Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!cadovax!keithd From: keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: S - L - O - W Printer Device Message-ID: <1321@cadovax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 12-Jan-87 17:03:50 EST Article-I.D.: cadovax.1321 Posted: Mon Jan 12 17:03:50 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 13-Jan-87 18:53:33 EST Reply-To: keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) Organization: Contel Business Systems, Torrance, CA Lines: 51 References: ......... A couple of friends of mine have recently bought Epson LQ-800's for their Amigas. We found a driver on Compuserve, and the source to one either there or somewhere else. Come to find out that a graphics print takes a good 35 minutes. I know that we are talking a 24 pin print head here, but that's a little out of hand. We also tried timing how long a print takes with a driver that has been stubbed out to do nothing. It seems that it is not in the driver where it is spending the majority of it's time. My guess is that it is spending most of it's time in the 'printer.device' re-sampling the image to fit whatever is selected as margins in the preferences. While this is an important feature (and not found in the MacIntosh, you only get x1 and x.5 and a hi-quality and draft mode) it causes output to be incredibly slow in some instances. Has anyone re-written a 'printer.device' to not try to re-size to fit, but just assumes a certain minimum DPI and does a x1, x2, x.5 etc.? This would be compatible with existing applications (which is important). I know there are some packages (PrintMaster + for example) that bypass the Amiga device drivers entirely and provide their own, where the package will talk directly to the parallel port. Though this is certainly faster, if your printer is not supported by the application then you are SOL. I realize the Amiga's best feature is it's video. And that is why I bought an Amiga. However, I keep seeing my friends struggle with trying to get decent print out in a reasonable amount of time. If it isn't DPaint forcing screen-compatible aspect ratio on the image causing text to look terrible, it takes days (30+ minutes to print an image is pretty bad, you have to admit). So what's the answer? Is it possible to come up with an alternate 'printer.device' that will bypass all of the nifty resize features in the interest of speed (or text quality)? And why isn't anyone else complaining about these problems? They seem to me to be much more significant than the speed of the icon files on the workbench. Is everyone just using the Amiga for games and video? I'll admit I think printing and word processing is pretty boring myself, but I kinda expect any self-respecting computer to do a decent job of it anyway. Keith Doyle # {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!keithd # cadovax!keithd@ucla-locus.arpa