🚀 go-pugleaf

Before I start, let me make it perfectly clear that this is not an official
statement from my company - just my own personal opinion.

I wanted to share with the net my extremely positive experience using
an HP LaserJet Series II printer with my Mac II.  My set up is as follows:

Mac II (5 Meg RAM) on a small Localtalk network (using TOPS)
HP LaserJet Series II
Shiva NetSerial (connects the printer to localtalk)
SuperLaserSpool (from SuperMac)
MacPrint 1.1 (from Insight Development Corporation)
Adobe Type Manager

Of course, I would prefer a Postscript printer, but I am very happy with
how well this set up is working.  Using the NetSerial, I can continue to
use my localtalk network for printing, without having to print using the modem
port (which I need to receive email and log in to read news, etc.)  Both
the NetSerial and SuperLaserSpool work with the MacPrint 1.1 driver.
Although printing can be quite slow (15 minutes to print a simple PowerPoint 
page), the output quality is wonderful.  With SuperLaserSpool, the printing
is done in the background, so I really don't mind the slow speed.
I do have access to a postscript printer at another location, and with ATM, I 
can continue to use the basic Adobe fonts (I use Times exclusively) and I get
nearly identical output with the LaserJet or the postscript printer.

A few notes:

1.  Shiva now sells a product to allow DOS machines on the localtalk network
    to use the NetSerial.  I haven't tried this yet, but it should allow me
    to share the printer easily (my environment is almost entirely DOS, which
    is why we have LaserJets and no postscript printers). The NetSerial is
    a great product - easy to use, totally transparent and it worked 
    perfectly the first time I tried it.  I'd assume that the new DOS
    software would work just as easily.

2.  I just received my upgrade to MacPrint 1.2 (for $10).  Supposedly, this
    now supports the new LaserJet IIP, which would make the above set up 
    quite cheap if you are buying a new printer.

3.  I saw a note on the net that someone was having trouble using
    SuperLaserSpool with a LaserJet driver.  I've had no problems (I use
    mutlifinder - perhaps the problems only arise using SLS with the finder).

4.  One behavior I can't explain - the printer driver doesn't always seem to use
    bit map fonts for printing when they are available (instead, ATM generates
    the fonts).  For example, I have 9 pt, 18pt and 36 pt versions of Times (I 
    think these are the Apple versions).  I get different output printing
    9 point text depending if ATM is on or off (with ATM off, the type looks
    darker - with ATM on, the letters are a little too fine).  I don't know
    why the bit maps differ so much from the ATM generated versions (perhaps
    ATM doesn't use the hints but the bit maps did ??).  I also don't know
    why, with ATM on, the printer driver doesn't seem to use the 36 point
    bit map (is uses 4x the size for printing high quality output).

5.  The MacPrint driver allows three qualities for output - high, medium and 
    low (the difference is the resolution: 300dpi, 150 dpi and 75 dpi
    respectively).  The low resolution is perfectly readable and prints quite
    quickly (usually within 30 seconds).  It is great for drafts and other
    non-display outputs.  However, some programs won't print at the lower
    qualities (the options are dimmed in the printer driver dialog box).
    I don't know why this occurs, but it forces me to use the slower, high
    quality printing for some programs (like Canvas and Excel - the problem
    with Excel seems to be the dashed lines.  If I turn off the grid, I can
    print at lower quality).

6.  The manual for the MacPrint driver strongly recommends using the printers
    built-in fonts (the corresponding Mac bit maps are supplied).  These 
    print at great quality even at the low resolution and they print faster.
    I found it too cumbersome to use these fonts - the sizes are limited, 
    some don't come in bold or can't be used in landscape printing, and it
    is too hard to convert back to postscript fonts when I have access to
    the postscript printers.  With ATM, I just stick with Times.


So, in summary, my complements to a host of companies for a series of well
designed products that work well together.


Brion


Brion Feinberg
uucp: att!hounx!brion
or    brion@hounx.att.com