emg@druhi.ATT.COM (Elyse M. Grasso) (02/17/89)
My home computer is a PC XT clone. During the next 6 months I will be upgrading my version of MS/DOS, my video display and monitor (to EGA or VGA), and my printer (to 24 pin or better). I am studying the Japanese language ( and I am left handed) so I will be willing to pay somewhat higher prices for products that can be more easily upgraded to support Japanese text output. Unfortunately, availability of Japanese output support is not something that is mentioned in sales literature or magazine reviews aimed at the USA market. For example: printers from Japanese companies that accept downloadable or cartridge fonts presumably have Japanese fonts available in Japan. I would prefer to buy a printer whose Japanese font cartridges are compatible with the resident software in machines sold in North America, rather than a printer where I would need to special order the main printer roms as well as the fonts. Similarly, I would prefer to buy a printer for which there is an existing channel for ordering Japanese language fonts in North America. I would also rather invest in fonts that are considered good looking rather than fonts that are considered ugly. (I have experience writing printer drivers and output filters, so I don't necessarily need full software support.) Does anyone have any recommendations for or against specific printers? Are there display cards which can use alternate display fonts more easily than others? Or which have drivers available in North America which assist in Japanese language support? Are any of the various flavors of OEM DOS (PCDOS, Compaq DOS, ? DOS) unusually helpful for international applications? Elyse M. Grasso AT&T Denver 6969 S. Marshall Drive Boulder CO 80303
ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) (02/18/89)
In article <3916@druhi.ATT.COM> emg@druhi.ATT.COM (Elyse M. Grasso) writes: >My home computer is a PC XT clone. During the next 6 months I will be You are, I think, out of luck. Information Technology Laboratory, 280 Park Avenue, NYC 10017 (212-557-0177) offers a Japanese word processor for AT/PS-2 machines. They support Hercules, EGA, and Toshiba T-3100. I tried their demo. It crashes on my Spaghetti AT (Olivetti) but runs fine on a PS-2/80 - kanji in color no less. $850 at last look. A bargain at half the price. Earl H. Kinmonth History Department University of California, Davis Davis, California 95616 916-752-1636 (day: voice, night: fax) 916-752-0776 (secretary) ucbvax!ucdavis!ucdked!cck (email) cc-dnet.ucdavis.edu (request ucdked, login as guest)