Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 16:57:09 +1000 (EST) From: atrn@zeta.org.au To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: keyboards Message-ID: <199910170657.QAA35294@ska.bsn> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9910161842480.3067-100000@picnic.mat.net>
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Chuck Robey wrote: > only point on this hugely blown up thing where individual dots could be > discerned was in the area where a slightly off-white was being produced by > dithering; over than that, it could *easily* be taken for a photograph, > with only continuous shading. Great. Various people in labs around the world will be very happy to hear that. The sales critters would be even happier (but luckily I don't know any of them :) > I want to know which Canon model *ISN'T* one of those Windows things with > the brains in the driver only ... AFAIK there's none where the printer has sufficient "brains" to achieve the results you saw. But don't trust me on this as I haven't tried anything myself. The Windows driver performs the work of producing the color data for the printer and this step is complex, requiring knowledge of the physical structure of the head, the properties of the media and ink, etc... (humidity and the water content of the media also play a role). All those settings available in the print dialogue actually make a real difference. The cost of the printers is kept down by not having enough CPU or memory to perform the task. The situation is (only) a little different than the WinModems in that the printers can operate without the proprietary driver although their functions are usually limited, e.g., relative poor color output or black & white only - enough of the command set is available to implement these or the printer emulates something that people know about. I'd look in one of the printer-related newsgroups or comp.lang.postscript to find out which model is working the best. The tasks of generating high quality, photo-like, output is very important these days and many of the techniques are patented or kept as trade secrets. The rise of digital photography has made this a very competitive area. All the manufacturers are producing great printers. As long as you use the recommended expensive media with the new-ish models that use six or seven colors you should be able to get good output (from Windows [sigh]). > I'm looking for a Canon model that's well supported by one of the > ghostscript drivers. To the best of my knowledge there are none that are driven by Ghostscript that can achieve the photo quality provided by the Windows driver. The necessary information simply isn't available. Even if it were the production of a suitable driver may infringe patents or take a long time to get right. Printing is more difficult than many people appreciate. When I first encountered it (having worked in the TV graphics field) I was amazed at the problems that need to be solved to get good output (and luckily didn't have to work on them - I'm more into networking and operating systems than the fine details of the printing process). I wish it weren't so. As I have no Windows machines I can't use my employer's products to their best potential and haven't bothered getting any. I use an old Toshiba LaserJet clone for my printing needs (mainly because it was free). And to keep this on topic... Don't get keycaps or anything, get a real keyboard! I use original PC/AT keyboards - control key in the right place, proper space bar, function keys on the left, big enter key, weighs a ton so it doesn't move and noisy as hell to annoy anyone else nearby. I can type about 20% faster on them than the generic rubbish keyboards you get with machines these days. The only problem with it is that it doesn't reset correctly at boot time with FreeBSD - it spits out '-''s until I hit return. I boot so infrequently* I haven't bothered to figure out why (the flags mentioned in the man pages didn't seem to do anything) BTW the Linux box at work with a similar keyboard operates correctly so I guess I should swap the keyboards to see if it's something to do with the one I've got at home. * The power supply in my main machine died the other day which forced me to, (a) replace it (bloody power switch position forced me to take the entire motherboard out, goddam PC's) and, (b) boot for the first time in three months (okay, so I haven't "install world"'d for 3.3 yet). -- Chuck Berry lied about the promised land To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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