On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Ian Goldby wrote:

> Has anyone had success with using GhostScript on mac68k NetBSD? I was
> thinking of installing it in order to facilitate fancy printing on my
> Epson Stylus 740. But I know GhostScript is quite an expensive program
> to run when rendering complex pages. I'm guessing that most UNIX
> programs that offer more than unformatted 'typewriter' printing produce
> their output in PostScript.

Yes. I have a Quadra 840AV printing to an Epson Stylus Pro for a UNIX
workstation and a Quadra 630 running Mac OS. Works for me.

> So what I'm asking is
> 1) Is running GhostScript to handle day-to-day printing realistic on
> mac68k NetBSD or will I get fed-up waiting for the paper to come out?
> (My machine is a 33MHz 68040 (fpu) LC475.)

Depends on you. One thing, ghostscript uses plenty of memory, so I
wouldn't try it with less than about 32mb.

> 2) Is there a better/more efficient and still universal way to print
> graphics on an Epson Stylus 740?

Better than NetBSD? You can buy devices for under $1000 US that can
turn any printer into a network printer. You usually need the drivers
for that printer on the clients. A more reasonable solution might be
to trade up to the postscript model with the network card. Better than
NetBSD and free? I doubt it.

:-)


Frederick