🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2369@netcom.UUCP> ric@netcom.UUCP (Richard Bretschneider) writes:
>Does the type quality differ greatly (or at all) between the Imagewriter I and 
>II printers?  

The quality shouldn't be any different between the ImageWriter I and II.
The main changes between the I and II were: II is quieter, faster, more options
(AppleTalk, Sheet Feeder, etc...). Unless the print heads were changed, or
there are some other differences between the two, your output should be
identical. Just compare output now between the two - if they look the same
now, ATM will look the same between them, but text will be alot better.

>How long does it take, and when are fonts "built?"  

Time will be depend on your machine (MacPlus vs IIcx), but usually from
a fraction of a second to a few seconds for the building. Once the fonts
are built, they are stored in the cache. They are built when they are first
needed. If the cache becomes full, ATM will pass everything through to quick
draw like in the past. At this point, you can decide to change the cache (need
to reboot), or maybe cut down the number/sizes of fonts being used. For a 
rough idea of a semi-worst case scenario, I used a two-floppy MacPlus. My
boot disk had System 6.0.2, all the outlines, ATM, and 10 point bitmaps/screen
fonts installed. It used the default 96K cache. After booting I had ~700K
or RAM available. In the external drive I ran Word 3. I created a document
with all four base fonts (Courier, Helvetica, Times, and Symbol). It took
about 5-10 seconds to cache each family. After that it never hit the disk, and
I could play with all of the different sizes I used (10-127 point) in
real time. I banged on the keyboard as fast as I could to see if I could get
ahead of ATM - I couldn't. This was a very useful set-up and I didn't run
into any problems.

Hope this information will give you a feel ATM's speed and quality. Two more
thing that I'll add for general information on ATM: it does work with Master-
Juggler 1.5 or Suitcase II 1.2.5 to find outlines stored in the folder with 
the bitmaps - so I keep all my fonts on a SyQuest cartridge drive. Our list
of printers that we work with keeps growing. Testing is done with ImageWriter
I, II, LQ, II NT, II NTX and H.P. DeskWriter. We also bought the 3 Orange
Micro Grappler units and hooked up our SE to an Epson 9-pin FX-86e, Epson
24-pin LX-1010, and an H.P. LaserJet II. They all worked beautifully. I
would assume that since the Grapplers just have you use the ImageWriter or
LQ ImageWriter drivers, and their box does the rest - that any printer that
works like an ImageWriter/LQ ImageWriter with the Grappler, will work fine
with ATM. So now I have grabbed the LaserJet II and hooked it up to my machine
to give it personal testing - hey no one else was using it ;-).

Hope this is informative and I didn't smile too much 8-).

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Brian Bezanson					bezanson@adobe.com
Adobe Systems