03-07-2009, 05:52 AM
The beauty of Postscript printers is that you don't need to know anything about them to get them working under OS X, OS 9 (or even older). They just work and you don't need to install any drivers (you can install a PPD, Postscript Printer Description, for printer specific features and more control).
The downside is that essentially only laser printers (and extremely expensive, somewhat specialized inkjets) have Postscript and nowadays pretty much only Xerox makes true Adobe Postscript printers and they are expensive (though the Xerox 6180N is not bad for a networked color laser around $400). HP and Brother both make printers with their own versions of Postscript emulators, but I've found them both to be a little buggy compared to true Adobe Postscript printers.
But, chances are, this is not the type of printer your friend is looking for.
The downside is that essentially only laser printers (and extremely expensive, somewhat specialized inkjets) have Postscript and nowadays pretty much only Xerox makes true Adobe Postscript printers and they are expensive (though the Xerox 6180N is not bad for a networked color laser around $400). HP and Brother both make printers with their own versions of Postscript emulators, but I've found them both to be a little buggy compared to true Adobe Postscript printers.
But, chances are, this is not the type of printer your friend is looking for.