aaron@proxftl.UUCP (Aaron Zimmerman) (08/01/88)
I am interested in purchasing the HP deskjet, but first would like to hear the net.opinions, as I haven't seen it reviewed ANYWHERE yet. Does TeX have drivers for it? Is the print quality *really* on par with lasers? How long does it take to print out a page of graphics? What's the approximate printing speed for plain text? How much do the ink cartridges cost (and how long do they last)? How does one load fonts onto it? Does it make a lot of noise while it prints? It seems to be an excellent alternative to a 24pin printer, but I'd like some more facts than the advertisements offer. Any help would be much appreciated.... (better to post it than send it by e-mail; we're having some problems with the mailer here). -- Aaron | Proximity Technology | #include <disclaimer.h> Charles | 3511 N-E 22nd Ave. | #include <cute_quote.h> Zimmerman | Fort Ladeda, Fla | cat flames > /dev/null
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (08/06/88)
I thought I'd field these questions about the HP DeskJet. > Does TeX have drivers for it? Well, AmigaTeX does :-), but I don't know about other machines. HP LaserJet Plus or Series Two drivers will *not* work; the font downloading is significantly different, and all but useless for TeX on the DeskJet. > Is the print quality *really* on par with lasers? Absolutely. I've printed sheets on a QMS PS-810, QMS SmartWriter, and the HP DeskJet, and people couldn't tell (from the front and without touching the sheet) which was which. From the back, well, a little ink can bleed through with large black areas. > How long does it take to print out a page of graphics? Anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes. Six for true, full-page graphics; less if you're very smart about resetting the width of the page whenever you can do a narrower portion of a page. Average is probably between 2.5 and 4 minutes a page. > What's the approximate printing speed for plain text? It's fast. Like, two to three pages a minute. And it looks very good. > How much do the ink cartridges cost (and how long do they last)? Someone else will have to answer this; I never used up a cartridge, so I didn't need to buy another. (I had it long enough to develop a printer driver for it.) > How does one load fonts onto it? One doesn't. Buy a font cartridge. Or bribe the soft font format from HP (some people report that HP claims the data is proprietary and will not make it available; I had no trouble getting the stuff, though. I have noticed that some of their technical support people know quite a bit, but others are totally clueless.) > Does it make a lot of noise while it prints? This printer is incredibly quiet; quieter than almost any other printer I have ever seen. Loudest noise? As a mechanism slowly lowers a printed sheet onto the tray. > It seems to be an excellent alternative to a 24pin printer, but I'd like some > more facts than the advertisements offer. It certainly is. A 24-pin printer is about five times as fast for TeX, but they are about the same speed for text, and the quality is out of this world. Not for those trying to do any volume at all, though. Although I must say that I wouldn't buy one, since you can get a LaserJet clone for a few hundred much more. But that's just me.
burzio@mmlai.UUCP (Anthony Burzio) (08/07/88)
In article <560@proxftl.UUCP>, aaron@proxftl.UUCP (Aaron Zimmerman) writes: > > I am interested in purchasing the HP deskjet, but first would like to hear > the net.opinions, as I haven't seen it reviewed ANYWHERE yet. > I carried one around after a demo at our local HP center, and I noticed the print smudged where my fingers touched the paper. Seems the ink dissolves in salt water... ***************************************************************** Tony Burzio * My bosses will never read this, * Martin Marietta Laboratories * so it's ok... * *****************************************************************
wunder@hp-sde.SDE.HP.COM (Walter Underwood) (08/09/88)
> How long does it take to print out a page of graphics?
Anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes.
Was this with Centronics or serial? The DeskJet has both, but I
haven't fired it up with Centronics yet.
