---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWSPRINT TO WORK WITH PRINTERS FROM 12 LEADING VENDORS SunFLASH Vol 21 #25 September 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Includes Printers From Canon, Hewlett-Packard and Seiko Font Suppliers to Support NeWSprint MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --September 26, 1990-- In conjunction with today's unveiling of NeWSprint(TM), Sun Microsystems announced that this innovative new software will allow printers from 12 leading printer vendors to operate in the Sun SPARC(R) environment. Thus users can add a wide range of printers -- from Epson dot matrix "personal" printers to Versatec color plotters -- to their network. In addition, Sun's NeWSprint software lets many output devices -- even inexpensive, non-PostScript(R) printers -- become PostScript-compatible, offering the quality of expensive typesetting and printing techniques. Through NeWSprint, these devices can use 57 high-quality outline fonts included with it. More than 700 additional fonts are available from major type suppliers like Linotype, Monotype, Bigelow & Holmes, URW and Autologic. Although NeWSprint is included with SPARCprinter(TM), a low-cost, 300/400 dots-per-inch (dpi) laser printer introduced today, Sun is also offering with NeWSprint the necessary software to support various Hewlett-Packard printers (DeskJet and DeskJet Plus ink jet printers and the II, IIP, IID and III laser printers) as well as Seiko's CH 5504 color thermal printer. Other leading printer vendors are working closely with Sun and will offer NeWSprint support. Among the various printers that will work with NeWSprint are laser printers from Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Xerox and Talaris; ink jet printers from Canon, Epson and Kodak; color thermal printers from Mitsubishi; dot matrix printers from Epson, Fujitsu and Okidata; electrostatic plotters from Raster Graphics and Versatec; and ion deposition printers from Talaris. Many additional printers will be supported in the future. Leading Font Suppliers Support NeWSprint Major font suppliers today announced they are offering a large selection of fonts for use with NeWSprint. Linotype has created 70 "shrink-wrapped" font packages using Sun's F3(TM) font format. These include more than 300 fonts that are available in the same way Linotype customers acquire PostScript fonts today. Monotype is also offering a selection of 350 fonts from its library to use with NeWSprint that will appear as shrink-wrapped packages and be available direct from the company and through its worldwide dealer/distributor channels. Bigelow and Holmes will release its entire Lucida library in F3 format, including professional extensions, math character sets, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, calligraphic and script faces. URW will produce its ITC library in F3 format, as well as fonts from the well-known Letraset Library. In addition, the company is announcing the availability of its IKARUS font-making tools on the Sun platform. In a related announcement, Altsys Corp. reported that its industry-standard font editor, Fontographer, is being ported to the Sun environment. This will allow it to work interchangeably with F3 formats, as well as with PostScript Type 1 and Type 3 formats. NeWSprint Output Fast, Inexpensive NeWSprint software resides in a Sun SPARCstation(TM) or SPARCserver(TM). No intelligence is necessary in the printer; instead, the computer's powerful CPU controls the output device. NeWSprint enables any printer hooked to the Sun system -- from dot matrix, ink jet and laser printers to color thermal printers and plotters -- to produce high-quality, PostScript-compatible output quickly and inexpensively. Any computer on the network can send printing jobs to these output devices via the SPARC system. These printers meet user needs in many applications. For example, users might utilize NeWSprint with "personal" ink jet printers for general office automation, high-speed laser or color printers for desktop publishing and wide-bed plotters for CAD/CAE. NeWSprint Developer's Kit Available Sun has encouraged broad, early support of its open printing concept by including a developer's kit with NeWSprint that allows vendors to easily connect their printers to the Sun SPARC environment. The kit offers a complete development environment for adding new printers to NeWSprint, with documentation and sample code. With thousands of Sun SPARC systems installed worldwide, the Sun UNIX(R) printing environment represents a promising opportunity for third-party vendors. "We're opening up the printing market in a way that will bring more choices to the end user," said Wayne Rosing, vice president of Sun's Desktop Systems and Graphics Group. Additional support for developing interfaces to new printers may be obtained through the Sun Consulting Group or a third party such as Z Microsystems. Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### NeWSprint and F3 are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. SPARCstation and SPARCserver are trademarks and SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, based on technology developed by and exclusively licensed to Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems Laboratory, Inc. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations. Press Contact: Nancy Groves (415) 336-6411 Cindee Mock (415) 336-3563 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It is targeted at Sun Users and Customers. For additional information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM SunFlash is distributed via a hierarchy of aliases. Try to address change requests to the owner of the alias that you belong to. 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