scott@boake2.UUCP (Scott Boake) (12/14/88)
We're getting ready to take the plunge and buy a laser printer. The two that I'm looking at are the AST and NEC Postscript Lasers. The perfect laser for us would have the following features: 1. Postscript 2. HP 3. Parallel / Serial / Apple Talk 4. Reliability / Built well With all of the above features, I don't feel as though we'll ever feel as though we've painted ourselves into a corner. Any words of wisdom you have to share will be gladly accepted ! Thanks in advance.... ----Scott Scott Boake Small Systems Consulting scott@boake2 P.O. Box 2142 ..!uunet!pdn!boake2!scott 5030 - 78th Ave North Ste. 10 +1 (813) 544 - 8152 Pinellas Park, FL 34664
rgh@mtund.ATT.COM (Ronald Hiller) (12/14/88)
In article <246@boake2.UUCP> scott@boake2.UUCP (Scott Boake) writes: >The two that I'm looking at are the AST and NEC Postscript Lasers. >The perfect laser for us would have the following features: > > 1. Postscript > 2. HP > 3. Parallel / Serial / Apple Talk > 4. Reliability / Built well > We recently purchased 3 NEC LC890 printers. They have all of the features you describe and more. One of them seemed a little cranky at first, but seems happy now. They are really nice printers and do a fabulous job. Ron -- -- -- --
walker@ficc.uu.net (Walker Mangum) (12/17/88)
In article <246@boake2.UUCP> scott@boake2.UUCP (Scott Boake) writes: > The two that I'm looking at are the AST and NEC Postscript Lasers. > The perfect laser for us would have the following features: > > 1. Postscript > 2. HP > 3. Parallel / Serial / Apple Talk > 4. Reliability / Built well > I've been using the NEC LC-890 for about a year now, and have had virtually no complaints (a sheet of paper may have jammed in it once or twice, but out of thousands of pages, so what?). The 890 produces outstanding output. We run it mostly in PostScript Batch mode (output from WordPerfect & PageMaker), but have run it in HP LaserJet mode, and occasionally in Diablo 630 mode. My only minor complaint is that in Diable 630 (dump printer) mode, the print begins at the left EDGE of the paper, and there is no way to make it offset. We only use this mode for dumps, etc., but it is annoying because the printer can't actually print within about 0.25" of the paper edges, so the first character on each line is lost. Oh well, I guess that's what Epsons are for. The 890 is fast. It falls off of 8 pages/minute only if you do a lot of font changes during a document, or have a lot of graphics. Basically, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, and if we were in the market for another printer, we'd buy another NEC LC-890. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Walker Mangum | Adytum, Incorporated phone: (713) 333-1509 | 1100 NASA Road One UUCP: uunet!ficc!walker (walker@ficc.uu.net) | Houston, TX 77058 Disclaimer: $#!+ HAPPENS
radek@pyrps5 (Radek Aster @ Pyramid Technology Corp., Mnt. View, CA) (12/19/88)
In article <246@boake2.UUCP> scott@boake2.UUCP (Scott Boake) writes: > The two that I'm looking at are the AST and NEC Postscript Lasers. > The perfect laser for us would have the following features: > > 1. Postscript > 2. HP > 3. Parallel / Serial / Apple Talk > 4. Reliability / Built well > Not to throw a wrentch into the works, but have you tried out the QUME CrystalPrint Publisher. Unlike all the other postscript printers on the market, which are made by ADOBE and therefore the makers are required to pay stiff royalties to ADOBE which are passed on to you, QUME's printer is a *true* clone. Unlike most ADOBE boards, which are based one the 68000, QUME's printer is based on a RISC processor from WEITEK, the 8200. In tests it is shown to be about 5 times as fast as the LaserWRITER NT II when printing graphics and about 10 times faster when printing text. It is FAST. Responding to your criteria, (1) It obviously does postcript, (2) It does not support HPGL or the LaserJET protocol, but there is talk of enhancing it to support DIABLO 630. (3) It was all three above mentioned interfaces : Parellel, Serial and Apple Talk. (4) The engine is a 6 page/per minute engine from CASIO, which has recently entered the printer market. If you liked their calculators and keyboards, then I need not say more about the reliability and quality of their engines. Also the QUME printer is the "smallest-footprint" printer on the market and is therefore a trully "personal" postscript printer. Also it will probably be cheaper than the other printers on the market because of no need to pay royalties to ADOBE. But why listen to me, either write or call QUME. QUME CORP. 500 Yosemite Drive Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 942-4000 Radek ASTER.
radek@pyrps5 (Radek Aster @ Pyramid Technology Corp., Mnt. View, CA) (12/19/88)
In article <2474@ficc.uu.net>, walker@ficc.uu.net (Walker Mangum) writes: > My only minor complaint is that in Diable 630 (dump printer) mode, the print > begins at the left EDGE of the paper, and there is no way to make it offset. > We only use this mode for dumps, etc., but it is annoying because the printer > can't actually print within about 0.25" of the paper edges, so the first > character on each line is lost. Oh well, I guess that's what Epsons are for. > Have you tried changing the default margins in the SERVERDICT dictionary? If you don't know how to do this, look in the "BLUE Book" which is one of a two book set publishd by McCraw-Hill and written by ADOBE. But basically, the idea is that you first get the printer into interactive mode, by sending it the EXECUTIVE command. It should respond with a prompt something like this. Postcript (tm) version 23.0 Copyright (c) 1984 Adobe Systems Incorporated. PS> You then have to give it a password in order to change the margins. ----> serverdict begin {your password} exitserver It will respond with %%[exitserver:permanent state may be changed]%% Finally you give the command to change the margins. ----> {top margin} {left margin} setmargins Then 'log out' by typing ----> exit Hope this helps. Radek ASTER.