H-P DeskJet Printers

["JIM EBERLE"jeberle@xxxxxxxx]

About a year and a half ago, when I acquired an H-P DeskJet 682C, I wrote the
List
asking for help in printing sizes larger than 12 or 14 point. Some of you
replied that you
had no trouble printing larger sizes. Others said it couldn't be done because
TTG had
quit writing new printer drivers at the H-P DeskJet 550. I even called TTG and
was
assured that if the 550 driver didn't work, I was out of luck unless I bought Xy
for
Windows. (I'm using Xy 4 for DOS, ver 4.017). I tried a lot of other H-P drivers
with no
success.

And that's where it stood until Robert Holmgren posted a notice that he had
modified an
H-P driver to make it work with the H-P 660C. So I downloaded it and tried it
and it
didn't work. After reporting my failure to the List, Robert wrote back,
suggesting that I
could get larger type by using the IM=1 default, which would allow me to use
XyWrite's
own fonts, not the H-P's internal fonts.

How could I have missed the IM default? Easy. The XyWrite 4 Customization Guide
defines the IM default this way: "Image Mode Printing -- Specifies whether image
mode
printing is on or off. In image mode, the printer rasterizes [whatever that
means] text and
outputs it as images, producing a higher print quality. (The initial default is
0 [but try to find
the default in the printer files; it's not there]). df im=0 Turns off image
mode printing.
df im=1 Turns on image mode printing for printers that support it. (Because of
its impact
on speed, this setting is not recommended for laser printers.)"

What's difficult to understand is why the Guide's definition mentions nothing
about how the
IM command works to turn off and on the use of XyWrite's internal fonts. Of
course, now I
know that I can use any number of H-P DeskJet drivers, including HPDJ.PRN,
HPDJ-PL, HPDJ 550C.PRN and HP 660C.PRN. (I haven't figured out yet how to make
the H-P print in color).

After this agonizing experience, I would ask the List: With the exception of a
handful of
XyWrite-skilled List members, please don't assume that the rest of us know more
than just
the basics.

Thanks for all the help you've given me.

Jim Eberle
jeberle@xxxxxxxx