I don't have one (I have
a PostScript printer), so you'll have to rely on other's testimony to
decide. The Data Pacific unit will work, and Adobe's is "True Adobe
PostScript" – but isn't out for the IIP yet.
Either way, try to have MORE than the MINIMUM amount of RAM in the
printer.
Pro Page's CompuGraphic (or PageStream's CG, Adobe & Pagestream font)
output to a 300 DPI LaserJet IIP may be good enough for you until Adobe
comes out with a IIP compatable cartridge.
Lloyd
P.S. MAC dealers can be very ignorant of things that *aren't* MAC, so be
careful.
Lloyd,
Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the Pacific Page PE
cart which is compatible with the IIP, adding an extra meg of ram to my
printer to total 2.5 megs. Combined they will run me $575 before tax, not a
bad deal. The memory cart for the IIP will accept up to three more megs, so
at least I'm planning for the future!
Thanks,
J.R.
J.R.,
Sounds like a good solution – you'll be able to run software in either
the HP LaserJet mode, or switch it to PostScript. Either way, the extra RAM
will come in handy. And you'll be able to add additional ram for only the
cost of the ram chips – if you need it.
Let us know how it works out!
Lloyd
Lloyd,
Sure will. Thanks for steering me clear of the potential disaster
of buying the Adobe cart!
J.R.
JR,
With the HP cart you must put the LJ offline and pull the cart to use PCL.
The Adobe product for the II series can switch under software control. Not
sure how the PacData does in this regard.
Malcolm
There is a software switch to go either way under MS-DOS, which I
am going to convert over to a small Amiga script (it's basically just
sending an escape code to the printer). Plus, there is a PostScript printer
driver that allows just about everything to print from the Amiga using
PostScript (Courier font replaces Draft mode, Times replaces NLQ mode).
Thanks for the thoughts,
J.R.
J.R.
When you convert that code for the software switch, be sure to post it
here! OK
I just got in a NEC Model 90. It too, comes with software for both IBM
and Mac. (Will be writin' them askin' for the "Amiga Version… please",
ya right!)
Anyway – NEC has a program on those disks call EESWITCH – I don't have
the time to deal with coverting it. But would have figured that someone
would have done this for me already. I was about to search the Libs for
this type of program. Figure the code to do the switch should be pretty
universal amoungst Lasers – Don't you think?
Would be nice if some one wrote PD some sort of real utility for PS/HPII
laser use. I have only had this NEC for about a week and 1/2, and have
experimented once with sending codes to the thing from the CLI. I'm, afaid
I haven't gotten the syntax right just yet (or I have found the right Amiga
conversion codes (ie Esc.) to follow the examples from the manuals. – Maybe
someone could help me out with that?
BTW – The NEC is wonderful – BLACK Black's – 2megs – 6ppm – 35 PS fonts
– HPII+ – and is available below the $2,000 price point. A very nice unit,
just wishin' I knew more about it.
– Roy Pahnke –
Casper, Wyomin'