[Coco] Printing on cheap crappy printers

[farna at amc-mag.com]

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 20:04:33 -0700
From: "Theodore (Alex) Evans" <alxevans at concentric.net>
Subject: [Coco] Printing on cheap crappy printers with a CoCo was Re:
        Printing on a Coco with modern printers.


As for Postscript printers without built-in fonts.  There is no such
thing.  Now if there are encapsulated postscript printers (which I have
never heard of) they wouldn't have to have built in fonts.

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There are many fonts, and I don't know exactly how PS handles them. I know
they can be embedded in the PS file for printing on a different computer
(sending to a printing company, for example), but that makes for a huge
file. Most of the time the file just pulls the font from the computer it's
on, and a missing font brings up an error or substitute font table.

You are saying that all PS printers have at least one font built-in? I
know the older ones (originals, and say pre 486 computer days, or pre
cheap dumb printer days) had built-in fonts, and many had font cartridges
with font families in them. The software back then pulled the font from
the printer and didn't have to translate a font file. Computers didn't
have the processor power and memory they do now so some of the load had to
be handled by the printer.

A PS printer with a built-in font should render a raw text file in that
built-in font. I just don't think the lower cost PS capable printers have
the processing power. I know some of the low cost HP PS capable lasers
(like the Laserjet 6mp series) don't have the processing power or memory -
the driver on the host PC translates the PS output to PCL. Since we're
talking about the CoCo, I'm assuming low cost printers, in the $30-200
range (and most won't want to spend $200).