v564huce@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Allen Hsu) (03/04/91)
Yo! Y'all! Well I'm back again. It seems that there has been a whole lot questions surrounding laser printers. I'm no expert, but I do read a whole lot and so I'll distill what I read and what I have used into one really LONG posting. This is really intended for beginners, so those of you who are lucky enough to know the differences or have one (care to donate to me??????) you can skip this part. Notes: I have not had any PERSONAL experience with these printers except where I have noted, and these are NOT recommendations, all I'm doing is trying to provide info on the basic types that are availible. If I make a typo and someone sees that my specs are wrong, please correct me. Non-postscript types: Generally, these are SCSI based, so for those of y'all a bit cloudy on the termination issue, well be careful and ask lots of questions :-) What these machines lack is the ability to output Postscript. This is a PDL (Page Description Language) that allows for all sorts of neat and fun effects (like bezier curves). This is also the format used by Adobe Type Manager to get their variable size fonts. Buying ATM and one of these printers will still save you several hundred dollars and give you excellent looking text without the expense. If all you need is just text with limited or no graphics, these are an excellent choice. Note also that SCSI port means non-networkable. GCC PLP series. GCC has been around for a while and having seen one of their older PLPs in action, I'd say it's not too bad at all. GCC has recently dropped the price on their basic PLP II to $999.00. The engine maker is Oki (see IBM-ish Oki-400 laser for more details) . As with many non-Canon engines, the recyclables are replaced in pieces (toner, OPC, etc.) This printer is not fast, but even their older Richo-based PLP gave good results when used with ATM. The PLP IIS is a more expensive model that adds 1 meg or RAM to speed thigns up. I don't suggest it as it is too expensive ($1900.00 last I heard). Also, GCC bundels some Bitstream fonts with their machines. This printer is also nice for those who are not sure about the future. GCC offers an additional cost upgrade to their PLP II model. The engine is rated at 4 pages per minute. Apple Personal LaserWriter IISC: Well, it's an Apple. VERY pricy, even at the educational discounts here at SUNY ($1350 or so). But, it is an Apple :-). The PLW IISC uses a Canon made, 4 PPM engine. Basically making this printer very similar to an Hewlett-Packard IIP. The really nice parts of this printer are: 1) Dual paper trays and Apple has thoughtfully included new drivers to take advantage of them; 2) Upgradbility. Like GCC, the Apple machine can be upgraded to a full Postscript printer for a hefty fee. It will cost you about $200-300 more than buying one outright. Full postscript machines: These are "true" laser printers. The reason they cost so much is 1) They include their own processors that means every postscript printer has effectively a slow Macintosh inside that takes care of all the image processing tasks; 2) Adobe. They invented it, they make you pay for it. I had heard that on some printers Apple was paying something like $500 per printer in royalties to Adobe. Humm, John Warnock, you can be a real sharp bastard sometimes. ;-) The advantages of having one of these wonderful beasties include the ability to network them (by way of AppleTalk or you can get an EtherPrint box like we have and run it off EtherNet network, more about this if you ask for it), it's faster due to the built-in processor, and some applications would very much appreciate it if you output them to a PostScript printer (Photoshop, Freehand, etc., all high end stuff). Apple Personal LaserWriter IINT. Well, it's an Apple. Like it's bretheren, the IISC, it's a Canon engine. The 12 mhz 68000 is adequate for most tasks, but for serious graphics or long printing tasks, it falls behind. The dual paper tray (like the IISC) is very handy for small Univ. departments or businesses where letterhead is used once in a while. The smaller tray holds 50 sheets while the larger tray holds 200. Univ. prices put it at around $2180.00 or so. GCC BLP II: Back again with GCC. The BLP IIS is probably the fastest of the 68000 based types, but at $2900 it's overpriced. The PLP II now comes in at $2000.00 and might be a good deal. It's reasonably fast, but the 4 PPM engine will cut you off at the knees if you do bulk text work. I understand that the "sleep" mode of the BLP II is a very nice feature (it turns itself to an "idle" status after a few minutes of inactivity). NEC Silentwriter 2 model 90: Not to be confused with the Model 290. This is presently the price champ at a retail of $2495. Street prices seem to run around the $1400-1500 range. Pretty basic all around type of printer, 35 fonts, 250 sheet paper tray, and average speed. The engine is a Minolta one that outputs at 6 PPM (pretty fast for a "personal" type printer). NEC also claims a consumable life of 6000 pages. Like the Canon engine, the consumables (read:toner) come in a single cartridge and they say it'll cost about $125.00. The only real downside of this printer is the footprint. For those with limited desk space, this one will be a beast. The problem is the paper tray sticks out in front of the printer and adds about 10 inches to the length. Hewlett Packard stuff: Don't, it's an IBM thing. HPs are fine if you ave an IBM, but upgrading it to do Postscript costs too much and it's too slow. Numbers I have seen put it about half as fast as other printers. Put your money elsewhere. QMS-410: This is probably the fastest of all of the printers. It's basically a LaserWriter IINTX (Apple's top-of-the-line) controller board married to an HP IIP engine. So, for text work, it's slow, but for complex graphics, this is the machine. Having used an NTX at work, if you do serious graphics and are on a budget, this is the machine. Street prices seem to run about $2000 or so. Oh, I almost forgot, the basic printer only has a 50 sheet paper tray, so the optional (about $200 retail) 200 sheet tray is highly recommended. TI MicroLaser: About the only printer that I can acutally call "cute" It's a real small cube just over a foot square. Based on a Sharp 6 PPM engine, the thing even has a 200 sheet tray to boot. Optionally, one can add another 200 sheet tray that adds only about 4 inches to the height. Space-short types watch out!!! The only bad thing is that the standard 1.5 meg RAM is just not enough. I