🚀 go-pugleaf

There are currently two major alternatives on the market for those 
people interested in hooking up an HP Deskjet printer to a Macintosh; 
the Orange Micro "Grappler LS" or the DataPak Software "Printer 
Interface III" package.

After comparing the two, I chose the latter package (approx. $195)
which consists of a special DeskJet printer driver for the Mac
(installed by copying it into the System folder and rebooting).  It
pushes the DeskJet as fast as it will go, 9600 baud, which is actually
quite a bit faster than the DeskJet can print.

For comparison, the Grappler comes with a small in-line box that
is hooked up to the printer port of the Mac as well as a device
driver of their own.  I assume that the box does a serial ->
parallel conversion (the DeskJet can take serial or parallel input,
but the Mac can only generate serial, I believe) 

Both solutions suffer from an inability to properly use the
builtin DeskJet fonts and font cartridges, though they indicate
that they are capable of same.  The basic problem is that the
proportional font information for equivalent fonts on the Mac
is completely different to that which is actually in the HP
font cartridges.  The end result is fast, but hideously
proportionally spaced output (eg kerning).

Courier, however, the monospace sans-serif font that is built
in to the printer, seems to work pretty well for program
listings and other "typewriter" work; it also allows printouts 
that are dozens of times faster than with the higher printout quality.

The standard way to get high quality printouts on the Deskjet
is to have "4x" fonts available; Apple display fonts that are four 
times the size of the fonts you are using.  This way, when you
use, say, 10 point Helvetica, the driver can build up an image
with 40 point Helvetica and ship a 300dpi graphical image to the
printer, which then happily prints at laser quality.  (the reason
this works is simply aspect and resolution ratios: the Mac screen
is 72 dpi, which is ~1/4 the resolution of the 300dpi printer).

This actually works beautifully, but requires that you have some
pretty large font families on your disk for the driver to access.
My solution has been to choose a single typeface that I stick
with -- Palatino (a proportionally spaced serif face) -- and to
have a considerable number of fonts in that face loaded into my
Mac.  At the cost of being "stuck" in one typeface (though I
do have italics, bold, and bold italics, as well as the more
traditional roman) it works out well.

If you choose to use a font that is not available in the 4x
size, then the driver will try to use a 2x size, with the
resulting printout at approximately 150 dpi.  If that size is
also not available, then you get 72dpi rough ugly typefaces on
the printout.

With the Printer Interface III you get considerable control
over the driver parameters, including the selectable option of
having lower than 300 dpi printouts (the lower the resolution
the faster the printout) and having no graphics transmitted
and "close" typefaces mapped into the builtin fonts (again,
speeding up the printout significantly).

Graphics print out in publication quality (I often have 
screen dumps (saved with COMMAND-OPTION-3 and edited with
Fullpaint) printed out as figures or illustrations to go
with my articles) and look very clean and crisp.  I have
had especially fine results with MacDraw illustrations, 
the only strange part being that complex background fills
come out at 1/4 the screen image, rather than the same as
on the screen.  (that is, if I have grey diamonds at a
density of, say, 4 per inch on the screen, the printout
will have them at 16 per inch).

Most of my work is professional correspondence or other
desk-top publishing work, and with the exception of the 
depressingly slow speed of printing, I am quite pleased with 
the combination of HP DeskJet, Printer Interface III and Mac
Plus for output.  The DeskJet even prints my envelopes!

One other point worth mentioning; GDT Softworks has announced
that they will be shipping their own DeskJet driver called
JetLink Express (tm).  Their advert in MacWorld indicates
that JetLink Express "employs the same leading-edge outline
font technology used by Postscript laser printers...This allows
you the flexibility to create various fonts, sizes and styles
with astonishing results."

I have talked with GDT Softworks and they indicate that there is 
no need for 2x or 4x fonts with JetLink Express, and that it can
also feed data to the printer as fast as it can print.  They
also indicate that their product will be compatible with
SuperSpool and other major printer spoolers.

Speaking of compatibility, one gripe with Printer Interface III
is that it seems to be a badly behaved driver; I have had 
problems with more than one program due to my having this
driver loaded, notably with MetCom Modula-2.

Contact Information:

	Hewlett-Packard Co.
	  HP DeskJet (300 dpi inkjet printer)
	    1501 Page Mill Road
	    Palo Alto, CA 94304

	    (415) 857-1501

	Orange Micro
	  Grappler LS Mac Serial Laser/DeskJet
	    1400 N. Lakeview Ave. 
	    Anaheim, CA 92807

	    (800) 223-8029	(in Ca: (714) 779-2772)

	DataPak Software, Inc.
	  Printer Interface for the Macintosh: Version III
	    14011 Ventura Blvd.  Suite 401
	    Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
	
	    (818) 905-6419

	GDT Softworks, Inc.
	  JetLink Express	(not yet released)
	    Post Office Box 1865
	    Point Roberts, WA 98281

	    (800) 663-6222

I hope this helps!!
						-- Dave Taylor

Intuitive Systems
Los Altos, CA

guest of HP Laboratories at  taylor@hplabs.hp.com

*************************************************************************
*** Note: I have no affiliation with any of the Mac firms mentioned   ***
***       in this article.  I'm just a consumer...   		      ***
*************************************************************************