Re: GS/OS Printing and Ghostscript

[philip@utstat.toronto.edu (Philip McDunnough)]

In article <103142@bu.edu> gandalf@csd.bu.edu (Lou Hennessy) writes:
>
>
>I'm assuming that you want Ghostscript for it's capability to download
>arbitrary postscript to a printer and not for viewing it on the screen
>which is the real benefit of Ghostscript.  If that's the case then there's
>a utility called DLPS (it's only in Beta release) that's available by
>anonymous ftp from ftp.cco.caltech.edu in /pub/apple2/util that is supposed
>to download postscript from a GS to a LaserWriter (I haven't tried it myself because I don't have a LaserWriter).  It might do what you're looking for.
>As far as  color goes, not even the LaserWriter drivers on the Mac handle
>color because color is Postscript Level 2 and Apple doesn't support it yet,
>if you buy a color postscript printer, the printer company has to
>supply you with a driver.

I have used Todd's DLPS with great success. It's really useful. However, that
is not why Ghostscript would be handy. Basically Ghostscript will translate
Postscript into a number of files. The property I am interested in is not a
screen file. I don't want to view Postscript or manipulate it on a screen. I
do that with the NeXT. What I would like is the ability to send a file, 
generated by the GS's Postscript driver and translated appropriately, to a
printer such as an Epson, HP Deskjet500/550C, etc...Ghostscript would basically
solve the issue of printing. It(Postscript) is a basic tool upon which you
can build images. The idea of basing results on basic tools is appealing,
which is why I have always felt that the way to deal with sound is via a
fundamental tool set, which in the GS's case is tool 35 (and not SoundSmith!).
Postscript Level 2 is not needed for colour. Colour existed in Level 1. Now
I don't know what the GS's Postscript driver does when it sends a file to a
Level 2 printer. I assume it works. I also assume that it will print in colour
when sent to a colour Postscript printer (pre-Level2), but I'm less sure of 
that. There was some discussion about the driver having its problems with
Level 2. 
 
Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto
philip@utstat.toronto.edu