[iBook] Printer suggestions please

[Larry Kollar]

Drulard, Ted wrote:

> Her Apple Personal LaserWriter NT finally starting giving us problems 
> and we're looking to replace it. She still does work with Postscript 
> programs so we need that capability, and we'd like to have color. Does 
> it need to be Laser? You tell me. But we'd like to have something we 
> can both connect to and get PS output.

Laser + color = $$$$$$$$$$$
If she has any large-ish Adobe programs (PageMaker, FrameMaker, 
probably Photoshop), they come with Acrobat Distiller for making PDFs. 
She could distill to PDF then print to any printer (that you can 
install a driver for) from Acrobat Reader.

> We looked at an HP 4 Color personal laser printer that had HP 
> Postscript, but the local Apple retailer told my wife that HP PS is 
> not good for Quark output from an Mac because it's not Adobe PS. He 
> then suggested something he sold for 4 to 5 times greater price.
> Question 1) Is HP Postscript that much different from Adobe Postscript 
> that it would cause us problems?

It can cause problems in certain circumstances, according to some 
FrameMaker users. (I use Frame at work and subscribe to a couple of 
mailing lists; there have been occasional problems with HP's PostScript 
emulation.) Note that I print almost exclusively to HP printers at work 
& don't have PostScript issues, but they're not color printers.

> Question 2) What do people here recommend for a Postscript printer to 
> output Quark type documents?

I don't use Quark, so I can't really speak to what works best with it. 
Personally, I'd just make PDFs and print to whatever I have available, 
but that's just me. :-P

> Question 3) Should we combine the above printer with color output or 
> get a separate color printer for photos & such?

You could buy a B&W laser printer, an inkjet photo printer, and Acrobat 
Pro (for PDF manipulation), and still save big bucks over what you'd 
spend on a color laser printer. So yeah, I'd get a separate color 
printer unless I really needed it and could write it off on my taxes.

--
Larry Kollar    k  o  l  l  a  r  @  a  l  l  t  e  l  .  n  e  t
"The hardest part of all this is the part that requires thinking."
-- Paul Tyson, on xml-doc