Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!amdahl!pyramid!hplabs!hp-pcd!hplsla!hpvcla!neff From: neff@hpvcla.HP.COM (Dave Neff) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp Subject: Re: HP Deskjet Message-ID: <4340010@hpvcla.HP.COM> Date: 9 Aug 88 18:14:40 GMT References: <560@proxftl.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA Lines: 60 To answer a few questions. TeX drivers are available (I have seen them mentioned on the net but I don't know how you could get one), but the general belief is the DeskJet is too slow for graphics to use with TeX. A full page of 300 DPI graphics will take about 5 minutes. Now if you can live with lower resolutions you gen get better speed. Granted the graphics speed could be better, but ... the DeskJet is intended primarily as a text printer with occasional graphics. Our studies indicated that corresponded to typical printer usage. A page of simple text takes about 30 seconds to print. It is rated at 120 CPS letter, 240 CPS draft, and I guarantee you that this is truly the rate at which the print head moves, however you have to pick paper, move paper, drop paper, etc. so I find pages per minute to be more useful. As the complexity of the page increases (many font changes, enhancement chages, etc) the pages per minute will decrease, just like on a laser printer. Is it laser quality? It is pretty darn good, but there is some variability in print quality with type of paper used. Good quality copy paper works well, but be sure to print on the "right side" of the paper (the one you are supposed to copy on). Some people put the "right side" facing up, like on a copier, but on a DeskJet the "right side" must be down. On bond paper, I would say the print quality is laser quality or even better (its blacker, less print contrast variation over a page). As for cost of ownership, a print cartridge is about $18 which lasts for 500 pages of text, giving a cost per page of about 3.5 cents. There is also a draft mode (key selectable) which uses half the ink so it is about 1.75 cents per page. If you use draft mode for throwaway print outs and rough drafts, you can get an average cost per page of around 2.5 cents, but that depends how you use the printer. These costs are comparable to laser printers. We suggest using the DeskJet in applications that have a 25 page per day typical usage, so in this usage a pen would last about 1 work month. Typically you buy a new ink pen everytime you buy a new ream of paper. Note since a pen costs $18 and a ream of good paper is about $5, it makes no sense to get cheap copy paper to save a few pennies and suffer degraded print quality. The printer is very quiet, and supports multiple fonts via two slots. A slot can contain a ROM cartridge for fonts or Epson emulation, or a RAM cartridge which can be used to download fonts. At this time only HP supplied download fonts are available and we offer no tools to make your own fonts, but many third party LaserJet font design programs are adding DeskJet support. I am very biased, having worked on the DeskJet, but I have three DeskJets on my desk in front of me, one at home, use them daily, and think they are great. People are amazed at what I am able to create on the printer. I hope I answered your questions. There has been discussion of the DeskJet on the net, but under the ibm PC category, rather than the hp or the printer categories. I will gladly answer any other questions you might have. Dave Neff ihnp4!hpfcla!hpvcla!neff (206) 254-8110 x2358