Spectre GCR Manual Manuals - Atari Documentation Archive

Printers and Spectre o
PostScript Printing
As I mentioned before, PostScript is the laser printer "standard
language"; it describes what a printed page looks like. The Apple
LaserWriter is a PostScript printer; when you select Print from a Mac,
you are actually sending a PostScript file to the LaserWriter, which has
to "interpret" it in order to print. That's why it takes so long to print
sometimes; the LaserWriter has to figure out what the pages sent to it
look like before it can print them.
The Atari Laser Printer can' t print PostScript files by itself; it re­
quires an "interpreter" called UltraScript by Imagen. You must have a
2 meg Atari in order to use UltraScript with the Laser Printer. (There is
also another version for the Epson FX, HP DeskJet, and other miscella­
neous printers - ask your Atari dealer.)
If you want to print a Mac PostScript file to the Atari Laser Printer,
you have to ... um ... follow a few simple steps. It's not just a matter of se­
lecting Print while in Mac mode.
First, if you don't have an MFS Spectre partition on your hard disk
(or don't have a hard disk), you will need to format some SOOK MFS
floppies using DCFormatter. This is because Transverter only works
with MFS; you will probably need that much room (see the
Transverter Chapter for more information).
Next, run the Spectre program. Make sure you have the files
"Laser Prep" and "Laser Writer" in your System Folder. They come
with the System disks from Apple. Also, apparently not all Laser Prep
versions work with UltraScript; we've been told that version 5.2 defi­
nitely does not work. Laser Prep versions 3.1, 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0 work
fine.
Next, create a "PostScript masterpiece" in Mac mode, using a program
like Ready, Set, Go or MacDraw II. Make sure you select
"LaserWriter" from the "Chooser" Desk Accessory, and then do Page
Setup under the File menu.
In order to get your "masterpiece" from Mac mode to UltraScript,
you need to Print to a file rather than to the LascrWriter. It's a lot easi­
er to do than you think; the Mac's as will send PostScript to a disk file
(instead of the LaserWriter) if you press Command-K (Control-K in
108