Technical Q&A QD47

Identically-Sized Print Files with LW 8.x

Q: For LaserWriter 8.4.1, I have saved files to the disk in foreground and background printing modes. The foreground and background file size is always the same. I would expect that the size of the background image to be smaller as a result of compression and the two pass optimizations. Why don't I get different size PostScript files stored on disk with foreground and background using the LaserWriter 8 driver?

A: LaserWriter 8.4 (and all other 8.x versions) always saves to disk using two passes, hence the foreground and background files you see are the same size. If we didn't do this, then we would generate non-DSC compliant PostScript jobs when saving to disk in the foreground. If you really want to check the PostScript being sent to the printer, then you should turn on the papToDisk bit in the driver's 'PRFS' resource. This makes papToDisk files that capture the data to and from the printer.