THE POSTSCRIPT LANGUAGE is many things, but dirt cheap is not one of them, at least when it comes to desktop printers licensed by Adobe Systems. As a result, Adobe has watched the low end of the market slip away as more of its OEM partners sell "dumb" QuickDraw-based printers instead of selling "smart" PostScript-equipped printers. Now the company is fighting back with a low-cost printer technology designed to grab a piece of the small-business and home-office markets.
Adobe's new PrintGear technology fills the gap between PostScript and QuickDraw -- and takes a shot at Hewlett-Packard's PCL. PrintGear consists of a software interpreter on the CPU and a low-cost 50-MHz processor in printer hardware. The software compiles raster-image data such as text and bitmapped graphics into simple image objects. The compiled data is sent to the printer controller, which handles the complex task of converting code into printable dots on the fly. Because the print files are small, Adobe says, they're quickly and easily sent over sluggish LocalTalk networks. A 16-MHz coprocessor maintains printer-resident page-description languages (PDLs) and handles such duties as automatic language and port switching.
Adobe says a PrintGear-equipped printer can print pages at close to its rated speed. Files such as an Excel spreadsheet may print faster on a PrintGear printer than on a PostScript one.
PrintGear is not designed to handle EPS graphics or complex PostScript files common in the high-end publishing market (PrintGear printers output an Illustrator file by printing its preview image, a la QuickDraw today), nor does PrintGear support device independence. Drivers unique to each printer must be resident on the host computer to print.
Adobe says several manufacturers will release monochrome PrintGear laser printers over the next few months, with color printers to come later. Expect PrintGear printers to cost between $299 and $999. PrintGear has a core set of 77 fonts, many of them fun display faces. 415-961-4400.
