The purpose of a hard drive is primarily to centrally locate PostScript
fonts and to free up space on a local hard drive, but can be all of the
above.
A hard disk attached to a LaserWriter IINTX speeds printing only if the
fonts required for a document are stored on it and thus do not need to be
downloaded over a network. Other uses generally slow down printing unless the
hard disk speed versus the network speed is appreciably different. For
example, if font scan-conversion (idle-time or otherwise) stores its cache to
the hard disk, printing is slowed because it takes time to retrieve the cache
from disk. An extremely fast disk may overcome this problem, but we haven't
performed any tests that clearly prove this.
Choice B, centrally locating PostScript fonts, is a valid use, and can speed
up printing if those fonts are used in the document in question.
Choice C, freeing up local hard disk space, is also valid because every
PostScript font located on the hard disk need not be located on the user's
hard disk. Therefore the fonts can be removed from the user's hard disk,
freeing up storage space. Of course, a backup of these fonts should be
kept somewhere in case the LaserWriter IINTX's hard disk ever fails.
Another way to improve the printing speed of a LaserWriter IINTX, or any
PostScript LaserWriter for that matter, is to download fonts using the
LaserWriter Font Utility. If there is adequate RAM (or disk space)
available, downloading the fonts can greatly increase print speed. And
fonts downloaded to RAM are faster than those downloaded to disk, so
optimum performance depends on what fonts are used most often and where
they are stored.
The difference between using the Font Utility to download fonts versus
allowing them to be automatically downloaded with your document is that those
fonts downloaded with the utility will persist until the printer is reset or
powered off. Those fonts that are downloaded automatically with a document
only persist for that job. The next job requiring the same fonts would
download them again. This increases network traffic and job overhead
appreciably, and with a busy network, can slow printing significantly.
Similar issues are involved with TrueType fonts. With current LaserWriter
models, the TrueType fonts and rasterizer are not available in ROM.
Therefore, all TrueType fonts used in a document must be downloaded, along
with the rasterizer. These fonts and their scan converted data will only be
persistent for each job, so the effect will be nearly identical to that with
PostScript fonts downloaded from a user's System Folder. The LaserWriter
Font Utility, version 7.0, is able to download TrueType fonts as well as
PostScript fonts.