igor@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Igor Steinberg) (12/28/88)
I recently purchased a GCC WriteMove printer and, as a satisfied customer, want to relay my feelings about this machine to the net. The WriteMove is an inkjet printer which is targeted as an alternative to the Imagewriter II. It is advertised as a portable printer (it is very small, seems to be quite rugged, and can work on batteries), but I didn't purchase it for this feature. The print resolution in high quality mode is 192dpi. This compares with the Imagewriter II at 144dpi and the more expensive Imagewriter LQ at 216dpi. The printer has a 96dpi draft mode. It operates almost silently and at about the same speed as the Imagewriter II for both text and graphics. GCC includes 6 high quality fonts with the printer. They are: Times, Helvetica, Helvetica Narrow, and Palatino look-alikes, plus Courier and Symbol. The printer can use these fonts in addition to any other screen fonts that you have installed in your system. The printer driver can do font substitution (as is commonly done for laser printers). The print quality is very good, but definitely not as good as a laser printer. Draft mode printing is also surprisingly good. The printer driver allows you to optionally preview anything that you print. Even with the Mac's almost WSYWYG display, this is a nice feature. Also included is a print spooler that works well. The spooler uses the hard disk to store the print image, and so the speed of the spooler depends on the speed of your Macintosh and hard disk. GCC claims that the printer should be able to print about 1/3 of your document before the image will be fully spooled, but I have noticed that the spooler is much faster than this. (I have a Mac II with a relatively fast hard disk.) The drawbacks with the WriteMove are that the print supplies are relatively expensive. New ink cartridges cost about $12 ($10 in quantity), and inkjet paper (which is recommended) is more expensive than plain paper. The warranty is only 90 days. (They must have taken a cue from Apple.) Overall, though, I am very satisfied with this printer. I purchased it mail-order for about $530 including shipping. Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with GCC Technologies other than as a satisfied customer. Igor Steinberg ------------------------------ ARPA: igor@cs.wisc.edu UUCP: ..seismo!cs.wisc.edu!igor