The LaserWriter 8.4 printer software ships with the LaserWriter 12/640 PS
printer. This a new more powerful version of the LaserWriter driver the
Mac OS.
Features
========
* PowerPC Native.
* Improved Performance
* Single Pass Printing
* Improved User Interface
* Backward Compatible
PowerPC Native
--------------
The LaserWriter 8.4 driver is PowerPC native, allowing Power Macintosh
users full benefit of the PowerPC processor.
The LaserWriter 8.4 driver also operates on 68xxx-based Macintosh
computers.
Improved Performance
--------------------
In tests performed by Apple on a Power Macintosh computer printing to a
LaserWriter 12/640 PS, we have seen improvements in speed using LaserWriter 8.4
over previous versions of the LaserWriter driver. Using the new foreground
printing feature further increases performance compared to background printing.
Tests were performed by Apple using mainstream applications and printing medium
to high complexity documents.
Note:
If you are using Adobe PageMaker 6.0.1 and are printing to the Apple
Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS, you may experience slower printing with
LaserWriter 8.4. If this happens, Apple recommends using LaserWriter driver
v8.3.4.
Single Pass Printing
--------------------
With previous versions of LaserWriter software, when you printed a
document, the print driver first created a spool file on the hard disk
and the file was then parsed out to the printer incrementally. With
single pass printing, print jobs are now sent directly to the printer,
and no spool file is created on your hard disk.
This feature is very important to the graphic arts and publishing
industries where a fast time to first page is very important, and their
applications commonly create large spool files. Some of these spool files
are larger than the remaining storage capacity of their hard disk. Single
pass printing is available by selecting Foreground Printing in the Print
dialog. Since Foreground printing does not create spool files, running
out of disk space is no longer an issue.
Improved User Interface
-----------------------
The LaserWriter 8.4 provides a new and improved user interface for the
print and page setup dialogs. This makes it easier to select desktop
printers, and format the page for printing. When using Desktop Printing 2.0 (installed with LaserWriter 8.4), the desktop printer icons can be moved anywhere on the hard disk, and can be selected from the menu bar or control strip, as well as from the Print dialog.
Backward Compatible
-------------------
All Apple LaserWriter printers--from the original LaserWriter to the
Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS are supported using the LaserWriter 8.4
printing software.
Macintosh System Requirements
=============================
* Apple Macintosh or Power Macintosh computer with 8MB of RAM.
* Hard Drive with at least 5MB of free space (for printer software and
fonts)
* System Software 7.1 or later
This article was published in the 21 June 1996 issue of the Information Alley.
Article Change History:
08 Aug 1996 - Updated improved performance section.