have never seen a PS machine with less than 2 megs. I had worked for a prof years back that had a LaserJet II plus that I regularly overloaded when I punched up some graphics in Ventura Publisher. The optional 1 meg is not epxpensive ($100 to $150) but it is money that ought to be spent. For less money, one can get the basic 17 font model (the bigger one comes with the normal 35) that will save you a few bucks (about $200 I think). That's the only difference between the two models. Oh yeah, NOTE, be careful with prices, many dealer I've seen offer the printer without an AppleTalk interface. This will save you money, but remember a serial port runs only at 19.2 kbaud while AppleTalk is 230.2 kbaud. You'll spend a whole lot of time waiting for the Mac just to transit the image over. Also, to network ANY printer, you need AppleTalk. Well, that's the most popular ones today. I know I missed a WHOLE bunch of them, but these do represent the gamut today. If you have questions about any particular type or would like more info, or would like to pass along a comment, e-mail me. See ya'll later (GO Tennesse Volunteers!!!!! MY alma mater!!!). Allen Hsu, UB Micro Sales Center, and SUNY At Buffalo School Of Law... -my employer cars knows nothing and disclaims me totally...-
tchi@sal-sun10.usc.edu (The Answer Company) (03/05/91)
An addition to a very informative article... For those people looking for a personal postscript laser printer, check out the March 1991 issue of MacUser. MacUser Labs compared 8 laser printers and gives a very good breakdown of the pros and cons of these printers. Personally, I have a QMS PS-410 and I feel it's a very good printer. I do a lot of graphics and typesetting work so its 16MHz 68020 is perfect for the job. The paper "tray" really sucks but I'm planning on getting a the 250 sheet tray anyways. I've used the Apple LaserWriter IINT, IINTX and the GCC BLP I quite extensively in the last three years and so far, the QMS is the best one I've used for graphics. Really, check out the MacUser article... Tony Chi tchi@usc.edu P.S. I'm not connected with MacUser in any way, I just have a subscription to 1999!
john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (03/06/91)
In article <62977@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v564huce@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes: > Hewlett Packard stuff: Don't, it's an IBM thing. HPs are fine if you ave an > IBM, but upgrading it to do Postscript costs too much and it's too slow. > Numbers I have seen put it about half as fast as other printers. Put your > money elsewhere. This might be good advice for those with university discounts on postscript machines, but for the rest of us, an HP is a very good alternative. For everything except programs that require postscript (like Illustrator), you cannot tell the difference between HP-IIP output and postscript output. Since HP's connect to the serial port, you will save the cost of LocalTalk cables (about $100 or so), and HP clones can be had for as low as $699. This is only slightly more than the retail price of an Imagewriter II. The only extra that you will need is the MacPrint printer driver (there are several other that will work, but I have not tried them). The cost upgrade to postscript is not an issue becuase you do not need postscript for most Mac programs. If you are running on the cheap, you can use Freedom of the Press ($55 mail-order) to print occasional postscript. -john- -- =============================================================================== John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications ...uunet!rosevax!tcnet!wd0gol!newave!john ===============================================================================
ralph@cbnewsj.att.com (Ralph Brandi) (03/09/91)
In article <687@newave.UUCP> john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III) writes: >Since HP's connect to the serial port, you will save the cost of LocalTalk >cables (about $100 or so) It ain't necessarily so. My Plus talks to my PS-410 over a regular Plus-to-ImageWriter II cable using AppleTalk. Total cost: $8. I won't need to get *real* AppleTalk cables until I can afford that IIci.... :-) -- Ralph Brandi ralph@mtunq.att.com att!mtunq!ralph Nothing falls up without being hurled
JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (03/11/91)
In article <687@newave.UUCP>, john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) says: > >In article <62977@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v564huce@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu : >writes >> Hewlett Packard stuff: Don't, it's an IBM thing. HPs are fine if you ave >> an IBM, but upgrading it to do Postscript costs too much and it's too >> slow. Numbers I have seen put it about half as fast as other printers. >> Put your money elsewhere. > >This might be good advice for those with university discounts on postscript >machines, but for the rest of us, an HP is a very good alternative. For >everything except programs that require postscript (like Illustrator), you >cannot tell the difference between HP-IIP output and postscript output. This is true. Why everyone is so Postscript nuts I don't know, but what I do know is that there ARE good alternatives. The HP IIP is one of them. With my IIP and a printer driver from GDT (the product is LaserJet Express), I get output that is sometimes even BETTER than our LaserPrinter IINTX at work. And for less than $1000 compared to the $4000 and up for a IINTX, I'll wait an extra few seconds for each page!! :-) Really, the extra printing time isn't that much at all; Even with many fonts per page, I don't find myself waiting very long. Few of us can afford Postscript. HP's LaserJet IIP is a wonderful alternative. The printer can be found for about $900; then add in only $85 for LaserJet Express (you can also use Freedom of Press 3.0, or MacPrint, but I have no experience with either of these) and you've got a less than $1000 Postscript alternative. Get Adobe Type Manager too, but I don't count that in the cost because you should have it even with a Postscript printer. :-) Kurt -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- || Kurt Tappe (215) 363-9485 || With. Without. And who'll || || 184 W. Valley Hill Rd. || deny it's what the fighting's || || Malvern, PA 19355-2214 || all about? - Pink Floyd || || jkt100@psuvm.psu.edu --------------------------------------|| || jkt100@psuvm.bitnet jkt100%psuvm.bitnet@psuvax1 QLink: KurtTappe || -----------------------------------------------------------------------