daveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Berezowski) (02/01/90)
In article <28eZ022c84EN01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) writes: >Well, I guess I will be one of the first to post to this new >group that I voted against! :-) > >I am looking at purchasing one of the following printers. > > Epson LQ-510 > Okidata Microline 390 > Panasonic KX-P1124 > >They are all 24 pin dot-matrix printers. They have a graphics resolution >of 360x360. > >Does anyone have any expirence with these printers? > >Are Amiga drivers avaliable for them? The EpsonLQ driver should work >with the Epson printer, but it only has a vertical resolution of 180. > The Nec-Pinwriter driver is identical to the EpsonQ driver with only two exceptions: a) it supports 360x360 b) it DOES NOT support color so if you want to do 360x360 b&w or grey-scale dumps, use the Nec_Pinwriter driver. BTW, due to the fact that printing in color with 360x360 would completely contaminate your ribbon I don't recommend that you do this (even if you could). daveb
ericb@athertn.Atherton.COM (Eric Black) (02/02/90)
>In article <28eZ022c84EN01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) writes: >I am looking at purchasing one of the following printers. > > Epson LQ-510 > Okidata Microline 390 > Panasonic KX-P1124 > >They are all 24 pin dot-matrix printers. They have a graphics resolution >of 360x360. > >Does anyone have any expirence with these printers? I have had a KX-P1124 for nearly a year now (well, 9 months anyway), and am quite pleased with it. I bought it for $355 at the West Coast Computer Faire shortly after it first became available and was back-ordered everywhere. It is now fairly ubiquitous, and generally available for around $300, even less at some mail order places. I was impressed by the degree to which [I think it was Dave Haynie, but now I can't remember for sure] at CBM was impressed by it. The paper parking feature is nice, and the drop-down front door makes it easy to feed in single sheets (once the continuous-form paper has been parked out of the way). Envelopes don't go through very straight, though, so I gave up on that, but single sheets of letterhead work great. Use the NEC Pinwriter driver (maybe this should be in the Commonly Asked Questions?). I saw that someone else recommended the P2200; my opinion of that model was that it was too much plastic, didn't look like it would hold up to the usage that I have given the 1124. Of the four (the three you mentioned and the P2200), not only is the 1124 the more convenient-to-use and possibly "better made", I believe just now it may be the cheapest if you look around. -- Eric Black "Garbage in, Gospel out" Atherton Technology, 1333 Bordeaux Dr., Sunnyvale, CA, 94089 Email: ericb@Atherton.COM Voice: +1 408 734 9822
kms@uncecs.edu (Ken Steele) (02/03/90)
In article <28eZ022c84EN01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>, dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) writes: > Well, I guess I will be one of the first to post to this new > group that I voted against! :-) > I voted against it also, and here I am... > I am looking at purchasing one of the following printers. > > Epson LQ-510 > Okidata Microline 390 > Panasonic KX-P1124 > > They are all 24 pin dot-matrix printers. They have a graphics resolution > of 360x360. > > Does anyone have any expirence with these printers? > Whichever printer you pick, make sure that there is already a printer driver for it that will do what you need. I spent a long and frustrating time with an Okidata 192 when there was no driver for it. Ken -- Ken Steele Dept. of Psychology kms@ecsvax.bitnet Mars Hill College kms@ecsvax.uncecs.edu Mars Hill, NC 28754 {some big name site}!mcnc!ecsvax!kms
jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) (02/03/90)
In article <1990Jan31.234641.18041@Neon.Stanford.EDU> rokicki@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes: > The HP >DeskJet Plus is also an excellent printer, but some DeskJets appear >to be better than others. Yes! The Deskjet plus is *excellent*. I've seen on in action at my local Amiga dealer. It's color print is vivid. It's text print is laser-quality. And if you are worried about clogged print-heads, you change the heads when you drop in new color cartridges. And best of all, I've spotted prices of $650 in the March '90 COmputer Shopper. -- John M. Adams --*-- Professional Student on the six-year plan! // Internet: jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu -or- vladimir@maple.circa.ufl.edu \\ // "Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory." Calvin & Hobbs \X/
monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (02/07/90)
