I'm curious about a couple of references to PostScript output in comments above. It is quite true that PostScript provides exceptionally clean printing, but I'm not aware that most US users are likely to have personal printers capable of rendering that format.

My question is whether PostScript capable printers are more the normal thing in some of our "mudcat subcultures."

I've been using PostScript routinely for many years, but in my case it's a matter of necessity due to business with publishers. My first PS capable printer was an HP LaserJet, ca. 1991, and the PS RIP to obtain the capability cost nearly as much as the printer itself.

For a venture into color printing a few years back, a PostScript RIP for a new Epson inkjet ($139 - some years ago when they were more expensive) cost me nearly $350 extra.

QMS laser printers have always, so far as I know, used PostScript as their "native language," but it's only in recent years that HP lasers have included it as a "standard option" by emulation. Even now, an HP laser may not have the feature if you get a low cost model. I don't know of an inkjet, by far the most popular kind for personal use here, that comes with this capability.

This is definitely thread drift, but where in the world is it common for people to be able to print PostScript on machines they're likely to have around the home? Or - the other possibility - where are users likely to "send out" stuff they do for personal use to a commercial printer, where PostScript would be useful?

John