Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.ibd From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Computers & Automation Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 13:33:51 EST Message-ID: <10.1992Nov20.133351@AmeriCast.com> 11/20/92 TITLE Computers & Automation Like PCs, Printers Are Becoming Cheaper, Better And More Numerous Brian Deagon In the printer market, just like the computer market, three words describe the direction of technology: smaller, faster, cheaper. Never before has so much technology been available for so little money. Just a few years ago, a fast, high-quality printer for business users cost more than $5,000. Users now can get a faster, higher-quality printer with more features for under $3,000, and they can get away with spending significantly less if they are willing to sacrifice speed and other features. Computers & Auto- mation With hundreds of printer models to choose from, the right choice depends on how the printer will be used. The best printers - those providing so-called letter-quality print suitable for, say, business correspondence or resumes - are based on "laser" or "ink-jet" technology. When viewed under a magnifying glass, the letters are smooth, rounded at the corners and solid black. What should you look for when shopping for printers in this class? Good laser and ink-jet printers, which are also called bubble jet printers, should contain at least two megabytes of printer memory. And if you want to produce high-quality graphics, the minimum amount of memory should be four megabytes. For business applications, many printers now come with at least 35 scalable fonts built in, providing users with a broad range of letter sizes and types from which to choose, although many people get by with far fewer. Letter quality and graphics output also depend on the printer's dots-per-inch rating. On this score, accept nothing less than 300 dpi. If it's affordable, choose a printer that runs on a reduced instruction-set computing microprocessor. RISC chips are highly efficient at number crunching, which high- quality fonts and graphics demand. The printer's memory and mi- croprocessor make a big difference on its rated speed. A printer with a rated speed of six pages per minute might only print com- plex graphics at one page a minute without the extra memory. Software Consideration Another important decision to make is which operating software will be used to control the printer. Here, there are two industry standards: Hewlett- Packard Co.'s Printer Control Language, of which the most recent versions are level four and five, and Adobe Systems Inc.'s PostScript, in level one or two. The higher the software level, the better the graphics capability. It also helps if the printer can automatically switch between these two stan- dards. Finally, find out how the printer cable will plug into the computer's external port. The standard ports, located on the back of the computer and printer, are called parallel and serial. Apple Computer Inc. uses a proprietary port called AppleTalk, so it is desirable if a printer can accomodate that. For network printing, it helps if all the ports can be active at once. Shoppers would be wise to study some of the best printers in the class they are seeking and compare them against other models they are considering. One they may want to look at is the Doc-It printer by Okidata, a division of Oki America Inc. The Doc-It represents a breakthrough in personal productivity tools. It com- bines a laser printer, a fax machine, a copier and an image scanner into a single compact unit. For under $4,000, users get the same capabilities that, if acquired separately, would cost about $7,000, Okidata contends. BIS Strategic Decisions Inc., a leading printer research firm, recently named the Doc-It printer of the year. "The Doc-It was by far the most interesting printer we looked at," said C.J. Meiser, a senior marketing analyst at BIS. "It's a paradigm shift that empowers the user to have more technology on the desk- top," said John Ring, Okidata director of desktop document pro- cessing. The Doc-It comes with a computer board that plugs into a 386-based computer running either MS-DOS or Windows system software. The product will enable users to scan a graphic, "cut and paste" it into an existing document stored and being viewed on the computer. Users sitting at a computer terminal can then program the printer to fax the finished document to multiple sites. For those with about $2,000 to spend, analysts suggest looking at Hewlett-Packard Co.'s LaserJet model 4, the Silent- writer model 95 by NEC Corp. or the EPL-7500 by Epson Corp. All three are award-winning printers. Users who want full-color ca- pability and have about $3,500 to spend should check out the Color Jetprinter by Lexmark International Inc., a former division of International Business Machines Corp. Also recommended is Canon Computer Systems Inc.'s CJ10 Color Desktop Color Bubble-Jet copier, which at $6,995, sets a new low price for products in this category. For more capability and more money, check out the 4700 Color Do- cument Printer by Xerox Corp. In the printer networking market, the Pagemarq by Compaq Computer Corp. has received high praise by leading industry analysts. Cheaper products also are capable of letter-quality printing but at slower speeds and with fewer features such as print styles. They also tend to be noisier. A Critic Favorite One printer that has received the best buy recommendation from critics is the Bubble Jet 200 by Canon. It has a suggested list price of $549 but is selling for $400 at some stores. "If all I had was $400 to spend, this would be the printer I'd get," said Meiser of BIS. He also recommends the Hewlett-Packard DeskJet/Writer 550C, with a suggested list price of $1,099 but a reported street price of $720. The printer holds two ink car- tridges, enabling users to use black and one color. This article is copyright 1992 Investors Business Daily. Redis- tribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM