a309@mindlink.UUCP (George Lin) (11/06/90)
This is a summary of the information that I have found while looking
for a laser printers. The criterion for evaluation was price and
performance of a postscript printer for personal use. If you have
any disagreements or question about what I have typed up, please feel
free to e-mail me.
PERSONAL POSTSCRIPT REVIEW
The dropping prices of Adobe postscript, have pushed the
postscript laser printers into the home range. Although the prices
may be considered high, they are much lower (about 50% less) than
comparable printers available a year ago. This is due to both a
decrease in laser printers prices, and a decrease in Adobe postscript
royalties. (Obviously, Adobe is trying to flood the market with their
standard, in a battle against Microsoft's TrueType)
PRINTER SPECS:
--------------
OUTPUT
The quality of image produced.
PRINT SPEED
The print speed of a laser is basically judges how fast a
postscript printer will put out (simple) text pages, or multiple
copies of one page.
PROCESSOR SPEED
The processor speed determines how fast (complex) graphics pages
will take to print. This is because the time required to process the
document is much greater than the time it takes to print it.
INNOVATIVE FEATURES
Some feature in the new printers are very innovative and can make
life much easier.
MEMORY
1.5 MEG minimum. 2 MEGs Standard. More than 2 MEGs of ram may
be required for heavy font downloading. More than 2 MEGs will be
required to multi-user/networking purposes.
PRICE
(speaks for itself)
NOTE:
The prices which I have quoted are Canadian and, most have some
sort of educational discount.
--------------------
The following printers are the ones which I feel have a lot to
offer for their price. Some have fantastic features, while others are
just low in price, either of which will make a printer a good buy.
NOTE:
-----
None of the printers listed are Postscript Cones. This is because
I have not heard of any postscript clone that is 100% compatible. All of them
have some sort of problem somewhere. You may never run
into any of these particular problems, but why take a chance when the
real Adobe Postscript is about the same price.
COMMENT:
--------
Of all the folks who sent me mail describing their laser printer,
all of them were very happy with their postscript printer. This leads
me to think that although one printer may be slightly better than
another, any of these printers will make anyone very happy. :)
PERSONAL FAVORITES (not in order):
HP LASERJET III + HP Adobe Postscript Cartridge + 2Meg RAM
===========================================================
TOTAL PRICE: ~$2850 CDN (~ $2200 US street $)
8 PPM (pages per minutes)
35 fonts
68000 @ 10 MHz
(Price refers to machine with 2 Meg Upgrade for 3 Meg Total)
Pros:
-----
- HP Dominates much of the Laser Printer industry.
40% to 60% of all lasers are HP's
Result:
1) Low priced 3rd party hardware/software
2) Printer will be supported by software
(not everything is postscript compatible)
3) Parts/Consumables/Toners are readily available
- RET - Resolution Enhancement Technology
Improves overall quality of output. Not extremely noticeable on
normal portrait type text, but evident on italics fonts.
- _fully_ HP PCL4, HP PCL5, HPGL/2 (plotter language), compatible.
- fast 8 ppm engine for quick output when printing postscript
TEXT
- Good paper handling (200 sheet tray)
CONS:
-----
- Postscript cartridge is very slow on complex graphics
(about half the speed of the other printers)
- To get out of postscript and into HP LaserJet mode, the cartridge
has to be pulled out.
- Printer is big/heavy
- Price is a little higher than the others
- Apple Talk Extra
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
QMS PS-410
==========
TOTAL PRICE: $3000 CDN ($2795 US LIST)
4 ppm
45 fonts (possibly 47)
68020 @ 16.67 MHz
2 MEGs of RAM
Pros:
-----
- ESP - Emulation Sensing Processor
Give the QMS a file, and it will switch to the right mode,
Postscript/HP LaserJetII/(HPGL on a cart.) AUTOMATICALLY!!
- pseudo network ready. The printer can accept input from all three
ports (PAR, SER, APPLTK) _SIMULTANEOUSLY_.
- 68020 makes the printer process complex pages quickly
(although a 68000 running at the same speed would be comprable)
(ie. 4 MHz RISC processor == 16 MHz 68020 for postscript)
- Comes with Parallel, Serial, and AppleTalk
Cons:
------
- at 4 ppm, it is relatively slow at printing text.
- The paper tray only holds 50 sheets
(opt. larger paper tray $195 US)
- Although List price is low, the street price is not.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEC SILENTWRITER2 90 (not Silentwriter2 290)
==============================================
TOTAL PRICE: $2250 CDN (~ $2495 US List $)
6 PPM (pages per minutes)
35 fonts
68000 @ 16.67 MHz
2 MEGs RAM
PROS:
-----
- Single toner cartridge lasts for 8,000 sheets
(vs. HP/Canon's 3,500 sheets)
- Minolta engine, very dark and smooth blacks
- Compatibility tests with HP PCL4 were excellent
(HP IIP emulation)
- Good paper handling
250 sheet tray
Paper can be fed face up, face down, straight thru, manually
- Comes with Serial, Parallel, and AppleTalk
- Lowest price for postscript printer
(postscript version 52.2)
CONS:
-----
- Although the blacks are very smooth and very black, the characters
didn't seem to be very smooth. This is probably because the lines
were very fine (fine lines are good), while thick lines give the
impression that the print is smoother.
HONORABLE MENTION:
TI MICROLASER PS35.
===================
This is your basic microlaser with a small footprint.
Price $2600 CDN (~$1850 US street price)
6 ppm
12.5 MHz 68000 (a little slow)
1.5 Meg RAM (a little low)
35 Fonts
Separate Toner/Developer (this is a minus for most folks)
250 Sheet paper tray
This printer in not readily available here (in Vancouver).
There seems to be only one (small) distributor.
CONCLUSION:
Well, it appears to me that the NEC 90 is the best buy for most postscript
users, especially if you need appletalk. It is fairly fast with its 16.7 MHz
68000 and 6 ppm. But then it all depends what the printer will be handling.
For text, the HP is the winner with its faster 8ppm engine and resolution
enhancement. For multiple computer hookups, the Emulation Sensing software and
simultaneously inputs on the QMS make life a lot easier.
-------------------------------------------------------
George Lin
a309@mindlink
uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!George_Lin
-------------------------------------------------------woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (11/08/90)
Who's interpreter is in the Ricoh 6000 6 ppm printer? I recently saw an add for $1500.00 mail order for one of these. That seems really reasonable. Cheers Woody