gordon@uw-june.UUCP (Russell Owen) (11/25/87)
The Seikosha SP 1000 AP printer is claimed to be Imagewriter compatible,
and can be mail-ordered for less than $200.
We just bought one, and here is an initial report.
Basics
- scaling is excellent -- slightly more accurate than my IW I
- print quality is better than the IW I (dots are smaller)
- speed is awful -- 2-3 times slower than an IW I (see below)
- I haven't used it enough to accurately judge compatibility,
but initial tests had mixed results:
- MacWrite and MacDraw appear to work
- VersaTerm appears to hang using "IW Driver", but work using "IW RS-232"
- the Seikosha has pull tractor feed and so cannot do large backups;
hence presumably some Mac stuff will fail (munging your paper)
Overall, I'm not thrilled. The emulation appears to have a few flaws,
and it's just too slow. However, if you're desperate to save money,
it probably will do the job, and it does have very nice output.
Speed (details)
prtr A B C
(m:s) (m:s) (char/sec)
IW 1 2:15 1:37 63
Seikosha 6:27 3:08 29
A: one sparse MacDraw page (graphics and a bit of text); high quality
B: same page as A, but "faster" mode
C: a page of plain text (54 lines, 65 characters each); draft mode
*the Seikosha printed left-to-right, whereas the IW 1 printed bi-directionally;
this presumably explains the extra discrepancy in time
Why is draft text so slow, despite advertisement of 100 cps? Because
the different draft fonts built into the printer run at very different speeds,
and the Mac standard draft font is slow. The Seikosha manual claims 75 cps
for Elite (monospaced), 37 cps for Pica (monospaced).
(I measured approximately 50 and 29, respectively).
Other Stuff
The Seikosha:
- is quieter (but whinier)
- auto-loads cut paper (I've not tried this)
- can accept a sheet feeder
- has NLQ mode (I've not tested it)
- has friction-held tractors (i.e. they are not locked in place)
Overall, the Seikosha is built more like an Epson than an IW I--light & small.
However, I have no guess as to which is more reliable.
--
Russell Owen
owen@uwaphast.bitnet uw-beaver!uw-june!phastvax!owen