HP Z3200 PS - what can I use the PS for?

[Gurglamei]

I purchased this printer som time ago and the reason for buying the PS was to get the advanced profiling solution (and I got a much better deal on this model than the plain one).


However, if understand correctly the Ps also includes som post script functionality.  I have no clue what this can do for me and I cant find anything about this in the manual (but then I don't know what I am looking for...). I get wounderful prints as it is, so it´s no big deal really, I am just curious what I may be missing?

[tonywong]

Generally, postscript is used for vector drawing, page layout and prepress application, as well as for its strong typographic capabilities. If you're working with PDFs, postscript was the foundation that PDFs were built from.

If you're not really using postscript now, I doubt that you really would delve into it unless you were getting into signage, advertising and the like. If you're using a lot of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, or Quark Xpress, you definitely want to print to a postscript device over other imaging models.

[Gurglamei]

Generally, postscript is used for vector drawing, page layout and prepress application, as well as for its strong typographic capabilities. If you're working with PDFs, postscript was the foundation that PDFs were built from.

If you're not really using postscript now, I doubt that you really would delve into it unless you were getting into signage, advertising and the like. If you're using a lot of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, or Quark Xpress, you definitely want to print to a postscript device over other imaging models.

Thanks!

I do not know much about this and it may not be a good idea, but I have been considering to use Indesign to create a photobook with prints from my printer. The goal would be to make a large format book with excelent image quality.  If I decided to follow that idea, do  I understand correct that I would want to create the pages in pdf for flexibility in arranging text with the images and print to å postscript device - such as the printer I have?

Christopher

[neil snape]

A bunch of things are only available to the PS models.

Each job is saved to disc so all spooling for reprints is redundant until the disc is full at which point it starts deleting the oldest.

Print length is substantially increased.

Communication languages include other formats so if the printer is networked it can receive other department spool formats like CAD.

Nesting and uploading fonts in PS.

PS spool files can be smaller as the onboard processor can offload the host for rasterizing of both image and vector.

Pantone matching libraries.

So there are the major ones

[tonywong]

Thanks!

I do not know much about this and it may not be a good idea, but I have been considering to use Indesign to create a photobook with prints from my printer. The goal would be to make a large format book with excelent image quality.  If I decided to follow that idea, do  I understand correct that I would want to create the pages in pdf for flexibility in arranging text with the images and print to å postscript device - such as the printer I have?

Christopher

You do not have to save InDesign files as pdf. You can print directly to your postscript printer from InDesign and the program will have better control of the postscript features that way. InDesign's strength is as a publishing program, and text flowing and image placement are it's primary capabilities. You'd be best served to stay within the indd format and print to postscript devices.

If you must print to non-postscript printers with an InDesign document, a decent way is to use PDF as an intermediary and print from Photoshop.

You can print from PDF to a non-postscript device directly but sometimes it can be a bit of a crap shoot in the final result. Printing from InDesign to a non-postscript printer can also have some rasterizing anomalies too.

One of the big things to watch out for in InDesign is when using transparencies and masks. I've noticed gross and subtle mask differentials even when printing to genuine postscript devices as well as exporting to PDFs.

[Gurglamei]

Many thanks to you both!   This was very helpful :-)


Christopher