Re: [hpoj-devel] fixed xsane crash, working on OJ LX/300 support

[Joe P. <joe...@sn...>]

On Sunday 05 May 2002 04:14 am, David Paschal wrote:
<...>
> > It works here. PC-controlled copying is a welcome addition. Simply by
> > setting options in xsane, I was able to click "Start" and have a page
> > scanned and printed by the OfficeJet, or scanned by the OffficeJet and
> > fed automatically to the second parallel printer I finally got working
> > with this PC. 
> 
> Hi, Joe.  Thanks for the report.  I realize that in this case you were
> copying by scanning on your OfficeJet and printing on your laser printer.
> Assuming you wanted to print (presumably in color) on your OfficeJet
> instead, is xsane+hpijs a viable copying solution, seeing as how this
> and a few other models don't support standalone color copying?  I always
> figured this would be rather slow, since xsane has to convert the raster
> image to PostScript and then ghostscript and hpijs have to convert it
> back to rasterized PCL3.  But then again, you're using a brand-new
> gigahertz-plus machine and I'm still using my Pentium-133 from over six
> years ago.  :-)

New PC prices are pretty low right now.

Even with this newer machine (Athlon 1.3 GHz, 256 MB DDR SDRAM), the copy 
process is slow, but it works. Here is a timeline for a 300 dpi (seems to be 
the only choice) PC-assisted color copy on the OfficeJet 600:

Settings: 
JPEG comp factor = 0
dpi : I tried to use a lower resolution, but it seems to scan and print at
	300 dpi anyway.
Scan area: Scanned once for preview and clicked "select visible area" before 	
	starting the stopwatch.
Color settings: Clicked xsane "autoadjust" button after preview.
Document to be copied: OfficeJet color print of 'Google.com' home page

After clicking the start button to begin copying, the scan began almost 
immediately. The xsane progress bar reached the end (%100) at 0:1:18.  

After what seems like a long wait with nothing happening, initial print 
activity begins at 0:3:22.
Two of the three tests finished at @0:7:00, but one was a little faster. I 
may have used a different set of options that time. 

Copy quality: The colors in the copy are lighter than in the original. In the
	tests I did, the printed area appeared higher on the page than in the
	original copy (about 13 mm. closer to the top).

----------------------------------------------------

The part of the process that *seems* longest is when nothing appears to be 
happening. A seeming lack of activity should be avoided, IMHO. The wait would 
seem a lot easier if the progress bar's behavior were changed so that it 
either moves slowly, finishing as the print begins, or even better (IMO),  
the progress bar moves faster, but restarts for each part of the process, 
accompanied by an informational text message.

It would be nice if the process could be speeded up, but (depending on the 
case) the way it works now is better than making a trip to the copy center.


-- 
Joe