[blindemboss]

I've had a Postscript equipped printers in the past and never thought twice about printing from Illustrator.
But after my laser printer died, I was forced to use a lowly HP inkjet. To my surprise, the outputs were nearly as good. Not as sharp (or fast), but certainly not the jaggies we've seen in the past. Even the font's came out as they should.

I believe most cheapo lasers and ink-jets are now host-based, meaning it harnesses the computer. Does tha mean I no longer need a Postscript printer?

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by blindemboss

I've had a Postscript equipped printers in the past and never thought twice about printing from Illustrator.
But after my laser printer died, I was forced to use a lowly HP inkjet. To my surprise, the outputs were nearly as good. Not as sharp (or fast), but certainly not the jaggies we've seen in the past. Even the font's came out as they should.

I believe most cheapo lasers and ink-jets are now host-based, meaning it harnesses the computer. Does tha mean I no longer need a Postscript printer?

Mac OS X internally converts output to PDF though I don't know if Adobe works around that with their apps. There are a number of features in Adobe's print options which only work with a PS printer but in general it seems to do a decent job.

[siMac]

Originally Posted by ChrisF

Mac OS X internally converts output to PDF

Huh? Where are you getting your information? That is not true, OSX outputs Postscript. It does, however, have built-in options to generate PDFs from that Postscript, but that should not be confused with outputting PDF.

[Thorzdad]

While, technically, you don't need a PS printer for Illustrator outputs, I wouldn't trust a cheapo inkjet for anything that might be color-critical.

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by siMac

Huh? Where are you getting your information? That is not true, OSX outputs Postscript. It does, however, have built-in options to generate PDFs from that Postscript, but that should not be confused with outputting PDF.

Quartz, the graphics rendering engine in OS X is PDF-based. Take a careful look at the options in the PDF button in a print dialog box: "Save PDF as Postscript" is right there. It's a PDF before it's a postscript file.

[scottiB]

You need a PS printer (or RIP software) if you wish to tile PDFs (if that's important). Can you tile from within Illustrator to a non-PS printer? I only have access to PS printers, so I can't verify that.

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by scottiB

You need a PS printer (or RIP software) if you wish to tile PDFs (if that's important). Can you tile from within Illustrator to a non-PS printer? I only have access to PS printers, so I can't verify that.

Can't tile from any Adobe apps to a non-PS printer.

[Apfhex]

Originally Posted by ChrisF

Can't tile from any Adobe apps to a non-PS printer.

Unless you're talking about a different kind of tiling, then yes, you can!

If I'm not mistaken, Illustrator itself converts the document for output on a non-PS printer. I haven't been into design all THAT long, but I've never experienced a time when you couldn't print absolutely anything to an inkjet printer, usually with much less hassle and far greater speed, though probably still less quality, than a PS printer.

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by Apfhex

Unless you're talking about a different kind of tiling, then yes, you can!

If I'm not mistaken, Illustrator itself converts the document for output on a non-PS printer. I haven't been into design all THAT long, but I've never experienced a time when you couldn't print absolutely anything to an inkjet printer, usually with much less hassle and far greater speed, though probably still less quality, than a PS printer.

Well, how about that! I stand corrected, just verified it here with Illustrator CS2. Photoshop will not but it appears Indesign also will. I swear that wasn't there last time I tried, which may have been several versions ago. Apologies for the misinformation.