is PostScript worth of ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Casper
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Casper

Hi,
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.

Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?

thank you
 
Casper said:
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.
Click to expand...

A quick look through froogle.com shows that they're pretty close in
price. Techdepot.com has a refurb 1320 for $312.
Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?
Click to expand...

If you care about quality of printing and device independence,
PostScript is worth it. Most people don't care and would not notice the
difference.
 
Casper said:
Hi,
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.

Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?

thank you
Click to expand...
Apart from the PCL/Postscript issue you might want to consider the other main
difference between the 1160 and the 1320. the 1160 only takes the 5949A
cartridge, the 1320 takes the 5949A and the 5949X versions. The X version has
more than twice the amount of toner as the A version and is a more economical
buy. Check new or compatible cartridge prices in your country.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Casper said:
Hi,
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.

Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?

thank you
Click to expand...
If you have a macintosh, you need postscript.

If you have a Liniux/Unix/X-windows machine, it helps.

Otherwise its another bit of bloatware.
 
Casper said:
Hi,
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.

Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?

thank you
Click to expand...

It's not clear from
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/18972-236251-236263-14638-f51-410622.html,
is it PCL 6 Enhanced or PCL 6 Standard (which seems to be the same thing
in fuction as PCL 5e)? If it is PCL 6 Standard, and I am right that it
has the same functionality as PCL 5e, then it might be a marketing gimmick.
 
Casper said:
Hi,
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.

Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?

thank you
Click to expand...

I think it's a mistake to focus on what PCL it supports, unless you have
specific niche requirements that you haven't mentioned (my printer
doesn't use PCL at all for Windows or Mac, only has PCL 4 for DOS
printing). The differences I think you should focus on are these:

HP Laserjet 1160:
up to 20 ppm, 600x600 dpi, 16MB memory

HP Laserjet 1320:
up to 22 ppm, up to 1200x1200 dpi, 16MB memory (expandable to 144MB),

The CPU in each is probably the same, running at 133MHz. If you need
slightly faster print speed, go for the 1320. If you're just printing
out text, 600x600 dpi should be fine. If you do some graphics, might go
for the 1200x1200 dpi. It appears that the memory on the 1160 is not
expandable, and if you do large or multiple print jobs, you'll want to
be able to upgrade the memory. Although printing at 1200x1200 dpi is of
course going to take up more memory (around twice as much? Is there
compression?). So 16MB on the 1320 might be comparable to something
closer to 32MB on the 1160, assuming that option existed.
 
M.H. said:
I think it's a mistake to focus on what PCL it supports, unless you
have specific niche requirements that you haven't mentioned (my
printer doesn't use PCL at all for Windows or Mac, only has PCL 4 for
DOS printing). The differences I think you should focus on are these:

HP Laserjet 1160:
up to 20 ppm, 600x600 dpi, 16MB memory

HP Laserjet 1320:
up to 22 ppm, up to 1200x1200 dpi, 16MB memory (expandable to 144MB),

The CPU in each is probably the same, running at 133MHz. If you need
slightly faster print speed, go for the 1320. If you're just printing
out text, 600x600 dpi should be fine. If you do some graphics, might
go for the 1200x1200 dpi. It appears that the memory on the 1160 is
not expandable, and if you do large or multiple print jobs, you'll
want to be able to upgrade the memory.
Click to expand...

I don't see why the size of a print job is important, it's the size of any
particularly big page which is important, which could occur if the job
consists of many pages or just a few

Although printing at
1200x1200 dpi is of course going to take up more memory (around twice
as much? Is there compression?).
Click to expand...

Depends what it is, the simplest case is a full size page of a bmp in which
case it should take up _four_ times the memory
 
M.H. said:
Are you sure? I have a Mac compatible laser, and it lacks PostScript.
Click to expand...

I think recent ones also understand how to drive other printers. The old
OS 9 and earlier need the postscript tho by and large.
 
The said:
I think recent ones also understand how to drive other printers. The old
OS 9 and earlier need the postscript tho by and large.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain OS 9 didn't require PostScript printers. Not sure
about earlier ones.
 
Casper said:
Hi,
I am stuck which of these printers is better
HP1160
HP1320
The first has only PCL5e.
The second has also PCL6 and Postscript 2, and of course costs some more.

Do you think it is worth of ?
How can I see if I need postscript ?
Click to expand...

Postscript, as an adobe PDL is good for printing documents created by adobe
applications, but it is slower than PCL.
If both PCL and Postscript work well in a certain environment, my first
choice will be PCL.
 
eager said:
Postscript, as an adobe PDL is good for printing documents created by adobe
applications, but it is slower than PCL.
Click to expand...

I've benchmarked print jobs where PostScript was easily faster than PCL.
It depends on what you're printing.
If both PCL and Postscript work well in a certain environment, my first
choice will be PCL.
Click to expand...

If both work well, it's worth benchmarking to know which is really
faster in that environment.
 
M.H. said:
I'm fairly certain OS 9 didn't require PostScript printers. Not sure
about earlier ones.
Click to expand...

Mm. It does you know, in many cases..the postcript to PCL drivers don't
always work, or don't exist. YTMMV.
 
Warren said:
I've benchmarked print jobs where PostScript was easily faster than PCL.
It depends on what you're printing.
Click to expand...

The only time I have seen it faster is when using multiple downloadable
fonts that the postscript had installed already.

Bitmaps and general printing its way slower.
If both work well, it's worth benchmarking to know which is really
faster in that environment.
Click to expand...
PCL everytime in every case I have ever seen.
 
M.H. said:
I'm fairly certain OS 9 didn't require PostScript printers. Not sure
about earlier ones.
Click to expand...

M.H.-

You are correct. The problem was that non-PostScript printers required
a driver. Several Apple drivers were included with the OS, such as Color
SW 1500, Color SW 2500, Color SW Pro, CSW 6000 Series.

Laser printers that used PostScript would work with the LaserWriter 8
extension in conjunction with a Printer Description File. A PostScript
printer that did not have a custom PDF, would somewhat-work with the
generic "LaserWriter" PDF.

Newer non-PostScript printers are unlikely to have drivers that work for
anything earlier than OS X.

Fred
 
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