MacDraw Pro: Slow DeskWriter / LaserWriter IISC Printing of Gradients

This information was provided by Claris Corporation on 16 March 1998, and incorporated into Apple Computer's Tech Info Library.
Printing gradients to a DeskWriter, LaserWriter IISC or StyleWriter from MacDraw Pro 1.0 is extremely slow. In fact, it may take several hours to print a document with gradients. The computer will display the standard dialog box that says "Now printing page x" and will appear to be inoperable. If you wait long enough, however, the document will probably print.

The following will significantly improve printing speed:
1- Upgrade MacDraw Pro to version 1.5
2- Upgrade the DeskWriter driver to 3.0 or later

In addition, the quality of the gradients may be very low (8-12 gradient steps). This is a function of the print driver, not due to MacDraw Pro. To print better gradients, use a print driver that supports grayscale. This includes:


DeskWriter - 3.0 driver
DeskWriter C, 550C - any version
LaserWriter IISC, Personal LaserWriter SC - WonderPrint Utility
StyleWriter - use StyleWriter II driver or WonderPrint utility

Published Date: Feb 18, 2012