The lack of speed with PowerPrint is undoubtedly due to sending the page image over serial, rather than lack of CPU power - the special cable is just for physical compatibility with printers without a serial port. It was exactly the same with inkjet printers, which always run in that mode as they don't have internal rasterisers at all, except that you could see it getting through a line every so often.
HP laser printers without PostScript use PCL, which is I believe based on Windows internal graphics systems. That is why supporting PCL on a Mac is tricky. It's also a typical market segmentation trick, making only the most expensive model available to Mac users, who historically tended to be richer. The good news is that PostScript support is pretty robust in the Mac world, so you can rely on it. - Jonathan Morton On Jun 9, 2013 9:06 AM, "Gregg Eshelman" <[email protected]> wrote: > For various LaserJet 4, 5 and 6 printers (with PostScript ROM installed!) > here's HP's software for OS 8, 9 and 10.0 > > > http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=25477&prodNameId=14982&swEnvOID=1006&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=lj-29264-1 > > HP used to have a "legacy" Mac Os 7.x (possibly required at least 7.1 or > 7.5) driver for LaserJet 4/5/6 printers. No luck finding it online. > > I may have it somewhere on an old CD-R but it'd take a lot of digging to > find it. If it gets found, should be posted somewhere like the Mac Driver > Museum, along with that OS 8 and 9 download. > > LaserJet printers older than the 4 series don't work too well with > Macintosh. HP used to sell a PowerPrint cable and software RIP for the II. > Even though PostScript cartridges were available for the III series, HP > pretty much totally blew off Mac support for those. Only with the 4M did HP > really start Mac support. > > I have a PowerPrint Mac serial to parallel cable and the latest software > for that model of cable - somewhere. It's horribly slow! I only waited > through printing a couple of pages before giving up on it. PowerPrint is a > software Raster Image Processor. It takes the vector PostScript data and > using the Mac's CPU rasterizes it to a monochrome bitmap then sends that to > the printer. On a 68k Mac that results in a printing "speed" of minutes per > page. Wasn't any quicker from a IIci with a 66Mhz Turbo 601. > > -- > -- > ----- > You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs > group. > The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our > netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To leave this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs > > Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Vintage Macs" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Vintage Macs" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
