02-15-2007, 01:46 AM
[quote BigGuynRusty]Weren't the HD's for font storage?
BGnR
Yes, but on modern machines the hard drive does more. A modern machine allows for a wide variety of features that demand that the print stream be stored at the printer for some period of time. One example is secure print--put a password on your print job, then walk up to print it at the machine at your leisure, without everyone seeing it.
Another example is proof print. Yeah, I want this to print out, but print me one first. If I like it, I'll tell you at the printer to keep printing the rest. Or electronic collation--if it's a large job and you want several collated copies, send the print stream one time (uncheck any "collated" buttons in the print dialog box), the printer will store it, then the printer will re-use the print stream from the printer itself. If you're lucky, you get a printer that will rasterize each page and store the rasters on the hard drive or in the memory, so that printing multiple collated sets goes at engine speed.
BGnR
Yes, but on modern machines the hard drive does more. A modern machine allows for a wide variety of features that demand that the print stream be stored at the printer for some period of time. One example is secure print--put a password on your print job, then walk up to print it at the machine at your leisure, without everyone seeing it.
Another example is proof print. Yeah, I want this to print out, but print me one first. If I like it, I'll tell you at the printer to keep printing the rest. Or electronic collation--if it's a large job and you want several collated copies, send the print stream one time (uncheck any "collated" buttons in the print dialog box), the printer will store it, then the printer will re-use the print stream from the printer itself. If you're lucky, you get a printer that will rasterize each page and store the rasters on the hard drive or in the memory, so that printing multiple collated sets goes at engine speed.