#HELP! Much info needed
3 messages in this thread
Hello! I need a LOT of information, and the folks at Macpro said this was
the
place to ask.
I work for a retail mail-order gift fruit shipper in Florida. We are
thinking
of buying a laser printer to do our own brochures, coupons, confirmation
letters, weekly reminders, and that sort, rather than have outside printing
companies do it. We WOULD be using graphics; both scanned or clip-art, and
in-house drawings of things.
As it stands, we have an AT clone, and we are currently using my personal
Mac +
for various graphic things. As software goes, we would be purchasing that
as
well. Now the questions:
We would rather use the Mac for the DTP stuff, but would need to have the
printer capable of printing things from the AT as well. Are there any
(many?)
compatibility problems I need to be aware of? Should we purchase a higher
horsepower Mac? Is a larger/colour screen necessary? Is Postscript worth
the
extra cost?
A big question is what are the paper handline capabilities of different
printers? I mean, can we print letter/legal and odd size things?
(Specifically, post-card sized stuff)
How much does it cost to operate a printer after it is purchased? Do ALL
lasers
use toner, or is there a different way of printing?
Is colour printing worth the extra money? I've read colour laser printers
have
just broken the $10k barrier. Is that full colour printing? Whats the
quality
like?
If we were going to design our own colour brochure, coupon, whatever, how
would
we go about it? Is there software available that would let us do
seperations?
(Then do we print 4 copies of the document; 1 for each colour, or how does
that
work?)
I realize this is a LOT to ask. If you'd like, I'd be MORE than happy to
just
give you a call at your convenience and discuss this.
I do appreciate any help offered, and thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Mike
Well, this *is* a good place to ask <grin>. Here's some suggestions in
order of your questions:
1. With the equipment you've got, you'll be better off using your AT for
graphics work rather than the Mac+. You can use either PageMaker or Ventura
or one of the low end DTP programs. If your work is primarily letters,
reminders, coupons, etc., you might even get by for a while with a word
processor like WordPerfect of MSWord.
2. I say the AT is a better bet because a Mac+ really isn't up to the
task. We used to use an SE but added a IIcx with a portrait monitor because
the SE was too slow and the small screen required too much scrolling time.
3. Suggest definitely a PostScript (not PS clone) printer. Most will have
*both* an Appletalk and either a parallel or serial port (parallel is
faster, so if there's a choice, get parallel). That way you can hook up
both a Mac and PC to the same printer. That's what we've done in our
office. If there's a distance to travel, you can go with a longer serial
cable than parallel without data degradation.
4. Most lasers handle letter and can handle legal/envelope/odd size either
with an additional tray (usually optional) or using the single sheet feed.
The more automatic paper handling capabilities the printer has, the more
you'll spend.
5. Printers are not too expensive to operate. Cartridges of toner are your
only real expense after paper. You can have them recharged several times
for substantial savings.
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6. Color printing on laser is useful only for comps. The quality is not
adequate for reproduction and unless you need a color original (for
overheads or one-time shots) the price is not worth it.
Let me know what questions these answers generate and I'll get back to you
with additional information.
7. Oh, about the large monitor. Definitely the best money you'll ever
spend. I use a portrait (MDS/Genius) on my PC and a portrait (Radius) on
the IIcx. Wouldn't trade either. Easier on the eyes, faster and *much*
better for productivity. For more money you can get a 2 page display. May
not be worth the extra money unless you need 2 pages at once. Color adds
too much to the price and I don't use color much, so my monitors are
monochrome.