Printing and Scanning on the OS/2 Platform by Tony Butka

As those of you know who read this column regularly, last month I said I was going to compare the Lexmark Color 40 and the Epson Photo. Well, since I'm writing this from the lobby of the Vail Colorado Marriott, it should come as no surprise that the comparison will have to wait for next month's column.

In the meantime, one of my pet peeves about the lack of print software for OS/2 may have been solved. To date we have not really had anything like a desktop publishing program -- along the lines of Ventura Publisher or Adobe's Frame Maker/PageMaker software for that 'other' operating system. We've done ok with graphics software between Colorworks, Photo>Graphics, PMView and Embellish -- even though no single one of these has the functionality of Corel Draw or Adobe Photoshop. Still, we could get there.

Not so with desktop publishing. Instead we've had a crop of word processors that kinda' sorta' got there if your needs were modest -- Describe, Clearlook, & Lotus WordPro. Not to mention my friends that I've seen late at night using WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows in a WinOS2 session (no names, uh huh).

But we just don't have anything to do a magazine layout or manuscript in the real world -- frame support, real style sheets, tags, page offsets, bleeds, gutter guides...

Well, I recently discovered a program called Maul Publisher, by Le Maison des Angalis Software. According to their web page http:// www.manglais.claranet.fr this looks like the real thing. And its available thru BMT Micro for under $100 US. I'm sufficiently jazzed that I'm ordering it and hope to have a full review soon. Who knows, maybe I can recommend it to the newsletter publishers here at SCOUG.

A couple of other notes -- if you're using a Lexmark postscript printer, make sure you have the latest drivers, available from http://www.lexmark.com.

Also for those of you printing under WinOS2, a note from Hewlett Packard from the CompuServe Forums (the file is LPTOS2.HTM and is in the libraries in the OS2USER forum); unless you still use a serial printer, they recommend printing to a regular LPT port from WinOS2, like LPT1. Reason is that all printing goes through the OS/2 spooler anyhow, so the LPT1.OS2 port is redundant and can introduce complexities.

A final note. Lexmark has released a new Z51 printer as they take the Color 40 out of production. The new printer uses the same ink cartridges as the other inkjets like the 5700 and the Color 40, and Lexmark claims 1200 dpi with 5 pages per minute in color and 10 ppm in black (take these figures as 'up to' and with the usual grain of salt). The printer will work with either USB or parallel cables, and claims to have an improved feed mechanism without levers. Personally I've never had a feed problem with my Lexmarks, but I have gotten mail from those who have had, so maybe this will be a fix. List price for this printer is $280, so I don't think it is postscript. More likely an attempt to catch up to Epson's stunning print technology for photos.

Keep your powder dry (I think they say that here in Colorado) and make sure you visit Warp Expo West on Saturday, September 18th at Chapman University. I'll be there along with the rest of the gang, and look forward to seeing you.

Feedback is always welcome. You can reach me at Tony@scoug.com

By day, Tony Butka is a bureaucrat for Los Angeles County. In his other life he lives in a loft surrounded by computers, printers, and a host of vinyl records.

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group.
OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.