Color Trapping

[Not Ziggy]

Marie, I mis-read something at HP's site. The replacement for the 6MP is the 2100M, not the SE. The good news is that the resolution has gone up from 600 on the 6MP to 1200 on the 2100M. The bad news is that they now qualify their PostScript as being "emulated" rather than "true." (You can still read the specs there on the discontinued 6MP.)

After searching numerous other sites, I have yet to find any other manufacturer selling "true" PostScript in anything less than an imagesetter.

If you have either a computer superstore or a Mac store in the area that sells an HP 2100M, you can probably take a PostScript file in there generated by the Corel "Device Independent File" option and see if it yields varied lpi. Keep the fonts simple.

I've written to Adobe about this issue and I'll post here whatever they tell me.

[goran]

Marie - maybe a small stone for your/our PS emulation mosaic... I have HP 5000 N for about a year now. It has emulation of PS also and is not able to print at different lpi's - unless I turn off "enhanced" option under greyscale menu (Printer/properties.../). With that option turned off, my HP can print at all lpi's I want, despite PS emulator. This emulator caused big price drop for "PS" (...) printers at HP - Adobe charge about 1000$ for their Postscript rights on every printers sold - so I've heard. My A3+/1200 dpi printer cost me about 2000$ and is well worth it. Do you have that option present in your's printer settings too?
goran

[goran]

Marie - I have HP 5000 N for about a year now. It has emulation of PS also and is not able to print at different lpi's - unless I turn off "enhanced" option under greyscale menu (Printer/properties.../). With that option turned off, my HP can print at all lpi's I want, despite PS emulator. This emulator caused big price drop for "PS" (...) printers at HP - Adobe charge about 1000$ for their Postscript rights on every printers sold - so I've heard. My A3+/1200 dpi printer cost me about 2000$ and is well worth it. Do you have that option present in your's printer settings too?
goran

[cem]

FWIW, I am using an off the shelf HP4000SE which supports both Postscript (emulated) and PCL and have had nary a problem setting line screens or anything else Postscript for that matter. It's fast, swallows a whole ream of paper at a clip and doesn't eat toner cartridges like my old HP4M. I love it!

[Not Ziggy]

Adobe's response so far is to send me several tech papers. One of them includes the following: "If you are having problems printing to a PostScript-emulation device (e.g., LaserMaster printer, LexMark printer, or newer HP LaserJet black-and-white printers)..."

Notice the use of the word "newer." I think my theory is correct that HP as a company has lost its "true PostScript" compatibility for some strange political reason and should henceforth be stripped of its formerly royal status among graphics professionals.

The question remains: Which other companies, if any, are still worthy of our attention? Since we have two 1200 dpi tabloid-size Xante Accel-A-Writer 8300 printers here that are discontinued but work flawlessly with all sorts of software coming out of several different operating systems, I thought I'd visit their site.

Marie, if you've got $2000, I've got a solution to your problem: The latest version of the 8300 uses true Adobe PostScript and I can highly recommend it, if you can afford it. It's the Accel-A-Writer 3N and it's available at microwarehouse.com. (Or, there's a 600 dpi version for $300 less.)

And I'll keep looking.

(If anyone else out there is happily using a printer with true Adobe PostScript, we would all love to hear from you.)

[donvalley]

I will treat my HP 4MP printer with the utmost respect on learning how difficult it would be to replace. I promise to keep it out of drafts, direct sunlight and filter its power supply. The machine cost $2,000CDN 8 years ago and continues to work like a charm.