From: andyf@uk.sun.com (Andrew Fox - Sun UK - Answer centre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Wanted: HP Colour Deskjet Driver
Date: 7 Jan 93 10:43:10 GMT
Reply-To: andyf@uk.sun.com
Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd.

In article 12674 pdenize@waikato.ac.nz writes:

>Can anyone tell me which printer driver might be compatible with the
>Hewlet Packard 600C (I think its a 600C, its a Colour Deskjet)

The printer is probably a DeskJet 500C, or if you are lucky the new 550C, 
which can have the colour and black cartridges in place simultaneously for
true CYMK printing.

As far as drivers are concerned, two companies are in the running.
The first is Beebug, they provide both RISCOS 2 and 3 drivers for the
printer, but acknowledge that colour output from their RISC OS 3 driver
is poor when compared to the RISC OS 2 driver. This appears to be the
fault of Acorns printer support code in the new OS. The RISC OS 2 driver
will work with some applications, but not all. Most of the time it will
start to print and then give an 'Undefined OS_SpriteOp command' error.
Having said that the drivers do represent good value for money at
15 U.K. pounds.

The second company is Ace, they provide a RISC OS 3 only driver which
they are calling the ProDriver. They do also have a RISC OS 2 version, but
this is a separate product.
The ProDriver scores over the Beebug one in several ways. Firstly, it patches
Acorns printer support code so that the colours printed more closely match those
seen on-screen. Secondly, it comes with a colour separation utility similar to 
Ian Copestakes ColourSep, that enables you to print with a black key by using
two runs through the printer, once with the colour cartridge in, and once with
the black (or key) cartridge.
Having said that, the ProDriver is more expensive at 30 U.K. pounds (I think).

Although the Beebug and Ace ProDriver are adequate, I still feel that the 
quality of output from the DJ500C is poor on the Archimedes when compared to
the PC. I have printed lots of files from both ArtWorks and Corel Draw, and the
printouts using the Windows drivers are far superior to anything that the
Archimedes produces. It seems a shame that the colour printing support is so
poor (unless you get a BJC800), when we have such a good illustration tool
as ArtWorks. I am finding that I draw my art in ArtWorks and then export it
to Corel Draw in order to print it. This is really very unsatisfactory, and
not even an option for most users.
 
Come on Acorn, write us some decent driver code to support the excellent dtp
and art programs that are now available.
Failing that, how about CC having a go. If they can write a program like
ArtWorks, I'm sure that they can write a decent colour printer driver.

Ah well, that's my two penneth.

Andy.

+-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Andrew Fox,                 |     'Life, don't talk to me about life.'     |
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