lar@pc.usl.edu (Robert, Lane A.) (03/26/91)
A member of our university community is considering the purchase of a QMS ColorScript 100 printer, so I'd like to ask for some opinions from those of you who have used one of these. How is the print quality, and the performance in general? Have you had any problems with it? Would you recommend this printer to a friend (that you wanted to keep :-)? If anyone can suggest an alternative to the QMS in the same price range, I'd like to hear about this also. Thanks in advance. Lane lar@usl.edu
rodney@solar.card.inpu.oz.au (Rodney Campbell) (03/26/91)
lar@pc.usl.edu (Robert, Lane A.) writes: >A member of our university community is considering the purchase of a >QMS ColorScript 100 printer, so I'd like to ask for some opinions from >those of you who have used one of these. How is the print quality, >and the performance in general? Have you had any problems with it? >Would you recommend this printer to a friend (that you wanted to keep >:-)? >If anyone can suggest an alternative to the QMS in the same price >range, I'd like to hear about this also. We have a QMS ColorScript 100 here at our site though we have not really used it for any volume production yet. The output is very good except colours which you see on the screen do not necessarily appear as such on the output page. We have had some spotting problems when we use overhead transparency plastic. The only other thing which disturbs me with the machine is that everytime we turn the machine on we get a test page. This is supposed to be an option which you can select but we have tried to set this up but the machine defaults to the original condition everytime the power is turned off, most convenient.... The output is nice and the cost fairly low as far as I can tell. Tektronics also have a machine called Phaser something or rather. The output from this machine is similar though I think possible a little better but the machine is bigger and I don't know how much more expensive. Hope that this helps... Rodney... _______________________________________________________________________________ Rodney Campbell - Telecom Aust |MHSnet: rodney@solar.card.inpu.oz.au Network Services Unit |Snail : 8th Floor, 91 York Street, Sydney 2000. Customer Applications Research | or PO Box A226, Sydney South 2000, Australia. & Development |Phone : +61 (0)2 364 3346 Fax: +61 2 262 3813
selig@wizard.msfc.nasa.gov (Bill Selig - SysAdmin) (03/29/91)
rodney@solar.card.inpu.oz.au (Rodney Campbell) writes: >transparency plastic. The only other thing which disturbs me with the >machine is that everytime we turn the machine on we get a test page. This >is supposed to be an option which you can select but we have tried to set >this up but the machine defaults to the original condition everytime the >power is turned off, most convenient.... We also have said printer and also saw that problem. I believe that the Postscript program that you are supposed to send to turn off the startup page is listed incorrectly in the manual. On p.8-6 of the ColorScript manual, where they program shows "false dostartpage" it should read "false setdostartpage". Try that. Regards, -- US MAIL: Bill Selig NASA/MSFC ES53 Huntsville, Al 35812 USA TPC: (205)-544-7608 FTS: 824-7608 INTERNET: selig@centaur.msfc.nasa.gov [128.158.10.96] UUCP: uunet!selig@sam.SPAN -OR- uunet!sam.span!selig
dan@s3sol.scubed (Dan Peterka) (03/30/91)
rodney@solar.card.inpu.oz.au (Rodney Campbell) writes: >transparency plastic. The only other thing which disturbs me with the >machine is that everytime we turn the machine on we get a test page. This >is supposed to be an option which you can select but we have tried to set >this up but the machine defaults to the original condition everytime the >power is turned off, most convenient.... : . On p.8-6 of the ColorScript manual, where they program shows "false dostartpage" it should read "false setdostartpage". Try that. We have two of these printers at are our facility. Regarding the disabling of startup pages, the above is correct; and it survives power cycles. Our site uses both UNIX machines and Macintoshes and we have each printer set up to accept traffic from both. The UNIX machines send data through a Fastpath unto LocalTalk using the CAP papif routines. We have numerous problems with both of our printers hanging up and going out to lunch. QMS has replaced motherboards in both, to no avail. We don't know what is causing the problem, but it seems to be related to times when the printer is accepting jobs from both UNIX