>I would like to suggest an alternative to the expensiv video printers.
>Those B/W confocal images we need for working copies or archive are saved
>as PICT files. Then on the office Mac we import them with handy little
>Fetch program (free ware) and save them on the Mac hard disk. If they are
>opened in Adobe Photoshop they can be printed on a 600 dpi postscript
>printer with suprisingly good quality.
... ...>
>It might even be possible to print directly from the host computer I
>haven't looked into that possiblity. I can just urge all programmers out
>there to provide us with that little feature now when the laser printers
>are cheap print with good quality and are conneted to ethernet.
 
We do just that. We have an Apple Laserwriter Pro 630 that prints at 600dpi
and has serial, parallel, and ethernet ports on it. Ours Macs are connected
to it via ethernet but our Confocal Workstation (PC) is connected to it via
a parallel extension cable. After loading the image into Photoshop on the PC,
we can print directly to the printer. You first have to resize the image,
other wise, at 600dpi, you end up with a very small print. If you resize it
to about 300%, it will be a respectable size and a remarkably good quality
reproduction. Resizing it up to a full sheet of paper produces a print of
somewhat less quality. Another option you may look into is Epson's new
Stylus Color inkjet printer that prints at 720dpi. I have bought one personally
at home and have been quite surprised at the near-photographic quality it
produces. Here in the states, it sells for about $550-600 and printing costs
about $0.40 per sheet including the ink and the special paper needed for 720dpi.
It comes with a standard Windows printer driver but, according to Epson, the
Mac driver will be available shortly. Email me if you have any questions about
it.
 
Jeff Ingeman
Department of Anatomy
University of California - Irvine
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