Postscipt Printing Query

[MikeN]

I'd like you're opinions about using Postscript for in-house printing of small presentation panels displaying photo-quality images and text. Is postscript going make that much of a difference for this purpose or should we use PS only for farming-out large format color prints? From a budgetary standpoint, it worth spending the extra $200 for the PS options on the HP1700ps or Epson 2200ps?

Thanks

[Guest]

PS prints with a round pen, where non PS prints with a square pen, on both Mac and PC.

Because PS has a round pen for printing, the print result is smooth and not as jagged.

A square pen is good for drawing straight lines, but diagonal lines will be a little jaggy and not as smooth.

What I suggest doing, is taking a file to the place you plan on buying the printer from - or somewhere that will allow you to do this - and do a test print with a file on both a PS printer and a NON-PS printer. You can then personally decide which is best suited for your expected results.

[jnr]

Also if you decide to print any layers grayed out,you may have to use the postscript rip if you go with the HP machine as NNA refuses to believe that the inability of Vectorworks to print a grayed layer in non-postcript mode is not their fault even though it would print in 9.x versions. The claim is that it is a conflict with the print driver. HP may or may not be using the same code for their driver for this printer. Until it gets fixed (which may be never, you can use it in PS mode.

Personally, having PS helps diagnose printing problems with this unstable software. If you are printing from other programs, like P-shop or Acrobat, having PS makes a big difference in image/text quality.