>Hi Ed,
>
>First of all, I want to congratulate you on your FAQ with much-needed information about GDI printers.
>
>I also have a question - let's say I want to buy a new printer, how can I distinguish whether it is "GDI crap" or a "real printer"? Do the printer manuals, or the Web sites, give trusthworthy information?

Most of the vendors are labelling them as "Windows Printers", much in the same way that they labelled modems that didn't have their own on-board DSPs, relying on the host CPU to handle the signal processing for the modem, "WinModems". Other clues include the singular lack of a list of internal fonts or references to host-based print rendering. I don't know of any vendors hiding the facts from potential buyers; they know that some people are buying printers for use with DOS apps,?nix systems, or, ghod forbid, even a Mac!

Salesmen, OTOH, are not necessarily going to be open about it (or in many cases, even know that there's a difference.) This is one of many reasons that I try to work with my clients when they purchase new hardware; I don't sell hardware, or particularly care where they buy it, as long as they buy equipment suitable for their intended environment. This is a major advantage from many of my clients' perspectives; since I have no particular ties to product lines or vendors and don't make something off their hardware purchase, I can act as an advocate or advisor regarding what someone else is trying to sell to them. In more than one case, I've got clients who feel that my rates as a programmer are too high, but are more than happy to pay me to review proposals and help them draw up RFPs and the like, and interview potential employees or consultants for their projects. But that's another story...

Realize that the hardware descriptions are not complete giveaways; for example, HP is now providing two sets of drivers for the HP 6 series printers; one that relies on the native rendering engine, and another that's host-based, intended for use in a graphics-intensive print environment that uses an OS with the GDI+ layer. The same applies to the HP2200 - by default, it installs itself using a GDI rendering engine, but if push comes to shove, it'll emulate an HP 4 using its internal rendering engine.

GDI printers aren't necessarily bad - for example, if you deal with output requiring multiple alphabets for multiple languages or extensive graphical output that would be rendered on the host side IAC, and have a current system with beyond entry-level capabilities (lots of RAM, plenty of free disk space and a CPU that sits idle waiting for work all the time) that needs a local printer, GDI printers can be a very cost-effective choice, or using the GDI-based print driver for a mid-level printer whose rendering engine isn't up to handling your requirements for that matter. As noted in my FAQ, GDI printers do not have fixed capabilities; as Windows adds new functionality, the GDI printer inherits that functionality, which can allow you to extend the printer's capabilities by writing your own graphics extensions for Windows (using something other than VFP!)