🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <66u578$nkj8@crash.videotron.ab.ca>, Kurt Fitzner wrote:
>First, GDI printers need not be any cheaper than a normal.  Still requires
>the same amount of electronics in the printer.  Still need a parallel port,
>and a method for interpreting data on the line and turning on dots on the
>page line by line.  They aren't cheaper because of anything physical.  They
>are cheaper because of the lack of support.  They are a commodity item.

They are not necessarily cheaper, but if you buy one which isn't
you are getting ripped off.  They *do* lack something physical, and that
is a high-performace print controller (the part that turns the printer
language into dots for printing).  Window GDI is basically sending
compressed bitmaps to the printer, and it doesn't need to do any
interpreting at all.  If you are a printer manufacturer, this is a big
win, as you can use a slow processor, and you don't have to develop/test/
debug etc the printer language decoding software which would normally run
inside the printer.

 - Mike