david@ukma.UUCP (David Herron) (12/01/84)
Well, its taken me awhile but here is all the data I gathered on laser printers. I got 2 basic recommendations. 1) get a QMS, 2) get an Imagen. Both machines have good features. Both seem to do the same set of things. Boith are in the right price range. In the end it boiled down to 1 difference. The Imagen people were up front with me on the capabilities of the machine. They sent me the PROGRAMMING manual for the sucker. That was my major complaint about the LN01, that DEC left out all sorts of IMPORTANT information in their manual. In the Imagen manual, it was all out there in plain sight. So, we are getting the Imagen. Some of these following messages are from people out on the net, others are my notes to myself about the printers. ****************************************************************************** >From: anl-mcs!ucbvax!decvax!mcnc!swd >Subject: laser printer info I highly recommend the QMS 1200. It builds a bitmap image in memory of the page to be printed, so there is no limit on the page complexity. You can even do very nice graphics with it including nifty things like seed fill. The documentation on how to download fonts is right in the manual, but like everything else in the manual, its pretty grungy. QMS sells troff support including a set of troff fonts for about $1500 (basic printer is $25K). tex support is also available. The output quality is very nice, we have had good experience with the reliability of the QMS, and its a bitch to program. Stephen Daniel (decvax!mcnc!swd) (swd@mcnc csnet) ************************************************************************** >From: Wang Zeep <anl-mcs!G.ZEEP%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC> >Subject: Re: Request for laser printer information Yes, the LN01s suck. We have a bunch, and have given up on them as a long term solution. QMS will add their controller to your LN01, giving it lots of capabilities. [this costs $13k. Added to the cost of the LN01 gives a total of $33K. - dsh] Imagen has announced a $10K printer based on the Canon baby engine with full fonts, etc. There was a relatively complete review of laser printers in the latest Digital Review. Not a great article, but lots of phone numbers. Tell me if you find anything good, but stay away from the older Imagen printers -- they're a mess to deal with. wz ************************************************************************** >From: anl-mcs!meltsner@mit-charon (Ken Meltsner) >Subject: Re: Thanks for the pointers. 1) There is some sort of LN02 planned. Don't know anything about it. 2) There is a microLN printer planned, using the Canon baby print engine, but with a microvax as a controller. 3) There are some plans for DEC to offer the QMS interface as an upgrade for LN01 users. Attached is a file with the LN01 control codes. Might be handy. Remember, LN01s do not handle very complex pages. If you have any other interesting control codes, send them on back. Ken SET PIXEL MODE: Do this first! ESC [ 7 <SP> I RESET LN01: Should be performed by the queue spooler ESC c SET TOP AND BOTTOM MARGINS Restrictions: Sequence ignored if improper Top >= 1 (maybe 2) Bottom >= Top Bottom cannot exceed form length Boundary Cases: Margins are hard margins; only Draw Vector allowed to exceed margins. If either parm is omitted, the sequence will set the supplied margin. If both are omitted, the sequence is ignored. Format: (assume ESC is the escape char "\033") ESC [ foo ; bar r Where: foo is top margin in pixels bar is bottom margin in pixels Example: ESC[100;1900r SET LEFT AND RIGHT MARGINS: See above for restrictions, etc. ESC [ foo ; bar s HORIZONTAL POSITION ABSOLUTE: If the new position is beyond a margin, the new horizontal position is set at the margin. ESC [ foo ` HORIZONTAL POSITION RELATIVE: Given a positive argument (only), increments the horizontal position by foo. Defaults to 1. ESC [ foo a VERTICAL POSITION ABSOLUTE: ESC [ foo d VERTICAL POSITION RELATIVE: ESC [ foo e JUSTIFY: ESC [ foo <SP> F 0 - Turn off justify. 