In article <22061@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: >>DeskJet Plus is also an excellent printer, but some DeskJets appear >>to be better than others. > > >Yes! The Deskjet plus is *excellent*. I've seen on in action at my local >Amiga dealer. It's color print is vivid. It's text print is laser-quality. ^^^^^^^^^^^ Say what???? The Deskjet is a fine printer,..but.... it is only black and white. Maybe thats what you meant in the upper line " some DeskJets appear to be better than others". While we are on the subject of DeskJets, Does any one know if it is the driver or Pen Pal that causes the second page of a document to start at the very top of the paper. As opposed to down 1/2 inch which is normal. All other pages ( 1st and 3rd and beyond) place print in the correct position, only page 2 is offset up. Monty Saine
perley@trub.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley) (02/07/90)
My mail reply to Don White's mail message bounced, and I figured it might be of enough general interest to post, so: In-Reply-To: Don White's message of Wed, 31 Jan 90 11:50:55 PST <9001311950.AA08102@zehntel.uucp> Subject: Printers > The NECP2200? How good is the output for graphics? Does it compare > with LASER JET stuff (even a little?) First a little background, most of which should be applicable to all 24 pin printers. Even though they can print "360x360 dots/inch" the pin diameter is approximately 1/120 inch. If you print a continuous line of dots they will overlap considerably. This is good, because there won't be any white space between dots, and the edge of your line will be smooth; actually it should be smoother than a 300dpi laser printer. It does mean, though, that you can't really print a detail that is 1/360 inch wide. Adding to this, there is a limit to how fine a detail you can print through a cloth ribbon. The clean edges you get from the overlapping pin strikes tend to fuzz up just a little. If you get a printer that can take a carbon film ribbon that will make edges smoother (and give darker blacks), but at a higher per page expense. Since the P2200 is NEC's low end pinwriter, it only takes cloth ribbons :-(. They have models that do take carbon and multicolor ribbons for more money. It would be worth checking the other brands for this feature. As far as bottom line graphic quality, I haven't used a laser jet, but I do use a postscript apple laserwriter on the suns at work, so I will assume the output is equivalent to that. Line graphics, or things like pie charts with a crosshatch or stipple fill compare well, especially with a new ribbon. The laser writers "ink" is a little darker black. Halftones, printing iff pictures and generally things with "filled area" don't do so well. With so many pinstrikes the paper puckers up somewhat because you are beating it to a pulp. The amiga print driver doesn't seem to account well for the fact that the pins overlap so much, so areas that are supposed to be light grey look almost as dark as things that are supposed to be black. There are visible variations in the tone that show the passes of the print head (called banding). I haven't done a lot of this type of graphic printing, so there may be some adjustment in preferences that will give better contrast. I know there is an adjustment on the printer so the pins don't strike as hard (supposed to be for paper thickness adjustment) which should at least help with the puckering. You also might find that the picture looks better printed at a lower density. I think the laser printer (at least postscript) wins in this kind of printing. For something intermediate in price, you could try a cannon bubblejet or hp deskjet, but that will still be over 2 times the cost. If the NEC ever dies, I would consider one of these. They are a lot quieter too. Text is equivalent to a good electric typewriter using a cloth ribbon (plus of course the flexibility of font choice, proportional spacing, etc). -don perley perley@trub.crd.ge.com
ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) (02/07/90)
In article <621@sagpd1.UUCP>, monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes: > > While we are on the subject of DeskJets, Does any one know if it is > the driver or Pen Pal that causes the second page of a document to start > at the very top of the paper. As opposed to down 1/2 inch which is normal. > All other pages ( 1st and 3rd and beyond) place print in the correct > position, only page 2 is offset up. > > Monty Saine It's NOT Pen Pal. I have the exact same problem using the new ProWrite (2.5.) Though ... I haven't checked page 3 and beyond. I know the problem you're talking about on page 2, though. So it has to be the 1.3 driver. (Especially since the problem doesn't occur with "cat >prt:" or the like.) Try one other thing if Pen Pal has the function - try adding a header to every page. I've noticed sometimes that the second page WON'T be wrong if there's a header at the top of the page. Another point in evidence - when I print a file via PixelScript, with its optimized DeskJet driver, I DON'T get the bumped-down top-of-page. I don't remember recalling this problem earlier. Does anyone else? Dave Berezkowski - any ideas? -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=- Robin LaPasha |Deep-Six your ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu |files with VI! ;^) ;^) ;^)
