Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!esquire!sbb From: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: HP DeskJet Drivers? Message-ID: <465@esquire.UUCP> Date: 10 Jul 88 03:35:49 GMT References: <46100177@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <694@ttrdf.UUCP> <6443@coherent.com> Reply-To: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) Distribution: comp Organization: DP&W, New York, NY Lines: 27 In article <6443@coherent.com> dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) writes: >> As an aside, the DeskJet is really a nice printer. HP should be >> commended on their design. The only gripe I have is it's relatively >> slow speed at drawing graphics. Since this is the way it will be driven in >> a Mac environment, it's really too bad. > >Hmmm. I have a suspicion that the speed limitation may be due to the >fact that the driver must shove a _lot_ of data over a medium-speed >serial link. At 300 dots/inch, arbitrary bit-graphics (anything that >couldn't meaningfully be compressed) would require the transmission of >90,000 bits per square inch... at 9600 baud, that's almost 9 seconds! >I don't know what the actual interface speed is, but I'd be a bit >surprised if it's >19,200 baud. At this speed, an 8-by-10 image of >arbitrary bit-graphics would require over 300 seconds (5 minutes) to >download the bits. That shouldn't be necessary, unless you're printing a completely black page. We use TeX and a companion program that converts DVI files to something the LaserJet II can understand. The bitmap for each page is usually quite small and in fact the only speed limitation when printing is how fast the LaserJet can spit the pages out (quite a relief after using troff->PostScript->LaserWriter). -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." {uunet,cmcl2}!esquire!sbb | - David Letterman