From: Mike Dustan <Mike_Dustan@sfu.ca>
Subject: Re: Print postscript on an HP DeskJet
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A6CD1DFBB9012B30@opifex.ucs.sfu.ca>
X-Xxdate: Fri, 4 Sep 92 22:06:51 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 21:06:53 GMT

In article <92248.103157JXS118@psuvm.psu.edu> Jeff Siegel,
JXS118@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>I have heard that there exists a utility that lets you print
>poscript files on an HP DeskJet printer. Anyone know what the name
>of this thing is and where to get it?

I don't know about a DeskJet, since they're a bit of a pain to hook up to
Mac anyway. If perchance you mean the Deskwriter (DeskJet after brain
transplant), this simply plugs into the Mac and speaks QuickDraw. To get
that to speak PostScript, you need either Freedom of Press (expensive and
awkward), Freedom of Press Lite (cheap, awkward and somewhat stupid) or
T-Script.

I've not personally investigated any of these products, but asked much
the same question as yours on the Info-Mac digest. The consensus was that
T-Script was the way to go. It apparently looks like a PostScript printer
driver to your application, so you drop it in, Chooser it and print. FOP
and FOP Lite are both separate applications.

Some comments I received on T-Script:

"They have several different versions of the program. I am using a very
old  (1.5 years) version that I bought for use with my HP Deskjet.  It
works quite well, but there are some bugs.  It seems to have trouble with
boxes, in that it sometimes prints them with extra lines in unusual
places.  Later versions may be fixed."

"The only other alternative that I know of is T-Script Basic, which
MacWarehouse sells for about $55.  As you are using the DeskWriter C it
is probably a toss-up between that and FOP Light for about $84. Neither
is perfect, however, you must remember that they ARE emulators--not the
real thing."

"The screen preview works okay for graphics (I was modifying a program
that puts multiple PS pages onto a single physical page, and my user's
test files were mostly data graphs that were formatted for presentation
as viewgraphs) but runs into some problems with fonts (for some reason,
certain Mac apps insert font definitions into the PS file even though
they're already in the printer [I think] and T-Script *Basic* chokes on
the embedded fonts).

"Another limitation (if you want to do any PS programming) is that the
built-in text editor can only handle files up to 32K in size, so you'd
have to use another editor (e.g., BBEdit) to do that (my test files were
approx. 600KB).  The fancier versions of T-Script are supposedly don't
have this limitation [see below].

"I have never actually used it to print to a non-PS printer -- I was
going to put it on my old Plus and try to use it to print to the
ImageWriter, but it didn't have enough RAM for T-Script to run.  At
approx. US$55, it's a good value; I would try out the Basic version
before shelling out for the fancier versions that cost several hundred
US$.  These have more fonts, support more printers and output devices,
don't limit PS file editing to 32 KB, etc."

FOP and FOP Lite are available from most mail-order places. T-Script is
from Teletypesetting, at (617) 734-9700 or FAX (617) 734-3974.

Hope this helps.

Mike Dustan, Computing Services, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
Canada
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.wanted