Not a Post to Script in

March 22, 2006 8:14 PM

Any recommendations for a PostScript RIP for Mac OS X?

Based on a lot of gushing reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, I made the recommendation for our small office to get the HP Color LaserJet 3550.

It's alright, I guess... but I missed one small detail in my research...

No #$%#% PostScript. No PS in a laser? I had not heard of such a thing. In a graphic design environment, with lotsa Quark files flying around everywhere, and outputting to PDF first is getting old, something must be done.

posted by evil holiday magic to computers & internet (7 comments total)

You might try GhostScript.

PostScript wasn't even common in low-end (sub $2000 or so) lasers ten years ago. Today it takes some digging to find a desktop laser printer with PostScript. I think the PS included in my 2550n is emulated, not the real Adobe stuff.
posted by b1tr0t at 9:31 PM on March 22, 2006

is there an upgrade that gives you PS available for it? my example is admittedly old but still HP - I have a LaserJet 2100 that only ships with PCL in the printer itself, and you can add PS support through a RAM upgrade. (one of the DIMMs has ROMs on it that give you the postscript.) there may be a few ways to do it - you may be able to get a JetDirect box that'll let you feed it in PS and output whatever the printer wants.

alternatively, if CUPS supports it, you may be able to jigger something up that'll take in your PS, run it through GhostScript, output it as a PDF and dump that to the printer. it'd be a bit of work, though, I'd imagine. haven't really fiddled with CUPS much.
posted by mrg at 9:33 PM on March 22, 2006

The 3550 does not appear to be upgradable. It comes with 64MB of RAM, and you can't add any more.

Also: HP JetReady 4.1 enhanced host-based printing for Windows and Macintosh (For PostScript printing, HP recommends the HP Color LaserJet 3700 or 2550 series printers)

The 3550 is just a really fast WinPrinter.
posted by b1tr0t at 9:45 PM on March 22, 2006

Don't most HP printers come with PCL (printer command language), into which their driver automatically translates PostScript? Or do I have it backwards?
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:43 PM on March 22, 2006

Can you return it? My office just bought a pair of CLJ 3800n units, they're PS and PCL6 native.
posted by chuma at 5:14 AM on March 23, 2006

I just got a Dell 3100cn. Comes with both PCL and PS. Expanded to 512MB RAM, colour PS now outputs basically as fast as I can send it to the printer. It's Dell's OEM'd version of the Fuji Xerox DocuPrint C525A. It was a $220 refurb.
posted by meehawl at 5:27 AM on March 23, 2006

Mac OS 10.4 includes a PS-to-PDF distiller. Maybe there's some way to have the printing system invoke it automatically when it sees a PS file.
posted by hattifattener at 11:42 AM on March 23, 2006