#LaserPrinter Choice??
19 messages in this thread
I am a soon to be owner of an A3000. My wife and I are both teachers at a
school using Macs. My wife has grown accustomed to the apple laserwriter
and would like something similiar at home. My local Amiga dealer is
pushing the HPIIP…another non-Amiga dealer who sells many different
brands (including HP) recommends the Okidata OL 400 or OL 800. I will be
using Prowrite 3.0 and would appreciate any input and/or suggestions. None
of the local dealers have these 'lower' priced models to demo. Would an
amiga need a program in order to use these… I've heard of printer drivers
but thats about it. Thanks for anything you can tell me.
Going into debt for Christmas
Roger B
Coastal DownEast Maine
Foggy one day…cloudy the next
Roger,
You can use your Laser Writer on the Amiga if you so desire.
As to printer drivers, they are simply files that take generic
printer commands, and convert them into the specific command needed for
your particular printer.
Don
Thanks for the info….the learning process continues….
Roger
Just make sure that the printer you buy is HP compatible and you're
safe. I believe the Okidatas are compat. The problems with the HP IIP that
I know of are that it only holds 50 sheets in the tray and it only prints 4
pages per minute. It is also not postscript (unless you buy it extra) and
doesn't come built-in with enough memory to completely do a graphics print.
— Ethan
Thanks for the advice….now all I need is the $$
Roger
Roger,
With a serial cable, you could use an Apple LaserWriter on your new
A3000. Or you can shop around for someone else's PostScript printer. Just
about all of the non-Apple PostScript laser makers include Serial, Parallel
and Appletalk (Localtalk) ports, while the Apple LaserWriter just has
Appletalk & Serial. NEC, Qume and QMS are just a few companies that make
decent Postscript printers. One "downside" is that the prices are in the
$2000-$3000 range (mail order) – or sometimes MORE!
You can buy a HP compatable printer at a much lower cost, but you may
not be as happy with it if you are already familiar with the LaserWriter's
output. With the HP machines (and *some* of the compatables) you can add a
cartridge (and RAM) to allow the printer to do PostScript. It can then do
*both*. But you are now approaching the cost of the lower end PostScript
printers.
You might want to check the prices (local and mail-order) of the Qume
Crystalprint Publisher II or the QMS PS-410. They will both do PostScript
and have HP LaserJet emulation. And they are both pretty good printers.
Lloyd
Lloyd,
Thanks for the info….maybe I'll sneak into the school some night and
swap their AppleLaser writer for my Epson Fx-85…Think they'll notice???
Roger
Roger,
*I'D* have a hard time telling the difference (yeah, right).
Lloyd
Roger:
I am a teacher at a college. I was able to purchase an HPIIP through
HP's educational discount program. It was only $845 plus I got a $75
rebate from Hewlett-Packard. I don't know if the program is still
available but you could check into it. Since the cost of the printer was
so low (relatively speaking) I bought the lower cassette which holds at
least 250 sheets together with an additional 4 megabytes of memory. I also
bought (later) the Pacific Page PostScript cartridge. (A lot of memory is
recommended if you want to do graphics and/or PostScript). All I can say
is that I am completely satisfied. The output is excellent. I also use
the PostScript driver (available here) which gives superb screen dumps.
Since you mention that your school has MACs (so does mine) I should also
note that I use the printer (in HP mode) with A-Max. (I use a MAC printer
driver called MacPrint from Insight Development). I think it's wonderful.
Just thought I'd let you know my experience! Good luck.
-David Cattell
David,
I have been trying to get my IIP to print from A-Max! Could you
tell me more about this driver, cost (if any), etc?
Thanks,
J.R.
P.S.: I have Pacific Page also, do you do any PostScript printing from
A-Max to it, and if so, how is it?
Thanks ever so much for the info…I'll give HP a call at their 800
number.
Roger
Roger,
There is a deal now that runs till the end of the monthon the HPLJIIP that
gives you the lower cassette free. Get at least one more meg of memory and
the Pacifi Page PE postscript cartridge and you have 300 dpi full page
graphi and post script capable printing for about 1200.
Oh yeah, don't get the extra memory from HP – it will ocst 3 times what you
could get it for from Pacific Page.
wmc
Roger,
I don't now much about laser printers other than the one I use (and
like). It's a TI microLaser.
It is HPLJII compatible, Postscript, parallel interface, 1.5M upgradable
to 4M, 250 sheet tray, manual sheet feed, 3 HP LJII fonts, 17 Postscript
fonts, and tons of options. It retails at around $2000 (suggested list is
$2349).
-sja
Steve,
Actually, there are two models of that TI printer (not counting the
non-Postscript model). I'm pretty sure the price you quoted is for the
model with 35 PS fonts. There's a less expensive model that only comes
with the 17 fonts built-in, but don't know the list price. I've seen it
for approx. $1600 street price.
…BobR
White Wolf Productions
Bob,
There are 3 models of it — I was speaking of the middle one (with 17
fonts). In a "normal" computer store (ie, full service dealer that does not
sell at SRP nor does deep discounting) I've seen the printer at $1995.
I've seen the non-Postscript version at $1495 and the upper-end one (with
35 fonts) for $2450. Obviously, your mileage will vary <grin>.
Steve:
That's the printer I'm very interested in. Perhaps you can answer some
questions? Everyone has basically given it rave reviews, but a while back
I talked to someone at a store that specializes in printers, and she
claimed it was very susceptible to print problems in high (or un-optimum)
humidity conditions. Have you experienced anything like that? I'm stumped
because not a single reviewer (and there have been many) had a problem with
that.
The other question I had regarded upgradeability. Do you know if TI is
going to offer Postscript 2 or any of the other newer page description
languages in the future? It seems perfect for that, being that the
controller is proprietary and removeable.
Any other comments or thoughts?
I wrote a nasty letter to TI a few weeks ago, including some of my tech
questions, but haven't gotten a reply yet. They seem to use guerrilla
tactics to get you on their sales database when you call for tech
questions, and you never get to talk to a tech support person anyway, until
they call you back. The last time I called there, I'm not sure anyone
called me back. In addition, many dealers said the reason you don't see
many people carrying it (except now, after there's been 5 different glowing
reviews about it) is that TI's distribution policies weren't very friendly
to the dealers. Looking at the kind of low-level dealers that TI has
managed to sign up, I guess it speaks for itself. Everyone who sells it out
here is either a small no-name dealer, or a large office/warehouse/discount
store, or someone who primarily sells IC chips and resistors (JDR
microdevices…and they're not really in my area anyway- they are actually
nice folks out there).
+ Phil +
Phil,
I really can't comment to any problems the printer might have in a high
humidity environment. I'm in Denver — average summertime humidity is
about 15%.
I don't know about upgradability either — altho I assume it is since
the low end model of that printer comes without Postscript but can be added
later. If you can add Postscript I would assume you could add Postscript 2
(if it becomes available as an option for that printer).
Another printer that my dealer is very high on is a new NEC model — I
think it's the Silent Printer 2 (or something like that). He sells it for
the same price as the TI. It offers 35 PostScript fonts and 2M of ram
standard (vrs 17 fonts and 1.5M for the TI). You might give that one a
look too.
-sja
Thanks for the reply.
I heard/read about that NEC. The footprint is the big selling feature on
the TI. I was looking at some printouts the other day, and it almost
seemed like the output that I had done on a HP IIP was slightly sharper
than the TI. Do you have any thoughts on this?
+ Phil +
Steve,
Thanks for the advice….maybe my wife will agree to an evening job at
the local wreath making shop to help pay for my expensive tastes…
Dreaming on….
Roger