air@anableps.berkeley.edu (03/16/89)
In article <4035@druhi.ATT.COM> cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM (Ronald A. Guest) writes: >Has anyone had any first hand experiences with GCC's WriteMove inkjet >printer? I saw a couple of reviews that indicated it 'might' be a viable >alternative to an Imagewriter, and cheaper than a DeskJet+Grappler. I have >gotten price quotes of $530. I am curious if it works as well as I have >heard (although it still has the font inconvenience of a Grappler). The review i read which was acompanied by a photo said Paraphrased: Though i realy wanted to lioke it(its so cute portable battery powered) The more i used it the less i liked it This and other things lead me to believe that the writeemove printer is the Diconix 150 with a grappler built in. (even the control panel buttons are the sdame). I like the diconix, but not as a replacement for an imagewriter II. The diconix 150 can be had (SERIAL) for ~475 street and a sug. ret. of 519.00 Hope this helps _______ _ __ _ _ __ __ Arthur Ernest Wright @ \ / / \ / / \ / \ / / / \ (503)344-7969 BUY NET \ O / /__/ /__ / / /__/ / /__ \__ ___ _ _ _ \ / / / / / / / / | | |_ / | \ /\ | /\ /_ \/ v / /__ \_/ / /__ /__ \__/ | |_ \_ | | \/ |_ \/ \/ /
sasaki@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Dr. Jim Sasaki ) (03/17/89)
In article <4035@druhi.ATT.COM> cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM (Ronald A. Guest) writes: > Has anyone had any first hand experiences with GCC's WriteMove inkjet > printer?.... I am curious if it works as well as I have heard (although it > still has the font inconvenience of a Grappler). In article <21671@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> air@anableps.berkeley.edu writes: > [ I ] believe that the WriteMove printer is the Diconix 150 with a Grappler > built in.... I've been thinking about buying a WriteMove, too, but haven't yet. There're reviews of it in the 12/6/88 MacWeek and the March Macazine. The WriteMove is a Diconix 150 with a different ROM, one put in by GCC. In its best mode, a WriteMove prints at 192 dots per inch, as opposed to the 144 dpi (I presume) of a Diconix/Grappler combination. In draft mode, a WriteMove prints at 96 dpi. (For comparison, an Imagewriter LQ can print at 216 dpi, and a Deskjet/GrapperLS can print at 300 dpi.) A WriteMove comes with some outline fonts. Having outline fonts means that you don't have to worry about what size fonts you have installed in your system, as long as you use the outline fonts. GCC tells me that you'll only get 192 dpi output if you use an outline font; if you don't, it prints at a lower resolution. -- Jim Sasaki (sasaki@umbc3.umbc.edu. Please append usual disclaimer w.r.t. GCC, Diconix, the University of Maryland, etc.)
igor@ai.cs.wisc.edu (03/24/89)
>In article <21671@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> air@anableps.berkeley.edu writes: >In article <4035@druhi.ATT.COM> cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM (Ronald A. Guest) writes: >>Has anyone had any first hand experiences with GCC's WriteMove inkjet >>printer? I saw a couple of reviews that indicated it 'might' be a viable >>alternative to an Imagewriter, and cheaper than a DeskJet+Grappler. I have >>gotten price quotes of $530. I am curious if it works as well as I have >>heard (although it still has the font inconvenience of a Grappler). It doesn't have the font inconvenience of the Grappler. The writemove can print any font installed in your system, and from my experience does a good job. It is also not painfully slow. > >The review i read which was acompanied by a photo said >Paraphrased: > Though i realy wanted to lioke it(its so cute portable battery powered) > The more i used it the less i liked it > I have owned a WriteMove for about 4 months now. It is connected to my mac II at home. At school, I have access to laserwriters. Before purchasing the printer, I considered the DeskJet+Grappler. I decided against the DeskJet+Grappler combo because it is *very* slow, and because I didn't need such high quality output on my home printer (although it would be nice). The WriteMove prints at 192dpi in high quality mode and at 96dpi in draft mode. There is a big difference between 192dpi and 300dpi. There are two recent reviews of the WriteMove (April MacWorld and April MacUser). The MacWorld review was much more positive than the MacUser review. I would suggest reading both. The MacWorld article seems to reflect the significant advertising revenue MW gets from GCC Technologies (the writemove manufacturers), but is still reasonably informative. The MacUser article is somewhat less informative and (in my humble opinion) is overly negative. The MacUser reviewer often claims to be "frustrated" by the printer (something that I haven't experienced, btw). I suspect that he was up late trying to meet a deadline for the article when he wrote it. The MacUser review makes a number of legitimate complaints about the WriteMove. The printer cable (3 feet) is much too short. The printing supplies (ink cartridges and paper) are expensive. When printing some graphics (particularly shaded areas) the image tends to look black (only in high-quality mode). This is due to the fact that ink jet "dots" are bigger than other dot-matrix printer dots. Line graphs, for example, tend to look better than when printed on an imagewriter. The MacUser article also makes a number of complaints that I don't agree with. Although I only use cut sheets occasionally, I have had no problems feeding the paper. (The MacWorld review claims that this is easier to do than on the imagewriter.) Unlike the MU reviewer, I like the draft mode, but you have to be careful about the font that you use. There are some (I forget which) that don't look good in draft mode. Geneva looks great. There is also a complaint in the MU article about the fact that the WriteMove *can* use rechargable NiCad batteries and not cheap disposable batteries. I don't use this feature, and I doubt that anyone will find it useful until Apple introduces a laptop mac. If I were to use run a printer on batteries, I would certainly want to own a set of rechargables. (Of course, this might be a pain if all you want to do is write a review of the machine in a hurry and you don't have a set of NiCads ;-) Since the printer runs off a DC adaptor, you can use this printer in Europe by purchasing a second (220V) adaptor. The imagewriter, unlike the newer macs, does not have a universal power supply and there is supposedly a problem using a transformer due to the 50/60Hz difference. (Unless I was moving there, I wouldn't want to lug an imagewriter to Europe anyway.) On my Mac II (1MB w/80MB quantum *fast* hard disk), the printer is a joy to use. The previewer is wonderful (integrated with the driver), and the print spooler is also great. I don't have to wait long for a document to start printing. On an SE (or earlier machine), or a machine with a slower hard drive, I would expect that the delay would be longer. >This and other things lead me to believe that the writeemove printer >is the Diconix 150 with a grappler built in. (even the control panel buttons ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ My understanding of the grappler, is that it uses the imagewriter driver. The grappler converts imagewriter control codes into the codes required by your printer. The writemove has its own driver. It is much faster than using a grappler. >I like the diconix, but not as a replacement for an >imagewriter II. The diconix 150 can be had (SERIAL) for ~475 street and >a sug. ret. of 519.00 >Hope this helps >_______ _ __ _ _ __ __ Arthur Ernest Wright @ I agree! The writemove is not an imagewriter replacement (although for some people it might be an alternative). If you will use a printer heavily, get an imagewriter, or a laser printer if you can afford it (GCC's personal laser printer is about $1400 mail order). The cost of operating a writemove will overwhelm you if you use it for mass printing. If you want a cheap printer for drafts, consider a Seikosha imagewriter clone. If you want a printer for light duty and laser quality output, and can't afford a laser printer, consider a DeskJet. If you want a printer for occasional high-quality output, but primarily for drafts and only print a few documents per day, I'd recommend a writemove. For less than $100 more than an imagewriter you get silence, a spooler, an integrated previewer, and very good text output (for font sizes >= 12pt) packaged in a unit that has a *very* small footprint. Igor Steinberg igor@cs.wisc.edu