| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 2955.1 | Some info | LOWLIF::DAVIS | That's not a BUG it's a FEATURE! | Mon Sep 25 1989 11:16 | 17 |
| Al,
It all depends on your price range. Cheapest would be a 9-pin dot matrix.
These can be had for under $200. For about $300, you can move up to a 24-pin
dot matrix. Above that you get into ink-jet and laser printers. This is
assuming you want black and white. Color is another option.
I'll comment on dot matrix: If you go this route, you'll be much happier to
spend another $100 or so and get a 24-pin. The best two I've seen are the
Panasonix KXP-1124 and the Star NX2400. I have the Star and am very happy
with it. Each has it's own advantages/disadvantages, I'm sure.
DIR/TITLE=PRINT should point you to more information.
Good luck,
...richard
|
| 2955.2 | Advise is cheap, printers aren't | VMSDEV::BUFORD | It's a boy! | Mon Sep 25 1989 11:17 | 47 |
| I just went through the exercise of choosing a printer, so I can
sympathize with your predicament.
There are several types on printers:
Daisywheel
Thermal paper
9 pin dot matrix
24 pin dot matrix
Ink jet / laser
The daisywheel printers provide letter quality output (because they are
essentially typewriters) but they are slow, noisy, and cannot do
graphics. To switch fonts, you have to switch daisywheels.
Thermal paper printers are cheap to buy but expesive to run since they
require special paper. Be aware that the Okimate color printer that sells
for as little as $99 is a thermal paper printer...
9 pin dot matrix printers are fairly inexpensive and do a pretty good
job if you aren't too picky about print quality. Many (most) have a
Near Letter Quality mode in which the print head makes two passes.
They usually have several fonts installed and several heights/widths
available. Some can downline load additional fonts. They also do
graphics. Prices are in the $200 to 400 range.
24 pin printers look and operate much the same as a 9 pin, but the
output looks better because of the finer granularity that the
additional pins provide. NLQ on a 24 pin printer looks pretty darn
good. Prices are in the $350 to $550 range.
Laser printers provide excellent output -- for a price. Prices are in
the $2k to $4k range.
The "right" printer for you depends on what your needs and wants will
be over the next 3 years and on the amount of money you are willing to
spen. I wanted the best letter quality output possible and I wanted
graphics. I couldn't afford a laser printer. I considered a
daisywheel for documents + a 9 pin for graphics, but that wouldn't
permit me to integrate text and graphics easily. So I decided on a 24
pin. I finally bought a Panasonic 1124.
You milage may vary :-)
John B.
|
| 2955.3 | NEC Pinwriter works good | CAM::ARENDT | Harry Arendt CAM:: | Mon Sep 25 1989 15:42 | 10 |
|
I have a NEC Pinwriter 5200 ( 24 pin ). I like it a lot. I don't
know the price because it was donated to the charity I work with
however I am running it on both my amiga and an IBM clone. I use
Wordperfect on the Amiga and Multi-mate on the IBM and both
seem to work fine. The near letter quality is excellent and it
also allows for sheet feeding without removing the tractor fed
paper, a great feature!
Harry
|
| 2955.4 | HP DeskJet PLUS | MLTVAX::MARK | Waltzing with Bears | Mon Sep 25 1989 16:45 | 16 |
| I recently upgraded my printer to an HP DeskJet PLUS. It's a 300dpi
ink jet (normal paper) printer. It gives lasar quality output for about $700.
In fact, not having a WordPerfect driver for it, and not wanting to go through
the PRINTDEF routine, I did what the DeskJet manual suggested - I told
WordPerfect it was a LasarJet. That works fine, since they're compatible.
The output from AmigaTeX (there's a DeskJet driver here) looks great on it,
also.
I think this is probably one of the best values in terms of
price/performance.
Mark
P. S. RE: .2 The Okimate-20 is NOT a thermal paper printer. It uses a thermal
process to transfer colours from the ribbon to the (non-thermal) paper.
|
| 2955.5 | You could try Digital's printers. | OPG::ANGUS | Old Elysian with a big D.I.C. | Tue Sep 26 1989 05:35 | 21 |
| Us poor people (my review is coming up :-) ) make do with what ever we
can get our mits on. In my case it is an old LA50. It is ideal for my
current needs.
Now that I have got my hard disk going, I shall probably start on the
road to buying applications that require higher resolution printing; in
which case I may well need a new printer. So my first port of call will
be the printers that Digital badge, and see what sort of deal employee
purchase can come up with.
However, the printer I chose will match my needs; and the LA50 I have
(which Digital was throwing away) meets my current needs. LA75 or
LA100s may prove interesting - anybody got experience of these
printers?
Then again, if it were a toss up between a $500 dot matrix printer and
a $700 HP Deskjet PLUS, then there's no contest; given the HP Deskjet
is reliable, and doesn't break down as frequently as our LPS40; then
again it won't get hammered as much.
Angus
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| 2955.6 | Some prices for you. | SUBURB::MCDONALDA | Old Elysian with a big D.I.C. | Wed Sep 27 1989 06:47 | 12 |
| Taken from a 'Once Bytten' ad in Amiga User International (Aug addition
I think).
HP Deskjet �595 HP Deskjet PLUS �699
Inclusive of VAT add �5 carriage.
Hmmmm. It might be worthwhile to ave all my Nickles and Dimes - whoops,
wrong country - pennies and pounds and buy one of these; next year,
may be? Rather than get an LA75 or LA100.
Angus
|