[H-GEN] Postscipt Printing ( again)

[Frank Brand]

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>Dear Group,
>                   Could anyone with real world experience
>of postscript printing tell me how much memory is
>needed for everyday tasks. I am being tempted by a
>Lexmark Optra E312 from e-store for $605 but it comes
>with 4MB of memory and they want $150 for an upgrade
>to 8MB. If I can get by without the extra memory I
>might treat myself to one.
>                                          John Duncan




Well be careful about memory with Postscript.

In non PS printing the  whole of memory is available for storing the page
format (PCL or PS both set up a whole page for printing whereas dot matrix
and inkjet printers will often just store a line at a time). With PS
printing the PS system files reside in the printers memory so not all of the
printer memory is available for page setup. I would have thought 4 mb might
cover most of your requirements but I am currently using 8 mb without major
problems and 32 Mb in a second printer. I can not be too definative about
exactly how much you need. Processing time can come ito it too. If you have
sufficient memory to store the page it may print OK but, if it is a complex
graphic it might take quite some time to process into PS format if you do
not have a lot of memory. Eg. I have seen a pretty super dooper colour laser
take 10 minutes to print a file (the file was a high quality A3
transparency - size 84 MB).

My advice would be to get a printer that supports generic memory eg 72 pin
or standard SDRAM...that way you could grab 64 Mb for $50 and not get locked
in to the proprietory stuff at $150 for an extra 4 MB. I have a Lexmark
Optra PS that supports 72 pin standard RAM and most of the later HP's
supported 72 pin RAM. A friend just got a Xerox and the manual indicated
that the world would fall in if they used memory other than one particular
type  but we just put a standard 64 Mb SDRAM chip in and everything went
well...so becareful of this printer RAM scam.

Regards

Frank Brand


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