As someone else pointed out, the ink is water soluable.
wunder
neff@hpvcla.HP.COM (Dave Neff) (08/10/88)
To answer a few questions. TeX drivers are available (I have seen them mentioned on the net but I don't know how you could get one), but the general belief is the DeskJet is too slow for graphics to use with TeX. A full page of 300 DPI graphics will take about 5 minutes. Now if you can live with lower resolutions you gen get better speed. Granted the graphics speed could be better, but ... the DeskJet is intended primarily as a text printer with occasional graphics. Our studies indicated that corresponded to typical printer usage. A page of simple text takes about 30 seconds to print. It is rated at 120 CPS letter, 240 CPS draft, and I guarantee you that this is truly the rate at which the print head moves, however you have to pick paper, move paper, drop paper, etc. so I find pages per minute to be more useful. As the complexity of the page increases (many font changes, enhancement chages, etc) the pages per minute will decrease, just like on a laser printer. Is it laser quality? It is pretty darn good, but there is some variability in print quality with type of paper used. Good quality copy paper works well, but be sure to print on the "right side" of the paper (the one you are supposed to copy on). Some people put the "right side" facing up, like on a copier, but on a DeskJet the "right side" must be down. On bond paper, I would say the print quality is laser quality or even better (its blacker, less print contrast variation over a page). As for cost of ownership, a print cartridge is about $18 which lasts for 500 pages of text, giving a cost per page of about 3.5 cents. There is also a draft mode (key selectable) which uses half the ink so it is about 1.75 cents per page. If you use draft mode for throwaway print outs and rough drafts, you can get an average cost per page of around 2.5 cents, but that depends how you use the printer. These costs are comparable to laser printers. We suggest using the DeskJet in applications that have a 25 page per day typical usage, so in this usage a pen would last about 1 work month. Typically you buy a new ink pen everytime you buy a new ream of paper. Note since a pen costs $18 and a ream of good paper is about $5, it makes no sense to get cheap copy paper to save a few pennies and suffer degraded print quality. The printer is very quiet, and supports multiple fonts via two slots. A slot can contain a ROM cartridge for fonts or Epson emulation, or a RAM cartridge which can be used to download fonts. At this time only HP supplied download fonts are available and we offer no tools to make your own fonts, but many third party LaserJet font design programs are adding DeskJet support. I am very biased, having worked on the DeskJet, but I have three DeskJets on my desk in front of me, one at home, use them daily, and think they are great. People are amazed at what I am able to create on the printer. I hope I answered your questions. There has been discussion of the DeskJet on the net, but under the ibm PC category, rather than the hp or the printer categories. I will gladly answer any other questions you might have. Dave Neff ihnp4!hpfcla!hpvcla!neff (206) 254-8110 x2358
jim@hpiacla.HP.COM (Jim Rogers) (08/11/88)
burzio@mmlai.UUCP (Anthony Burzio) writes: >I carried one around after a demo at our local HP center, and I noticed >the print smudged where my fingers touched the paper. Seems the ink >dissolves in salt water... The ink on the deskjet is indeed water soluble. This was required by the need to use plain paper. Earlier models of HP ink-jet printers (Thinkjet and Quietjet) use a permanent ink, but also require a special paper witha high clay content. Customers clearly stated that special paper was a bad requirement. ---------- ********************************************************************** * Jim Rogers at Hewlett-Packard Industrial Applications Center * * * * Don't read it in the rain............ * **********************************************************************
dvl@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Doug Larson) (08/16/88)
> I am interested in purchasing the HP deskjet, but first would like to hear > the net.opinions, as I haven't seen it reviewed ANYWHERE yet. The DeskJet was reviewed in the July issue of HP Professional, beginning on page 29. HP Professional is an independent magazine - they also publish DEC Professional. Although the DeskJet review was quite favorable, the reviewer (Don Person) has sometimes given previous HP products he reviewed not such great reviews. Doug Larson hpda!dvl
alien@hpdml93.HP.COM (tom von alten) (08/26/88)
I've been using a DeskJet on my 9816. I like it a lot. It's extremely quiet, making just enough noise that you know it's there. The quality is on a par with laser printers. It has a good sized buffer, so the computer is seldom waiting for the printer, and it prints "fast enough" for us (at home). I tried graphics output on a system here at work, and it was very slow, and since the system also had a 7550 plotter on it, the choice was easy to make.