Laser Printer for a Small Network of Suns?

[John Eadie]

In article <1050 at brazos.Rice.edu> uunet.uu.net!attcan!utzoo!henry at cs.utexas.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 104, message 3 of 18
>
>>>... A LaserJet Plus will put any character you want anywhere you
>>>want it...  Your software has to supply the characters, and tell the
>>>printer exactly what to do... but the printer will do it...
>>
>>And what kind of software does this?  Is it your assembly code?  Does it
>>resemble the proprietary coding that used to drive Xenotron, Monotype,
>>Linotron, Compugraphic typesetters?  (All of whom now offer PostScript.)
>>How many applications on the Sun drive the LaserJet this well?  What's the
>>language?
>
>The software is any of several freely-redistributable back ends for major
>text formatters like ditroff and TeX.  Written in C, portable, completely
>non-proprietary, suitable to driving dozens of different laser printers
>that are LaserJet-compatible (rather more than are PostScript compatible,
>at present, I think).  Text formatters are the major issue here, since --
>as I mentioned -- one would *not* pick a LaserJet for graphics.
>
>I will freely concede that PostScript is the wave of the future for
>talking to output devices, and is to be preferred if other things are
>equal.  At the moment, they aren't, as LaserJets are cheaper and usually
>faster.  For people who have major need for graphics or portable output,
>this is not significant.  Those people are a minority at present.
>
>I also note that we have quietly changed the subject, away from claiming
>that the LaserJet can't do the original job of printing text nicely.

We also never mentioned `Transcript' once, so I suppose we are to be
congratulated.  I guess you might be right about people that need graphics
or portable output being in the minority (I have no statistics), but if
true, I think that is rapidly changing.  

I think that people _now_ setting up a "small network of Suns" are
probably thinking about WYSIWYG software like FrameMaker or it's
competitors, (the Interleaf products and The Publisher are competitors,
troff-derived products like SoftQuad's are not), all of which rely on
PostScript printers (note this applies to The Publisher, although TeX
derived.)  This makes them, willy nilly, need graphics & PostScript
portability. 

I will totally agree that PostScript printers are overpriced (until Adobe
gets some competition for its controllers), and one ought to look at, or
hope for, alternatives.  I've heard in the interim about adding a
PostScript module onto the LaserJet, and also from a company that has a
software driver for it that accepts PostScript, so maybe it's not a bad
choice anyhow.

I think also, if you follow the `fonts wars', you'll know that far more
fonts are available with PostScript (nowadays you can get some really keen
`official' Compugraphic/Adobe fonts), than with any alternative (I know, I
know, not many people care about type that much, yet) - and the really
interesting thread developing is, _whose_ PostScript (Adobe's? Apple's?
Sun's?), and whose _fonts_.  Sun MAY be able to outdo Adobe with regards
to the number and quality of fonts to choose from, if they're on their
toes.  Of course nobody except Apple (other than the smaller `Bitstream'
cloners) has admitted to developing a printer controller.

-john

John Eadie  Computing Art Inc  (416) 536-9951
E-Mail: jae at c-art.UUCP | {uunet,suncan}!c-art!jae | sun!jeadie

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