burton@mitisft.Convergent.COM (Philip Burton) (11/12/88)
Help me select a laser printer for my wife's office-at-home. Her business
doesn't have high volume requirements. The primary reason for buying a
printer is to avoid the inconvenience and time-waste of a laser printer
service bureau. This is a big purchase.
You can agree with my choice, or challenge my assumptions. Tell me about
the "gotchas", or the store with the best pricing. What do you think about
the possibility of high-quality, low-priced Postscript clones, and the
impacts on printer pricing and resale values.
Thanks.
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The final candidate printers (and best local prices for base unit):
HP LaserJet 2 ($1650)
Apple LaserWriter II NT ($3695)
QMS 810PS ($4290)
All three printers use the same Canon SX printer engine.
I believe that I should get one of the Postscript printers because the
LaserJet 2 is too limited for my needs without expensive memory upgrades,
and lots of font cartridges and soft fonts. (I can't rely on the Ventura
built-in fonts because these can't be used by other applications.) Also,
I don't have much confidence that public domain or shareware fonts will
meet my needs for high-quality output.
I've used the Apple II NT at service bureaus, and like it very much.
The QMS 810 has some useful features over the Apple Laserwriter, but I'm
concerned about price, the actual usefulness of the LaserJet emulation and
the quality of the PS Executive software.
My system:
PC AT with 2.5 MB extended memory, EGA.
Current printers are Epson FX-80 and Diablo 630, on LPT1 and LPT2.
Modem and mouse on COM1 and COM2.
The key applications:
Course materials (notebooks and handouts) for my wife's clients.
Proposals and other correspondence to clients and prospective clients.
Output is mostly text using different fonts and typefaces, with some simple
graphics and special characters like bullets and arrowheads ("dingbats").
Must print on envelopes.
Software to use laser printer:
Ventura Publisher.
MS Word or Wordperfect in future. Currently using Wordstar (!!!)
Excel and 1-2-3.
Dbase III Plus.
Various DOS and PC utility programs with "dumb printer" output capability.
DOS PrintScreen output.
My assumptions and concerns about each printer:
For each printer, I've listed my positives and negatives. Please comment
liberally, especially on negatives I've omitted.
HP LaserJet 2:
+ Lowest price for base unit
+ Parallel port
+ Excellent application printer driver support
+ Excellent third party hardware and software support
+ Reputation for reliability
- Bit-map font system is inflexible
- Big expense for memory upgrade, and font cartridge and soft fonts
- Even with upgrade, still not a Postscript printer
- Postscript upgrade raises total cost above Apple II NT
- Disk storage required for bit-map fonts
- Lack of Diablo 630 or other printer emulations
Apple LaserWriter II NT:
+ De facto industry standard for Postscript and desk-top publishing
+ Highly recommended by popular press
+ Cheaper than QMS 810
+ Handles legal size paper and envelopes
- No upgradeability without complete replacement of controller ($2000 +)
- No parallel port
- Serial port is very slow
- PC Appletalk connection is expensive
- No Laserjet emulation (for non-Postscript output applications)
- Diablo 630 emulation can't be selected from PC by software
- Can't mix Postscript and non-Postscript application output without
manual intervention at printer to set hard-to-reach switches
- Diablo 630 emulation is 10 pitch only
QMS 810 PS:
+ Supports full Postscript (rev 47, 35 fonts)
+ Parallel port
+ 2 MB RAM standard
+ Can be expanded to 3 (?) MB
+ Handles legal size paper and envelopes
+ Diablo 630 emulation, including 12 pitch
+ HP LaserJet+ emulation, including downloaded fonts
+ Software support for changing printer emulations
+ Faster CPU than Apple II NT
- Cost is about $600 over Apple II NT
- No third-party support for memory upgrades
- Hidden "gotchas" from a product with smaller market share
- Potentially lower resale value than Apple II NT
Please post to the net, preferably to comp.sys.ibm.pc. If you prefer, send
e-mail, or call me. I'll call back, if necessary.
Phil Burton 408 435 3791
Convergent Technologies burton@mitisft.Convergent.COM