and Mac sources. They'll go all day if only Mac users use them, or if only UNIX users use them, but when job interleaving happens, the printers frequently go catatonic and require power cycling. This is an intermittent problem, not every transition between UNIX and Mac causes it to happen. All of our other Black and White printers, of various makes and manufacturers, are used in a similar fashion and we have never had these problems. So either it is related to complications of Color Postscript implementations, or it's a problem with the QMS. We have also had problems with the wax in dark areas on transparencies melting and blistering while sitting on overhead projectors. This charactaristic seems to be worse on output from one of our printers and not as bad from the other. On the worst of the two, users were reporting that they could have the slide on the projector for only 10 seconds or so before the black portions started blistering. They have resorted to inserting transparencies in sleeves which buys them a little extra projection time. The wax deposition on both paper and transparency is very easy to scratch with a stray fingernail or other sharp object. We recently purchased a Seiko ColorPoint which deposits the wax on the page much better. It is still scratchable, but you have to work at it. Its only drawback is that switching between transparency and paper is a pain. I'm still looking for the ideal color PS printer. For those of you who care about such things, here is my wishlist: Reliability Ease of transition between paper and transparency Most printers use cut sheet feeds which make it easy to insert transparency sheets for the onsey, twosey type jobs - Seiko does not. Ideally, I would like to see a dual tray/roll printer that stocked both transpareny and paper media - selectable through Postscript. Full page printing Most printers, Seiko excluded, have large margins for page resgistration. Either that, or they make you use oversize paper and ink sheets to get a full page and you have to cut it yourself. Faster PS Interpretor Some bitmap images we generate on our Silicon Graphics take over an hour to print per page on the QMS - the Seiko is much faster at 20 minutes/page. Redefinable Device Type Most Appletalk controllors allow the device type to be changed from LaserWriter, to something else. This is useful in several ways to control access to the printers. The Seiko does not allow us to change it's device type. Smoother Dithering Many of the non-Adobe printers have nicer dithering algorithms for rendering gradual color gradations than the Adobe printers. Seiko is good at this, but we haven't had it long enough to find out if there are things it can't do. These printers are still too expensive to plop on everyone's desk. Since they are shared devices, lots of attention needs to be paid to operations in these kinds of environments. Media swapping is a particular problem because people make many more color transparencies than B&W. -- _________________________________________________________________________ Dan Peterka S-CUBED 3398 Carmel Mtn Rd. dan@scubed.com (619) 587-8338 San Diego, CA 92121 _________________________________________________________________________
hue@island.COM (Pond Scum) (03/30/91)
In article <1991Mar26.040621.3436@solar.card.inpu.oz.au> rodney@solar.card.inpu.oz.au (Rodney Campbell) writes: >transparency plastic. The only other thing which disturbs me with the >machine is that everytime we turn the machine on we get a test page. This >is supposed to be an option which you can select but we have tried to set >this up but the machine defaults to the original condition everytime the >power is turned off, most convenient.... [294]coney:print: lwtalk /dev/ttya << "executive" automatically sent >> PostScript(r) Version 50.5 Copyright (c) 1984, '85, '86, '87, '88 Adobe Systems Incorporated. Typefaces Copyright (c) 1981 Linotype AG and/or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. PS>serverdict begin 0 exitserver %%[ exitserver: permanent state may be changed ]%% PostScript(r) Version 50.5 Copyright (c) 1984, '85, '86, '87, '88 Adobe Systems Incorporated. Typefaces Copyright (c) 1981 Linotype AG and/or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. PS>statusdict begin << I typed "executive" here >> PS>dostartpage pstack pop true PS>false setdostartpage PS>quit Good-bye [295]coney:print: You can probably just stick the code in a file and send it: serverdict begin 0 exitserver statusdict begin false setdostartpage -Jonathan hue@island.COM