------------ Category 12, Topic 8 Message 59 Sun Dec 10, 1989 J.TANNER3 at 17:18 CST Additional notes about the HP DeskJet PLUS printer. After the last post I noted that there is continuing interest in the printer so here are some additional notes that may be of interest. Let me say first off, if you need help with your HP printers CALL HP. They CAN and WILL help. As others have noted elsewhere this topic, there is a dearth of printer drivers for the DJ on the Apple II platform. Other than the Epson cartridge the only other one that I am aware of is the one that WordPerfect has provided. I have spoken with Scott Killian, WP.APPLE, of WORDPERFECT on the WP roundtable, page 521 catagories 2 (IIc/e) and 3 (IIGS) and he indicated that the drivers for the DJ PLUS and WP GS 2.1 are forth coming. WordPerfect has the finest user support that is to be had in the software business. If you need a DeskJet, you need WordPerfect. Thanks Scott. Over the last several weeks I've been pursuing the problem of drivers with HP and others. I spoke with several people at HP Vancouver and Boise as well as some non HP software people. The HP people were all very helpful and interested that we, Apple II users, were using the DJ. One of the people in Vancouver who was quite interested in our situation spoke at length about the way HP tries to support its products. HP tries to get it products as much exposure and in as many places as possible but wants to let the market take things where it will. If someone expresses an interest in developing a use for an HP product, HP will do what ever they can to assist the developer or user. We discussed the DJ line at some length. It turns out that HP is "intensely" (her word) interested in the line. It has proved to be extremely popular and HP is working very hard to increase its versatility and usability. As is reasonable, HP does not comment on un announced products. However she did allow that the issue of the water soluble ink was getting a lot of attention. I have something to say on that later. As far as drivers were concerned she gave me the same background information that our fiend D.SLAVEN has so kindly posted in this topic. To the list of outside developers D.Slaven posted, she added Orange Micro but felt that Insight Development would be more responsive to the Apple II market. To repeat D.Slavens post, Insight Development Corp. 2200 Powell Street Suite 500 Emeryville, California 94608 800-825-4115 The Orange Micro product is the Grappler. Orange Micro, Inc. 1400 N. Lakeview Ave. Anaheim, California 92807 714-779-2772 Hewlett-Packard is interested at: H-P DeskJet Customer Support Mr. Tom White Boise Division Mail Stop 516 Post Office Box 15 Boise, Idaho 83707 Quite by accident I happened across an other software house that has heard rumblings of interest in the Apple II community for drivers for the DeskJet. And this IS exciting! I was speaking with Jan Dunlap of DataPak Software about a program that they produce for the IIGS and in the course of our conversation she mentioned that DataPak made printer drivers for the Mac. In fact, one product is called "Printer Driver for H-P DeskJet" (I think that's the correct title) and it works with any 512K Mac. Hummm. So I asked about Apple IIs. And behold, DataPak has seen signs of interest in Apple II drivers for the DeskJet. And not from GEnie! We talked at length about the interest that has shown up on GEnie for drivers for the DeskJet and Apple IIs, of which she was unaware of. It seems that at least one of the programers at DataPak has actually started looking into what it would take to come up with a product for use with the IIGS which would allow GS type graphic images to be printed on things other than Imagewriters. Or Laserwriters. Including HP DeskJets. Especially DeskJets. It seems that there are people out there who are interested in DeskJets with Apple IIGS' and not all of them are here on GEnie. Ms. Dunlap would be more than happy to hear from as many people as possible. She can be reached at: Ms. Jan Dunlap DataPak Software Incorporated 14011 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 507 Sherman Oaks, California 91423 818-905-6419 Tell her what you want in a driver and what you would like it to do. DataPak IS interested. Me? I'd like PostScript on a disk. But what ever you do, *=>WRITE LETTERS<=*!!! Telephone calls are nice but there is nothing as convincing as written prose. Letters are something managers can put their hands on, feel, see and, most important, count. The more letters they count the more sales (and profit) they anticipate. And the more likely they will be to commit resources (that means spend money) to start a development project. And the better off we will be. A thought here. John Divorak, in one of his less pompous moments, noted recently in PC Magazine that the best code is still written by someone in an attic who is devoted to that piece of code. Perhaps there is a squirrel or two out there who might want to take on the challenge of writing a diver! In