laser-lovers@uw-beaver (05/20/85)
From: Michael.Fryd@CMU-CS-A.ARPA (X435MF0E)
What makes a laser printer good?
There's a lot to consider: print engine, page description
languages, communications interfaces, available software, available
fonts, availability (and quality) of service, and, of course, price.
Usually you can mix and match. Company X may offer a line of
printers that differ only in the print engine they are based on. If you
don't like the service, buy the OEM version from company Y. Call your
favorite software vendor and buy the text formatter you like. Settle
for public domain fonts, or buy some. Design your own fonts if you
like.
Only you can decide how important each of these are to you. Don't
listen to claims that printer X is best, listen to how the printer
stacks up in the areas that are important to you.
When deciding which printer is best for you, you should ask yourself
a few questions:
- Will the fonts you want come standard with the printer? If
they are not standard will you be able to buy or license them?
How much work will you have to do yourself?
- Will your favorite text formatter work with the printer? If
not, will it be a lot of trouble to make it work? Does it
work well, or do you lose some features?
- Do you want to write your own software for the printer, How
hard will that be?
- Will the printer work with your computer's print spooler?
It is dangerous to decide between two printers based solely on a few
sample pages. Consider the Apple LaserWriter and the Imagen 8/300 for
example. Both are based on the same print engine from Canon, Both are
capable of printing any image on the paper. ANY page you can print on
one, can be printed on the other. Yet, when you compare sample pages,
these pages look different depending on which printer they came from.
By carefully choosing the conditions of the test, either printer can
be made to look better.
What fonts should be used for such a test? We could use identical
fonts on both printers, but that isn't fair, as few fonts are
commercially available for both machines with identical bitmaps. Should
we limit ourselves to fonts that come standard with the printer? Should
we limit to fonts available from the manufacturer? Perhaps we should
limit to fonts that are commercially available, regardless of vendor?
What text formatting software should you use? Both printers can
print arbitrary page images. Both printers have commands designed to
ease the task printing text. Not all formatters support both printers
equally well. Some text formatters will produce different output for
the two machines, even with identically fonts.
Some text formatters WILL make the two printers act identically.
Choose what's best for you.
Some people want a printer that allows them to easily do cute
graphics, using only their wits and a text editor.
Some people want a printer that will connect to their computer,
without any modifications to the print spooler.
What other people can do with the the printer is not nearly as
important as what you will be able to do with the printer. How hard
will it be for YOU to get the output that YOU want to see?
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As usual, the opinions here are solely my own.
"Apple LaserWriter" and "Imagen 8/300" are probably trademarks.