PowerPrint 4 allows you to connect your Macintosh to most parallel
printers, from dot matrix through ink jet to laser. The package
consists of several printer drivers, spooling software, and a 7'
serial-to-parallel cable.
Installation is a breeze, with dozens of drivers to choose from. If
your specific printer isn't listed, the handy manual lists hundreds and
hundreds of printers and which drivers they should be used with. Once
the software is installed, turn off your Mac, connect the printer cable
to the Mac on either serial port, and plug the big end into the
parallel port on your printer.
Boot your Mac, open the Chooser, select your driver, choose your
printer, and you're ready to print. Memory permitting, I recommend
turning on background printing. The spooler software that comes with
PowerPrint works quickly, putting to shame background printing on my
recently deceased HP DeskWriter 520 and my new Apple StyleWriter
4100.
History
Way back in my retail days (1987-92), Apple, GCC, and Epson make dot
matrix printers for the Macintosh, but laser printers were terribly
expensive. GDT (now Infowave) was one of the first companies to see a
market for selling drivers that would allow a Mac to use an HP
LaserJet, HP DeskJet, or other printer. In that era, many printers had
both serial and parallel ports, so you didn't even need a
serial-to-parallel converter. In fact, we used MacPrint (an alternative
to PowerPrint) with my Mac Plus and my HP DeskJet 500 after I left the
DOS world. Until a few months ago, my wife still used the printer with
her PowerBook 150. The printer is still alive and well, attached to my
brother's DOS laptop. Those early DeskJets were built like tanks!
Over time, the market changed. Apple introduced the StyleWriter; HP
the DeskWriter. Then came color versions of these Mac-specific
printers. More recently, Epson entered the Mac market with their Stylus
series. It seemed PowerPrint was a product with a shrinking niche.
However, in the past year HP stopped selling DeskWriters, instead
packaging them as StyleWriters under the Apple name. Then Apple dropped
the StyleWriter line. Although Epson still supports the Mac, their 600
no longer ships with drivers for the Macintosh.
But what has brought PowerPrint back into the limelight is the new
class of office equipment, the all-in-one printer. In addition to
printing, these devices may also send and receive faxes, copy (some in
color), and function as scanners.
Alas, each and every one is designed for the Windows world and has
only a parallel printer port. It is impossible for the Mac user to buy
and use one of these without something like PowerPrint.
Our Story
My wife runs a business out of the house. She had budgeted for a
printer, a copier, and a fax machine. But the all-in-one devices
promised to save space and money. After a fair bit of research, we
settled on the HP OfficeJet 600. On a Windows machine, this color ink
jet printer can also scan in color, copy in color, send and receive
conventional faxes, and fax print jobs from the computer.
We realized we wouldn't be able to scan from the OfficeJet or use it
to send faxes from the computer. But we don't need a scanner and can
use the fax software that came with our modem to fax from the
Macintosh. And with PowerPrint, we could print in black and white or
color.
With a direct serial-to-parallel connection from Mac to printer,
PowerPrint is fast (and we're only printing from a Centris 610). The
print quality is excellent and it handles colors very nicely. In short,
PowerPrint lives up to its promise.
If you need to attach an older parallel printer, a new parallel
printer, or an all-in-one printer to your Mac, PowerPrint is highly
recommended. However, be sure to visit their website to check
compatibility since some of the newer all-in-one printers are not
currently supported (this was one reason we chose HP over Canon).
PowerPrint is also great for Mac users on the go, especially
PowerBook users. If there's a printer at your destination, its about
90% likely PowerPrint will let you use it.
PowerPrint retails for US$99 and is available from Infowave (now
Strydent), many mail order
dealers, and your local Apple dealer. One pleasant surprise was finding
PowerPrint on the shelf at the CompUSA Apple store-within-a-store.
- If you need to share a parallel printer with two or more Macs,
PowerPrint Pro is your solution. It ships with a LocalTalk-to-parallel
adapter, so you can connect it to your AppleTalk or PhoneNet network
easily. Price is roughly US$220.
The
Macworld review commented that PowerPrint 4 is significantly faster
than previous versions. I believe this is due primarily to a new
serial-to-parallel adapter and drivers which run at 230.4kbps
(LocalTalk speed) instead of the older 57.6 kbps. At present, I have no
way to test this.
The OfficeJet 600
Although this is a review of PowerPrint, I want to warn Mac users
about the HP
OfficeJet 600. Many of its features can only be accessed from a
computer running Windows.
This came as quite a surprise to us, since neither my wife nor I had
ever heard of a fax machine that couldn't fax unless it was driven by a
Windows-based computer. But that's the case for the OfficeJet 600 - and
it may be true of other all-in-one printers as well.
My first solution was to buy a used DOS card for my Centris 610. It
was neat going back to DOS with a 25 MHz 486 (much nicer than the 16-20
MHz 386 machines I had last used). Windows 3.1 is another story. It
takes a fast computer and slows it down immensely. I think my Mac II is
more responsive!
After installing Windows, I installed the OfficeJet drivers.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any way to make it see the OfficeJet on
the Macintosh printer port. (Some DOS cards come with parallel ports or
have them as options. In those cases, a DOS card might be a workable
solution.)
Next, someone sent me an ancient copy of SoftWindows 1.0 to try. I
couldn't get it to run at all on my 68LC040-based Centris 610. Current
versions of SoftWindows require a Power Mac, so they were not an
option.
In desperation, I posted a cry for help in an online forum. A local
pastor came through with an ancient 386 machine, complete with Windows
3.1 and the required bidirectional parallel port. It's excruciatingly
slow, but my wife can finally send and receive faxes.
Other discoveries:
- Although HP calls the OfficeJet 600 a color copier, it does this by
scanning the image to your hard drive, then printing it. On our antique
386, this takes 2.5 hours. Black and white copies are handled by the
OfficeJet itself in seconds.
- The OfficeJet 600 does not want to function as a stand-alone fax
machine. As far as I can determine, to send or receive faxes, the
computer must be on.
- At the very least, you want a fast 486 (Pentium is better) with
lots of RAM and a large, fast hard drive to use the OfficeJet 600. A
minimal 386 system can do the job, but would tax anyone's
patience.
What's frustrating about this is that nowhere in HP's literature
does it say the OfficeJet 600 will not function as a stand-alone fax
machine or that it will not copy in color without a computer attached.
Experience with an OfficeJet 1150C at work, which does function as a
freestanding color copier, led me to believe that the 600 would also
have that capability built into it.
So now we're looking into a faster Windows computer and an automatic
switchbox. The switchbox will let the Windows computer control all the
special OfficeJet function while permitting the Mac to print. (Other
than my DOS card and the computer needed to run the OfficeJet, we are a
Mac household with 5 computers ranging from a Mac II through my Centris
610.)
Oh, wait, the HP page says it won't work with a switchbox. :-(
Manufacturers and distributors: Interested in having
your product reviewed? Please read our review policy.
