mce@tc.fluke.COM (Brian McElhinney) (06/18/91)
It's been over a year since I last looked at the Mac printer market. When I recently decided to buy a laser printer, I was surprised to discover that the cheapest QuickDraw/TrueType laser printers are really not very cheap: over $900 dollars (mail order). Not cheap at all, actually. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to see how cheap Postscript printers are now! The TI microLaser PS17 sells for $1265 (mail order). That's not many more bucks for what seems to be a lot more bang. Two years ago the cheapest Postscript printer was over $3000. That makes $1300 seem cheap. Has anyone had any experience with the TI PS17? It is said to be "Adobe Postscript" so I assume (!) it can: * Download Adobe fonts * Download non-Adobe fonts * Work with Systems 6 and 7 * In general, has no nasty compatibility problems All without any further upgrades. In particular, I'm wondering if the standard 1.5 Mb is enough. (I don't do terribly sophisticated work, mostly using Word and Excel.) The PS35 is identical, with the exception of more built-in fonts -- I'd rather not pay the extra $300 if downloadable fonts are cheaper. I was fascinated to find that one of the cheapest printers in the PC market (HP's LaserJet IIP for $575 from a *dealer*) cannot be used with the Mac. Well, it can, but only after you upgrade it to a total cost of $1500! Perhaps after System 7 and TrueType have been around a few years Mac users can have $600 laser printers as well. Any recommendations on these or other cheap laser printers would also be appreciated. Thanks. Brian McElhinney "Reading, editing or printing of this text without mce@tc.fluke.com the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited." --Ken Kubey
john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (06/21/91)
In <1991Jun18.012304.20277@tc.fluke.COM> mce@tc.fluke.COM (Brian McElhinney): > I was fascinated to find that one of the cheapest printers in the PC market > (HP's LaserJet IIP for $575 from a *dealer*) cannot be used with the Mac. > Well, it can, but only after you upgrade it to a total cost of $1500! Not true! You can use the LaserJet IIP for less than $100 extra including a serial cable and fonts. All you have to decide is if you want postscript compatibility (using Freedom Of The Press Light) or faster printing (using MacPrint 1.2 or above). You will need to have a memory upgrade for you printer if you want full screen graphics (a 3rd party 2 meg upgrade for the IIP should be about $150). -john- -- ============================================================================= John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications, Ltd. ...uunet!tcnet!newave!john