A Laser Printer That’s Truly Versatile

Abaton Technology has just introduced a modestly priced laser printer that is equally at home with IBM PCs and Apple Macintoshes. That’s because the LaserScript LX can emulate the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II as well as PostScript printers used by Macintosh and MS-DOS users.

Low-cost H-P compatible printers are old news, but what makes this $1,995 printer interesting is that it is also compatible with the PostScript Page description language. PostScript, which is built into most of Apple’s laser printers, is a language that defines the way the printer renders characters and some graphic images.

Once a PostScript printer knows about a font, it is able to print that type face at virtually any size. This process, called scaling, is critically important to people involved in desktop publishing and is also useful in other applications.

PostScript has long been a Macintosh standard, and it is also popular with IBM-compatible systems--especially those used for desktop publishing. PostScript is also used in some professional typesetting equipment and film recorders and other output devices, so it’s possible to use a PostScript printer as a proofing device and send the same document to a typesetter or film recorder for final output.

The PostScript language was developed by Adobe Systems, and any company whose printers use PostScript must pay a fee to Adobe. A number of firms--including AST Research, Texas Instruments, H-P, QMS and IBM--manufacture Adobe PostScript printers. The LaserScript LX is “PostScript compatible”; its language is a clone of PostScript, not the genuine article.

The machine’s H-P emulation is compatible with the H-P LaserJet II series. H-P has a newer and more advanced language, which is used in the LaserJet III, but the huge number of LaserJet II machines ensures long-term continued support for the earlier language.

The Abaton comes with a parallel port, an AppleTalk port and two serial ports, making it possible to plug in several computers without having to bother with a network or printer-sharing device. Best of all, it is able to sense whether an incoming document is configured for a PostScript or H-P printer, so there is no need for flipping switches or loading special software to jump from one type of document to another.

I have my machine connected to my Macintosh and IBM-compatible PC. On the Mac, I use it only in the PostScript mode; on the PC, I use PostScript and H-P modes, depending on the software.

Microsoft Windows programs, for example, are all able to use PostScript, but most of my regular MS-DOS programs work with H-P compatible printers. No matter. I can print a Windows document in PostScript, print an MS-DOS document in H-P mode and swivel over to the Macintosh to print a PostScript document. The printer senses what it is getting and makes the necessary adjustments all by itself. I have tested it with several PostScript and H-P Series II compatible programs on the PC and Macintosh and, so far, haven’t had any problems.

Abaton, a subsidiary of Everex, is in Fremont, Calif., and can be reached at (800) 444-5321.

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