Thread View: net.micro.mac
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Started by Vann
Wed, 13 Mar 1985 03:00
LaserWriter
Author: Vann
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1985 03:00
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1985 03:00
57 lines
3631 bytes
3631 bytes
We just got our LaserWriter into the store where I work part-time. As you might imagine we all took turns trying out our favorite MacPaint files. Each of us also tried out the wordprocessors with which we were most familiar in an attempt to put the beast through its paces. Therefore, I have some observations. The box is similar in size to that produced by Hewlett-Packard. It is as they describe it relatively quiet. I will certainly co-inhabit any office space in a friendly fashion. Unlike the Mac it is a stark white color, like the Apple IIc line of products. The output from MacPaint documents, while very impressive pointed out two things to me. First, the Imagewriter does a VERY creditable job of serving as a poor man's laser printer. While the images made by LaserWriter were crisp and even in tone, they were not that much better than those made by my Imagewriter. Secondly, where the LaserWriter did shine was in producing text via its OWN fonts. These are sharp and look just great. This allows a user to produce text that is head and shoulders above even a daisy wheel printer. If any educators are listening in, please keep this tool in mind for your use. It will make all the difference to students too long accustomed to reading smeared and fading purple mimeographed copies of lecture notes and tests. This beast produces copy that is a joy to read. Along with our LaserWriter we got a demo disk from Aldus, Inc. They are the ones who make the electronic pasteup system called PageMaker. This is the same one being used in-house by Apple Computer. The demo file produced by the package looked quite nice. It is done in magazine style complete with merged graphics and unbalanced columns. For the in-house publications department of companies and schools this is going to be a real boon. The LaserWriter is relatively slow in operation. Because of the size of the PostScript interpreter and printer driver, not much else can fit on your MacWrite disk should you be using that wordprocessor. MacWrite does NOT properly handle underlining. For one thing it calls forth a rule that it too thick and secondly cuts through the bottom portion of characters with descenders, such as g,j,y and p. I will have to test WORD to see if it is more successful. It would be quite nice in fact to be able to define the thickness of rules used in underlining. But this will have to be a future enhancement for one or both of these wordprocessors. Accompanying the LaserWriter is a rather impressive acrylic stand outfitted with samples done on the LaserWriter. This is a rather nice touch. I can see a great deal of potential in business in the production of forms and other mundane but often used documents. I think Apple Computer has a winner here. A few added touches to WORD and/or MacWrite and we all stand to benefit. Just imagine your thesis or dissertation done on this printer! *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** -- Eric Geoffrey Vann Analysts International (Chicago Branch) (312) 882-4673 ..!ihnp4!aicchi!egv
Re: LaserWriter
Author: reid
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1985 16:51
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1985 16:51
46 lines
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3077 bytes
> We just got our LaserWriter into the store where I work part-time. ... > The output from MacPaint documents, while very impressive pointed out two > things to me. First, the Imagewriter does a VERY creditable job of serving > as a poor man's laser printer. While the images made by LaserWriter were > crisp and even in tone, they were not that much better than those made by > my Imagewriter ... > The LaserWriter is relatively slow in operation. Because of the size of > the PostScript interpreter and printer driver, not much else can fit on > your MacWrite disk should you be using that wordprocessor. MacWrite does > NOT properly handle underlining ... > Eric Geoffrey Vann > Analysts International (Chicago Branch) There has been extensive discussion of the LaserWriter in fa.laser-lovers, so I won't repeat it here. I would like to comment on the 3 things that you mention in my excerpts above. First, MacPaint is not a fair test of the laserWriter, because MacPaint deals in screen pixels, and when you print a screen pixel it still looks like a screen pixel. MacDraw (not yet announced) and various other graphics programs do a much better job of showing off what the LW can do. MacPaint was made to show off the Mac, and cannot really exploit the LW very well. Second, the PostScript interpreter is in ROM in the LW proper, not on your disk. That interpreter is actually quite fast. The reason why the LW is slow when used with MacPaint is that the LW is doing a huge amount of computation trying to figure out how to print a 72bpi raster image on a 300dpi machine. When the LW is driven with software that knows how to use it properly, it moves faster than the ImageWriter. Third, it is not really appropriate to underline with a typesetting machine. People who have learned their use of word processors on character-oriented machines like Diablos have learned to underline things, but real typesetting does not underline. Real typesetting uses italics instead. Pick up any book from any publisher and you will see this. The LaserWriter is a real typesetting machine, and the fonts that it uses are taken directly from German typesetter manufacturers. These fonts were never designed to be used with underlining, they were designed to be used with italics, and any attempt to underline with them is going to look amateurish. That's not entirely the fault of MacWrite. -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA
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