2 - Turn on justify. Assumes the following are end of line indicators: <CR> <LF> <VT> <FF> Horizontal Position Absolute command Vertical " " " This command does not break lines, only fills them. To do so, it will expand (or contract) space character width until the line justifies. However, if the expansion requires more than 200% or contraction less than 60%, the line is output unjustified. If jfy is turned on and off, special things happen. Assume * means jfy on, & means jfy off: LINES IN: foo bar baz* &baz bar foo *foo bar baz foo& *bar baz OUTPUT: (assume !s are margins) ! ! foo bar baz baz bar foo foo bar baz foo bar baz UNDERLINE: ESC [ foo m 0 - turn underline off 4 - turn underline on Note that this corresponds with the VT100 code. DRAW VECTOR: ESC [ parm1 ; parm2 ; parm3 ; parm4 ; parm5 ! | parm1: if 1 draw in the horizontal direction, if 0 vertical parm2: atarting x coordinate parm3: starting y coordinate parm4: length parm5: thickness WARNING: Please do not draw off the paper! SUPERSCRIPT: ESC L SUBSCRIPT: ESC K ************************************************************************** >From david Tue Oct 30 16:48:49 1984 >To: +laser.printers >Subject: Printronix NPX-20 From article in DIGITAL REVIEW: $13,900, 240 by 240 dots per inch. 20 pages per minute. RS-232, Centronics and Dataproducts interface. Dual 250 sheet paper tray. 3 fonts. Printronix 17500 Cartwright Rd. Irvine, CA 92713 (714) 863-1900 ------------------------------ Called on 30-Oct-84. Sales Rep: Doug Alfpauth (ext. 2644) 3 fonts resident (a choice of exactly which (via cartridge?)), some number of downloadable fonts. Runs off of Fujitsu Engine. They just make a controller and package it. Available November 30. (The controller is just entering the debugging phase of design.) Can run legal size paper, normal 20# stock as for any Xerox machine. A maintanance manual is available, it comes with operator and programmer manuals. Service will be through the local distributor, but training is available. Local distributor: Lowry Computer Products Dayton, OH (513) 435-7684 (Should be able to provide a demo at the end of November). ---------------------------- Called again 29-Nov-84 Their printer is now called "LaserPrint-20". Prints only in "Line Printer Protocol". No graphics, and no font changes on a page. Basic price is $15,900. Has a 2000 sheet feeder for $2500, and a 15 bin collator for $4000. Prints 80-100K pages per month at 20 pages per minute. They state clearly that they are aiming at "data processing" environments. Not universities that like printing strange symbols. Note that this printer isn't yet announced. The salesman I talked to thought they might announce it at the Scantech show in Cincinnati next week. I didn't bother to find out more once I found out this printer was useless for us. ************************************************************************** >From david Tue Oct 30 17:07:06 1984 >To: +laser.printers >Subject: QMS Lasergraphics Quality Micro Systems PO Box 81250 Mobile, AL 36689 (205) 633-4300 Three models, 8, 12, and 24 ppm. ($9995, 24995, 34995). All models support full bit-mapped graphics, downloadable fonts, graphics, etc. 12 fonts in rom, 10-12 more fonts can be resident also (in rom). 384K memory for fonts. They have several greek fonts available. Have a troff output filter available. Fonts cannot be scaled for different point sizes. LN01 upgrade is $13,000. Service will be either through Xerox office in Lex (they have to be trained for the controller) or through their distributor in L'ville. ------------------------------------------ Called QMS 29-Nov-84 Service contracts: 1: Install only. $300, covers ONLY the installation. 2: Depot. return to them if its broken. $1176/yr. 3: annual svc. contract. $1176/yr. or time+material $58/hr +parts [strange that both depot and annual svc contract are same price. Salesman mentioned something that the depot version is for people in the hinterlands] 30 days delivery Bob Heinecke -- Lowry Computer Products. (513)-435-5544 (district manager) $9745+$250 for parallel on printer -10% for educational. GSA ************************************************************************** >From: <anonymous@some-computer> >Subject: Laser Printers You might check out Imagen Corporation's 8/300. We have had no trouble whatsoever with the printer, software or customer support. We are using it a lot (>5000 pages per month) and the cost is about 5-6 cents per page (paper, toner and maintenance. No computer resources included in that figure). Cost of our system (holds several downloadable fonts): $15,000. The documentation is great, with everything you would need to know. You can go ahead and reprint this, just remove my name (I like anominity). P.S. Imagen's number: (408) 986 9400 ************************************************************************** >From: David >To: +laser.printers >Subject: Talaris Systems printers. These printers are basically the same as the QMS printers. In fact these people keep mentioning QMS enough that one would think that the printers actually QMS. The information packet they send out is VERY complete. Gives all the