An agreement has recently been reached between Shareware Solutions II, Vitesse, and Harmonie author Bill Heineman that results in Shareware Solutions II becoming the new publisher of the Harmonie set of GS/OS printer drivers.
Harmonie is a collection of GS/OS printer drivers that permits IIGS owners to output data onto the printed page using three different types of high performance, high quality printers:
1) Laser printers that emulate the widely used Hewlett-Packard LaserJet (PCL Level 3) standard, including the LaserJet IIp, III, IV and 5L.
2) Inkjet printers that emulate (PCL Level 3) Hewlett-Packard DeskJet printers, including the DeskJet (or DeskWriter) 340, 400, 500, 520, 560c, 600, 660c, 670, 672c, 680c, 682c, 690c and 800 series printers which are not designated as Windows only printers (or DeskWriters that are not designated as PowerPC Only). Please note that the DeskJet 710, 712, 720 and 722 are Windows-only printers and will not work on the IIGS.
3) 24-pin dot-matrix printers that emulate Epson LQ printers, including models manufactured by Epson, NEC, Panasonic, and many others.
Additionally, Harmonie also includes greatly improved GS/OS drivers for the ImageWriter II and ImageWriter LQ dot-matrix printers, and for Apple's original StyleWriter I printer.
Harmonie also provides driver support for several Parallel Interface Cards including the Grappler Plus, ProGrappler, AE Parallel Pro, Epson APL, FingerPrint G, II Print and the Marcey Parallel card. Harmonie also includes a special serial Port Driver that enables printers that have a serial interface to be used with Harmonie (Note: Most HP printers manufactured in the last few years include only a Parallel interface; some older DeskJets included only a serial interface.).
Harmonie works with all standard IIGS programs that use the IIGS Print Manager, such as AppleWorks GS, Platinum Paint, HyperCard IIGS, and Quick Click Calc; the most notable exception of programs that do not work with the Harmonie drivers is The Print Shop GS. Aside from The Print Shop GS, Harmonie should work just fine with all of your GS/OS based software.
Harmonie allows you to take full advantage of high quality printers, up to a certain point. On HP laser printers, Harmonie will output data to the printed page at a maximum of 300 dots per inch resolution, even on laser printers that are capable of printing at higher resolutions. On DeskJet printers, Harmonie is limited to printing in color at 300 dots per inch, and at 600 x 300 dots per inch resolution in black and white. Despite those limitations, tens of thousands of Apple IIGS owners who purchased Vitesse's Harmonie are thrilled with the high quality output that they can achieve at 300 dots per inch or at 600 x 300 dots per inch.
Harmonie is, in essence, an extension to the GS/OS Operating System. Once the Harmonie drivers are installed and you've gotten used to having a high quality ink jet or laser printer connected to your IIGS, you'll soon come to think of Harmonie as such an integral component of GS/OS that you'll be printing to those high quality printers with nary a second thought and with all of the ease of use you now associate with the ImageWriter. In other words, thanks to Harmonie, printing on laser and ink jet printers is simply a matter of "plug and print."
Vitesse has been selling the Harmonie package of printer drivers for $29.95, and Shareware Solutions II is very pleased to be able to lower the price to $20, which includes postage to anywhere in the world.
Because Vitesse's activities in the Apple II world have been decreasing for the past year or two, the v2.11 update was never really promoted, and many current owners of Vitesse's Harmonie have absolutely no idea that Harmonie had ever been updated to support 600 x 300 dpi printing. For that reason, Shareware Solutions II would like to extend a low cost update offer to those of you who have older versions of Vitesse's Harmonie. The cost of the update is $7, but in order to qualify for that lower cost update, you must return your original Harmonie disk for verification (it will be returned to you) or submit a copy of your Vitesse receipt.
To purchase Harmonie for the Apple IIGS by credit card over the Internet, visit Shareware Solutions II's Online Store.
To order Harmonie by mail, send checks or money orders to:
Joe Kohn
Shareware Solutions II
166 Alpine St
San Rafael, CA 94901
In order to achieve the highest quality printing possible on a IIGS,
Harmonie provides only 50% of the working solution; Harmonie simply
provides you with the ability to use ink jet or laser printers on a IIGS.
WestCode Software's Pointless program provides the missing piece of the
formula, and Pointless is a virtual requirement for anyone who prints text
from any GS/OS based program. Please click here to learn a little more about Pointless.