Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!apple.com!parent
From: parent@apple.com (Sean Parent)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: LaserJet IIP Caveat
Message-ID: <4377@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 26 Sep 89 18:06:02 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Distribution: comp.sys.mac
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 42
References:<1989Sep26.000014.24359@NCoast.ORG> <897@cbnewsj.ATT.COM>

In article <897@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> mec@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (michael.e.connick) 
writes:
> In article <1989Sep26.000014.24359@NCoast.ORG> allbery@ncoast.ORG 
(Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
>> Uh, Michael, may I remind you that laser printers, unlike ink-jet printers,
>> are by nature *page* printers:  they *must* print a complete page at a time.
>> You can't "band" output without doing some kind of hackery like running the
>> page through the printer multiple times... which is not only annoying, but
>> will probably leave toner all over the important parts of the printer in short
>> order, necessitating expensive repairs.
> 
> Uh, Brandon, may I remind YOU that the DeskJet and LaserJet printers
> use the same PCL commmand language and logically work much the same
> as far as the driver is concerned. In fact the MacPrint driver we use
> with our DeskJet also works with all the LaserJet models as well. The
> banding that I described is done with them as well. Of course the
> nonsense about running paper through multiple times is completely
> unnecessary with either the DeskJet or LaserJet! In addition, it also
> goes without saying that with most laser printers you do NOT have to
> compose an entire page in the printer's memory before you're able to
> print out anything. I don't even think this is necessary with a
> Postscript printer, although I may be wrong about that case.

Uh, Michael, I'm afraid that Brandon is right unless you are using the 
built in fonts in the printer and are sending text only the 1 meg is 
required to garentee that the page will print.
However, if your driver does a lot of white space compression (that is it 
tabs over white space)
then 512K will cover alot of documents even with graphics. The Grappler 
drivers do this but I would still recommend 1 meg if you plan on not 
getting stuck on some documents. Laser printers (postscript included) must 
drive the laser at a very high rate of speed and the page cannot stop once 
it has started through the engine. The HP LaserJets in there standard 
configuration can not even come close to recieving information at this 
rate and the Mac certinly cannot generate it on the fly at that speed. 
Products like the General Computer Personal Laser Printer image the entire 
page (not in bands) on the Mac and disable interupts while they blast the 
information across the SCSI. PostScript printers have an even larger 
overhead to run the language.

Sean Parent
"Quality unattainable in a reasonable amount of time."