swann@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (stephen swann) (02/07/90)
In article <28eZ022c84EN01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) writes: >Well, I guess I will be one of the first to post to this new >group that I voted against! :-) > >I am looking at purchasing one of the following printers. > > Epson LQ-510 > Okidata Microline 390 > Panasonic KX-P1124 > >They are all 24 pin dot-matrix printers. They have a graphics resolution >of 360x360. > I am just trying to make the same decision myself. Someone please correct me if any of the following is false: 1. The Panasonic (when driven by the Nec_Pinwriter driver) gives the best graphics resolution, at 360/360. The others max out at 360/180 (Epson) and 240/288 (Okidata). I got these from the AmigaDos 1.3 manual that came with the computer. I suppose these might all be wrong if I assumed the wrong drivers for any of them. 2. They will all produce letter-quality output. 3. They all print by impacting on an ink ribbon. 4. They all accept single sheet of letter bond. 5. The Epson is the only one that supports color. 6. They are all near the $300 range. The reason I am not really looking at a NEC 2200 is because the one ad that I saw for it pinned it at closer to $400, a bit out of my price range. Just based on what I know (ie what's above) I guess the Panasonic looks like the best for high resolution b/w printing, and overall durability (several people have mentioned it as such), and the Epson looks the only one for color graphics printing. I need a letter quality printer. Color graphics aren't really vital to me. Anyone have anything to add to this (like someone owned one of these printers, and it always jammed, or you couldn't get replacement ribbons, or it lit your office on fire :-) ? Thanks. -=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=- / Steve Swann / I haven't thought of anything to \ swann@autarch.acsu.buffalo.edu \ put here yet. Suggestions will / ( ^ I think that's correct) / be cheerfully ignored. :-) -=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-
jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) (02/12/90)
In article <621@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes: >In article <22061@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: >>>DeskJet Plus is also an excellent printer, but some DeskJets appear >>>to be better than others. >>Yes! The Deskjet plus is *excellent*. I've seen on in action at my local >>Amiga dealer. It's color print is vivid. It's text print is laser-quality. > ^^^^^^^^^^^ > Say what???? The Deskjet is a fine printer,..but.... it is only black > and white. Maybe thats what you meant in the upper line " some DeskJets > appear to be better than others". The >>> quoted material was not written by me. The >> quoted material was written by me and I was in error. The local Amiga dealer had the Paintjet one week and then received a Deskjet+ and got rid of the Paintjet. I had confused the two machines. My apologies to those who's hopes I had raised. I guess I was too excited over getting my 2000HD to take careful notice of the nameplate on the HP. As to your problem with Pen Pal, are you using a driver from Pen Pal? Or from the Workbench 1.3 Extras disk? -- John M. Adams --*-- Professional Student on the six-year plan! // Internet: jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu -or- vladimir@maple.circa.ufl.edu \\ // "Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory." Calvin & Hobbs \X/
monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (02/20/90)
In article <22221@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: > >As to your problem with Pen Pal, are you using a driver from Pen Pal? >Or from the Workbench 1.3 Extras disk? >-- I am using the one from PenPal but it is the same size as the one on the extras distribution (the number 6052 comes to mind for the size, but I am at work and there are no amigas here....sigh to check on it ). I also tried another one from a public domain disk and I didn't see any difference between the two. There is a note in PenPal about setting the screen height to 547 pixels but since I am doing a datbase printout that option is not available. I think it also does the same thing with Scribble so it must be the driver. Anyone written a new deskJet driver??????? Monty Saine
Dan.Worley@f210.n110.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dan Worley) (08/07/90)
AREA:UUCP_HRDWR
I'm thinking of buying a printer, does anyone have a recomendation under
$200?
--
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