yossie@marque.mu.edu (04/09/90)
I just ordered one from the company for $1399 + $25 for the SCSI cable (which is not normally included). Since delivery will take 60-90 days (they are really back-ordered) I have time to change my mind. :-) My question is: does anyone have anything real good or real bad to say about this printer? I will summerize comments to the network. My knowledge so far: 1) speed: 4 pages/minute. Seems decent. 2) will not halt the mac when turned off (which it might, as its a SCSI device). 3) Comes with a bunch of "built in" fonts, all the standard ones I am told by the sales-lady, but I don't know exactely what standard ones. 4) Will print 2000-2500 pages per $33 cartridge. 5) cost: $1399 with free ground shipping, $8 or so for overnight. 6) warenty: one year, 1 month MBG. 7) Prints up to the margins of the page. - Yossie
isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) (04/10/90)
In article <9716@marque.mu.edu> yossie@marque.mu.edu (Yossie Silverman) writes: >I just ordered one from the company for $1399 + $25 for the SCSI cable >(which is not normally included). Since delivery will take 60-90 days >(they are really back-ordered) I have time to change my mind. :-) My >question is: does anyone have anything real good or real bad to say about >this printer? I will summerize comments to the network. I figured I'd answer since I can answer just about any questions you might have about GCC products. (I worked for them last summer.) >My knowledge so far: >1) speed: 4 pages/minute. Seems decent. The top-rated speed for the engine will do 4 ppm. This of course is if the Mac has to do minimal processing for each page. (Say printing 20 copies of a page.) >2) will not halt the mac when turned off (which it might, as its a SCSI > device). Not a real biggie in my opinion -- but it does cut down on the noise during the sleep mode. >3) Comes with a bunch of "built in" fonts, all the standard ones I am told > by the sales-lady, but I don't know exactely what standard ones. All the GCC printers use custom drivers which support their outline font format. This means that you can print any size, any rotation and avoid the evil jaggies. The "built in" fonts is their base package of Times (Roman/Bold/Italic/BoldItalic) Helvetica (Plain/Bold/Oblique/BoldOblique) Zapf Calligraphic (Bitstream's version of Palatino, Roman/B/I/BI) Swiss Narrow (Bitstream's version of Helvetica Narrow, Plain/B/O/BO) Courier (Plain/B/O/BO) Symbol In addition, GCC offers three additional font packages as well as a FontConverter to convert any of Bitstream's Type F fonts to GCC format. >4) Will print 2000-2500 pages per $33 cartridge. Yup. Depending on the amount of black on a page. The PLP II has two consumables, the Toner cartridges and the EP Magazine. The EP Magazine is more expensive (somewhere around $138) and you only replace it every-so-often. (I don't know what they rate the lifetime at) >5) cost: $1399 with free ground shipping, $8 or so for overnight. >6) warenty: one year, 1 month MBG. >7) Prints up to the margins of the page. It's a good price and a good warranty. I've played with the printer and the output looks great. There's only two disadvantages: 1) The 60-90 day backorder. 2) RAM usage. Since the GCC driver is more akin to the LaserWriter driver (but it doesn't have a PostScript processor to do everything), the Mac has to do all the processing. Under Multifinder, some applications reclaim all the partition you give them so sometimes documents won't print from within the application. In this case, you have to run the "GCC Print Manager" program to print them out. This last disadvantage is also an advantage. I found when I was working that quite often I really didn't need the printout RIGHT NOW, so I'd turn on the "Print Later" option. All my output was spooled and I didn't have to wait for it to be printed. When I left for lunch, I'd just run the print manager and tell it to print everything. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Ken -- Ken Hancock '90 | DISCLAIMER: I'm graduating and looking for Consultant | a job, so I'll stand by my words. Computer Resource Center |============================================== Dartmouth College | EMAIL: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu