ginger@ihlpm.ATT.COM (R.P. Berg) (03/18/88)
I've been asked several questions about the Star NX 1000 Rainbow color
printer I got 3/11, so here is a mini-review:
Here are some of the specs I remember:
Epson JX-80 compatible
144 cps draft mode, ~60-80 cps NLQ mode (I don't have the book here)
4 on-board NLQ fonts: Elite, Pica, Courier, Orator
several on-board styles : italics, condensed, expanded, etc..
4 buttons, 10 LEDs
9 pin print-head
8K buffer when using on-board fonts, 1 line buffer when using
down-loaded fonts
buffer clearing feature (I mean besides the power switch :-) )
The paper feed is nice. Both tractor feed and single sheet feed are standard.
There is even a paper parking feature: when you want to do some high-quality
single sheet work, the printer will back-out the fan-fold stuff, but still keep it
accessable. When you're done and want to go back to fanfold, press two buutons,
the fan-fold gets reloaded and aligned. I like that.
Ribbon: For color, it uses a 4-band (black, blue, red, yellow) ribbon, about
an inch thick. The cartridge sits in a carriage that moves it
up and down to choose the color it needs, one color per pass. The
driver is smart enough to know if you need a specific color for
the current line.
Now the stupid part: My dealer tried to talk me out of getting
the color printer, since I will mainly be doing word processing.
His distributor said that the printer does not support a black-
only ribbon. Why should a person mainly interested in text waste
3/4 of a color ribbon? Well, we compared the color ribbon to the
black ribbon for the b&w version. Hmmm, same shape. We tried the
black-only ribbon, and you can see that the carriage is specifically
engineered to accept this type of ribbon cartridge. The up-down
part of the carriage doesn't hold the cartridge, so the black ribbon is
always in front of the print head. The book doesn't mention this;
Star's docs and reps aren't doing this machine justice. I'm surprised
that my dealer didn't try this before I got there; he's usually
good at these things. So, use the black ribbon for text; color ribbon
for graphics. Save some $$.
Speed: Graphic dumps are slow.... not totally the printer's fault though.
A DPaint I picture (KingTut, for example) took about 5 minutes. For some
reason my quality isn't as good as my dealer's; I get a little overlap.
He just got the V1.3 Epson JX-80 driver; big difference in quality and speed.
The dithering is much better also.
NLQ: That about says it... damn near letter quality. Hold it 4-5 inches
from your eyes and sure, you'll see that it's dot-matrix. Further away...
hmmm, looks like it's type-written.
Price: printer + cable = $265
Any other questions?
Russ
ihnp4!ihlpm!ginger