facts and figures one would want. It just never really answers their question "Why buy a laser printer from a software company?" In fact, why buy one of these? They just seem to be QMS creatures. ----------------------------------------------------------- 3 models. Talaris 2400, 1200 and 800 for $34990, $24990, and $9990. (First thing to notice, same numbers and pricing as QMS). The 2400 and 1200 are based on Xerox engines with the 800 base on the Cannon LBP-CX engine. All have resolution of 300 by 300 dpi. Fonts are as follows: Built-in: 1 "data processing", 4 word processing, and 4 proportionally spaced. Downloadable: available. Software: QMSPLOT, a CalComp and Versaplot compatible plotting library, QTEX and QTEX80, DVI processors, QTROFF, and QDRIVE. Each printer has the same 68000 based controller. (again, QMS is mentioned here.) The talaris 800 == the qms 800. Same for 1200 and 2400. One drawback is that all that software mentioned above doesn't come for free. (Is this why they want you to buy a printer from a software company?) At any rate, they were wanting $2000+ for QTROFF, and $2000+ for QTEX (which also required QTROFF, bringing the price to over $4000). ************************************************************************** >From david Thu Nov 8 21:03:35 1984 >To: +laser.printers >Subject: Imagen 8/300 From their scam sheets: 300 dpi resolution. 8 pages per minute. Paper sizes are "letter", "legal", "A4", and "B5". The trays hold up to 100 sheets. Controller is a Multi-bus based 68000. Half a meg memory comes standard, it can be expanded up to 2 megs. It fits on a table top and weighs 90 pounds. Merged text and graphics. (mentions something called "imPRESS" which is a page layout and description language for typesetting and graphics). Other programs are "Daisy" for daisy wheel emulation, "Tektronix" for guess what, "Printer" for a line printer emulation, and "Screen dump" for bit-mapped graphics. Can be connected to RS-232, RS-423, Centronics parallel, Ethernet (TCP/IP), and IBM 2780/3780. They support Scribe, DI-troff, troff, TeX, and others. Polygon outlines and texture-fill, lines, vectors, circles, ellipses, and bitmaps. Can generate forms as well. Nationwide service available. Firmware maintenance. Dial-in service for problems and questions. IMAGEN Corporation Sales Department 2650 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, CA 5052-8101 (408) 986-9400 --------------------------------------------------- From talking to the sales person: Supports troff and ditroff with a converter program (to imPRESS). The ditroff program is $750. RS-232 runs at 19.2 kbaud or 9600 baud. Memory options: + 1/4 meg $1000 + 1/2 meg $1694 + 3/4 meg $2295 5% discount for university's. Service will be through WKM Associates in Cincinnati and Dayton, Carnegie-Mellon has some Imagen's. -------------------------------------- Call again 30-Nov-84: Service contract approximately $125 /month + possible travel charges. WKM associates will do it. $100 per toner cartridge for 3000-4000 pages of printing. only software charge is for ditroff $750 The floppy disk that comes with it is used for software instead of sending out ROM's. The claim is that this makes it easier to make software updates. It is certainly a little cheaper (a floppy is cheaper than an EPROM isn't it?). It also allows for some customization though it isn't clear they will customize the built-in software. They also claim to be looking in to using the disk (or possibly another floppy or adding a winchester) to store a font library. ----------------------------------- They sent us a HUGE packet of manuals, full of specific information. The manual itself is very complete and readable. Probably the best equipment manual I have ever seen. It gives exact escape sequences and exact results of them. What more could one want. It is a good sign too that they sent us these manuals. ----------------------------------------- David Herron Arpa: "ukma!david"@ANL-MCS unmvax----\ /------- Arpa-Net research >---/----------------/----------- anlams!ukma!david boulder---/ decvax!ucbvax ---/ (or cbosgd!hasmed!qusavx!ukma!david)
dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o) (12/06/84)
x Thanks for the survey. You decide against the QMS because Imagen sent you a programming manual ? Oh well... Just to let you know, the QMS also comes with a reasonable programming manual... Does anyone know much about a QMS in the $4500 range ? Is it also capable of bitmapped graphics ? Cheers, Dan Ts'o Dept. Neurobiology Rockefeller Univ. 1230 York Ave. NY, NY 10021 212-570-7671 ...cmcl2!rna!dan