sanford@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Sanfybabes) (04/14/91)
I'm planning to get a 24 pin printer, and at the moment, I'm in two minds as to whether to get a STAR LC24-200, or a Citizen GX-140 (I think). Has anyone had any experience with either of these printers, and any comments? Also, I have noticed that the color from the GX-140 seems a bit dull; Is this totally due to worn printer ribbons and paper type, or is it a general limitation of dot matrix printers? Thanks in advance. S.Tong
amatthews@zodiac.rutgers.edu (04/14/91)
I have a GSX 140, and I've been quite pleased with it. I've found the color printing to be as nice or nicer than any other printer, however you have to play around with preferences and the pic itself to get the best results. If you can find a program that outputs [bitmapped?] fonts, like pagestream, you can get almost laser quality printouts, but this is rather slow. The only gripe I have with the GSX 140 is that it does tend to go through ribbons very quickly, but I order them from Mid-West micro for $2.55 a piece, so it's not a major expence. Oh, one more thing... If you do decide to buy the GSX 140, be sure to order generic black ribbons from Mid-West Micro -- all the other ribbons I ever purchsed seemed dried out. Oh yeah, be sure you don't set preferences to a setting where the printhead passes twice when printing in color, it'll ruin the color ribbon (expensive). One other problem (just thought of it) is that except for a few custom drivers (eg., pagestream), you can't get full 360X360 dpi graphics. The driver included in workbench is called EpsonQ, there is a better one floating on the nets called EpsonQplus. Hopefully, if this printer becomes popular enough (it should), someone will write a driver specifically for this printer. If I have any time this summer, I'll may write it myself.
mketcham@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Michelle Ketcham) (04/15/91)
I have the Citizen GSX-140 and I really like the output of the
four letter quality fonts included. It does a remarkable job (for
dot matrix) with graphics and other fonts (read:fun fonts:-).
For fonts, etc. I use it most often with Pro-Write. I have a
printer driver called EpsonQPlus which I ftp'd (from
isca.icaen.uiowa.edu, I think) which allows me to print in 360X360.
The color graphics (which I print with Deluxe Paint III) actually
seem a little too dark to me (but that's the nature of color
printers). I *really* like the b/w graphics output using the Floyd/
Shienburg (???) techinque (one of the print options in
Preferences). It turns out nice, and not too dark.
The graphics output that I've seen from the STAR doesn't seem
near as good to me.
Also, the GSX-140 has a *very* nice interface (with menus in a LCD
plain-English display). Being able to do anything and
everything from the front (no DIP switches) is wonderful and the
macros capability makes it just that much quicker and easier.
The single-sheet feed and automatic paper parking are really nice,
also. I never have to readjust my tractor-feed!
As you can tell, I *highly* recommend the GSX-140.
--
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Michelle Ketcham mketcham@sdcc13.ucsd.edudtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (04/16/91)
In article <7342@munnari.oz.au> sanford@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Sanfybabes) writes: > > I'm planning to get a 24 pin printer, and at the moment, I'm in >two minds as to whether to get a STAR LC24-200, or a Citizen GX-140 (I think). >Has anyone had any experience with either of these printers, and any comments? > Also, I have noticed that the color from the GX-140 seems a bit dull; >Is this totally due to worn printer ribbons and paper type, or is it a general >limitation of dot matrix printers? > Thanks in advance. > S.Tong My A3000 is connected to a Citizen GX-140 24 pin color printer. It can connect to the seriel or parallel port. The 8 primary colors, red, blue, green, white, black, yellow, purple, etc. have a very high quality print. However, all other colors are mixed with dithering and look terrible. By primary colors, I mean setting the RGBs to max and min, and no where in between. It does have an excellent NLQ mode, which should be expected by 24 pin printers (I think it is 360 dpi). I ran a color test with DPIII and found that the halfbrights matched okay, but still since the colors were dithered you can see each pixel. Also, when printing from DPaintIII, use a solid white as the background. Otherwise it will try to draw whatever the background color is. If you do get either and need help setting up the options, let me know. You can set macros too if you want. -- David Tiberio SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481 AMIGA DDD-MEN Tomas Arce Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :) Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.
dsg@cci632.cci.com (David Greenberg) (04/16/91)
Can you give any specifics on the GSX 140???? (ie. Draft speed, NLQ speed ... PRICE??) Thanks, Dave
kenny@mazurka.UUCP (Kenneth Yarnall) (04/16/91)
In article <792.28086db0@zodiac.rutgers.edu> amatthews@zodiac.rutgers.edu writes: > > [Citizen GX-140 testimonial] > > One other problem (just thought of it) is that except for >a few custom drivers (eg., pagestream), you can't get full >360X360 dpi graphics. The driver included in workbench is called >EpsonQ, there is a better one floating on the nets called EpsonQplus. >Hopefully, if this printer becomes popular enough (it should), someone >will write a driver specifically for this printer. If I have any >time this summer, I'll may write it myself. A friend of mine just bought himself an Amiga 3000, and they picked up a GX- 140 along with it. He purchased AmigaTeX, and I mentioned to him that I have used DVIprint successfully on my Panasonic 1124. Since the two printers claim to perform the same emulations (Epson LQ and IBM Proprinter), I figured that DVIprint should work for him with no problem. Wrong. It fails miserably. DVIprint loads all the fonts correctly, but prints garbage. Does anyone know what's up? Is the GX-140's emulation funny? Is there a workaround? I would appreciate any help... (Better use the addresses below... replying probably won't cut it.) -- Ken Yarnall /// kenny%mazurka@opusc.csd.scarolina.EDU Math Department, USC \\\/// yarnall@usceast.cs.scarolina.EDU Columbia, S.C. 29208 \\\/ (803)777-5218 "I'm not good in groups. It's hard to work in a group when you're omnipotent." - Q