okay@tafs.mitre.org (Okay, S J) (02/15/90)
[General Commentary on 24-pin printers]. >Since the P2200 is >NEC's low end pinwriter, it only takes cloth ribbons :-(. They have >models that do take carbon and multicolor ribbons for more money. It >would be worth checking the other brands for this feature. I have one of the higher end models(P5200) and thought I'd toss in my 2 cents after having one and using it daily since October. The P5200 will take a carbon as well as a color ribbon. The color ribbons are a little hard to find and cost around $20-$30 U.S. since it is a "NEC" brand ribbon. I have yet to find a 'generic' 4 color ribbon that will fit a P5200. If somebody knows of one, I'd appreciate hearing about it(like where, how much, manufacturer, etc.) >As far as bottom line graphic quality, I haven't used a laser jet, but >I do use a postscript apple laserwriter on the suns at work, so I will >assume the output is equivalent to that. Line graphics, or things like >pie charts with a crosshatch or stipple fill compare well, especially >with a new ribbon. The laser writers "ink" is a little darker black. My NEC is too....B&W images and text look fantastic. Geometrics,charts, graphs, etc. come out razor sharp, especially with a carbon ribbon. If you can't afford a laser or inkjet, 24 pins is a good, cheaper way to do it. > >Halftones, printing iff pictures and generally things with "filled area" >don't do so well. With so many pinstrikes the paper puckers up somewhat >because you are beating it to a pulp. The amiga print driver doesn't seem >to account well for the fact that the pins overlap so much, so areas that >are supposed to be light grey look almost as dark as things that are supposed >to be black. True....this does take some playing around with. Don't plan on printing out any Color IFFs at 360x360 dpi. They come out smeared, blackened and overall not-at-all pretty. HAM IFFs especially. Those with high contrasts and 16 or so colors, or whose subject matter is of a light color in general come out better and in some cases look pretty good, but overall, this is not A Good Thing. I've found the best results are obtained with prefs density level set to 3 and image size bounded in inches, default scaling and ordered dithering. F/S dithering take twice as long and I haven't found any noticeable difference in final appearance. >There are visible variations in the tone that show the passes >of the print head (called banding). I haven't done a lot of this type of >graphic printing, so there may be some adjustment in preferences that >will give better contrast. Ribbon age, density, etc. can all help fix or virtually eliminate this problem. The one nice thing about using prefs density 6 is that you virtually eliminate banding. If you can handle your images being a few shades darker than what you see on the screen, you might want to give this a shot. At any lower density , or with a well-worn ribbon, banding becomes more apparent. Color correction also helps banding some by making the color approximate whats on the screen more closely. Usually, this take the form of making them deeper and darker. >I know there is an adjustment on the printer >so the pins don't strike as hard (supposed to be for paper thickness >adjustment) which should at least help with the puckering. You also might >find that the picture looks better printed at a lower density. This also helps with the high-density smearing problem, I've found that pulling the head proximity lever to 1.5-2 copies thick still gives you good color and density while not beating the paper to death.....but still, 180x240 dpi gives you the best 24-pin color reproduction I've found. >I think the laser printer (at least postscript) wins in this kind of >printing. Welllll.....not really.....I've printed out quite a few IFFs, particularily some HAM ones and was pretty disappointed by the way our LaserWriter II trashed the shading and colors on some of the NewTek Reel 1 HAMs. "Laura", "Ferrari" and "Lady" all got pretty munged up by Postscript trying approximate the shades in the peoples faces, and the reflections in the Ferrari. There is also about a 2X magnification of pixel sizes, so the overall picture looked kind of blocky in places too. B&W lasers do do a pretty good job with a Hi-Res or interlace picture as well as some of the new Dyna-HAM pix, but you need to have the resolution up around that range, otherwise the pixel magnification just ruins the output. Nothing comes close to a Tek 4693D or Matrix TT200, but not having one of those, , I prefer my NEC. >For something intermediate in price, you could try a cannon bubblejet >or hp deskjet, but that will still be over 2 times the cost. If the >NEC ever dies, I would consider one of these. They are a lot quieter >too. In terms of cost, my P5200 was around $600 U.S. ($500 for the printer, $75 for the color option, plus all those pesky taxes, tags and other unmentionables) >Text is equivalent to a good electric typewriter using a cloth ribbon (plus >of course the flexibility of font choice, proportional spacing, etc). > > >-don perley > >perley@trub.crd.ge.com ------------- Stephen Okay OKAY@TAFS.MITRE.ORG Technical Aide, The MITRE Corporation "Never let reality stand in the way of a good media campaign" Disclaimer:Yes, you're right, these are *MY* opinions...