all the conversations with non H-P people, every one seems to think that H- P has one hot piece of property on their hands. A very nice young fellow at Claris (who openly admitted he is an Apple II user) told me: no, Appleworks GS won't work on a DeskJet, that Claris does not write drivers, rather they use what Apple provides them with, however, Claris is also aware of the desire for DeskJet divers, they agree that it is a tremendous printer and a lot less expensive than a you-know-what NTX and that the situation needs to change and it would sure be great if DeskJet drivers were available. This from Claris. It was either a very nice brush off or, just perhaps, he knows something. Shall we write Claris also? It won't hurt. As far as prices go, the original DeskJet commands about $575.00 and the deskJet PLUS gets about $675.00. The DeskWriter, which I know nothing about except that it is suppose to be "plug and chug" for the Mac, goes for about $814.00. My deskJet PLUS cost $659.00 in July of this year. At 575 bucks the DeskJet is competitive with an Imagewriter II. These prices are published in places like Computer Shopper, PC Magazine, PCRecorces,and so on but note that EVERYONE is open to discussion. About 18 months ago the Salesman at Entre Computer Center in Chattanooga made it very clear that he was willing to make his price very competitive with anything I found elsewhere. For 'ya all in Texas, Seabrook Computers will deal. If you like mail order, I have found the following houses helpful: General Technology (Gentech) in Warwick, Rhode Island, (401-732-5556, 800-843-4302); Computer Discount Warehouse (CDW) in Northbrook, Illinois (800-233-4426) and CompuAdd in Austin, Texas (800-627- 1967) As is the case with all mail order, the watch word is "Caveat Emptor". Spend some time with Computer Shopper for advise on mail order practices and procedures. The issue of water soluble ink has some people concerned. Let me toss out a couple of observations here. The printed page is not as sensitive to water as some might think. It is no worse than something inked with something like Staedtler or Koh-I-Noor drafting ink or perhaps a Flair pen or some of the "roller ball" pens. If one spills water (or coffee as was suggested) on a page, the ink will run, but will be readable. And besides, if one were to spill coffee on a LaserJet printed page, the "ink" (which is actually a plastic, styrene I believe) will not run but, I submit, the page is none the less ready for the trash bin. As far as sweaty fingers are concerned, the effects are no worse than what one might expect when ones sweaty fingers, damp with excitement, pen out a check for Seven Hundred Dollars and No/100 for a new DeskJet PLUS using a roller ball type pen. Most of the time it is not going to be a problem. The biggest problems occur when a page is printed in non draft mode and one grabs it right off the printer, the not yet dry ink will smear. No doubt about it. The other place that calls for caution is when a solid black image is printed, say a bar chart, it might take 30 or 40 seconds before the ink is really dry. The graphic artists out there who use Marsmatic pens can attest to this sort of problem. On the subject of the image, I want to point out that the quality of the image rendered on the paper (and therefor your satisfaction) is strongly dependent on the type and nature of paper that is used. The ink hits the paper wet. If the paper is very absorbent or has strong capillary action due to the grain structure, the ink will wick out along the boundary of the image and the image will look ragged. If on the other hand the paper has a hard surface and is free from open grain, the image will be that of a LaserJet. Fortunately, laser printers have somewhat the same problems as ink jet printers and laser printer paper normally works quite well in the DeskJet. Good business correspondence bond usually works very nicely. Clay surfaced paper, the stuff Time and most magazines are printed on, is available for ink jet printers but it is expensive and not really any better. H-P has done a good job of formulating an ink that does not need special paper. The User manual discusses the paper requirements at length. One last item. Cables. Go to your Mac dealer and tell the suit or skirt that you want a Mac II PRINTER cable with an RS-232C connector (or a DB25 connector,same thing). Most Mac sales people are technically utterly illiterate. Do NOT let them try to give you any old cable with a Mini DIN on one end and a DB25 connector on the other end. You might end up with a modem cable. The major deference for those who care is how pins 2 and 3 in the DB25 connector are implemented in the mini DIN end. There are reasonable technical reasons why Apple is using the mini DIN plug. A six foot cable should cost no more than $18.00. If that. If you want to make your own cables, GC electronics makes an 8 pin mini DIN plug, Cat. No. 43-178. Most industrial electronics supply houses have them or can get them. J. T. ------------