Date : Mon, 06 Sep 1982 0903-:00PDT
From : Jeffrey@Office-2
Subject: printer query results
I received the following messages in response to my "letter
quality printer" query. My conclusions are:
- the Diablo 630 is very popular; this is probably a combination
of reasonable price, good functionality, and high reliability;
- the Fancy Font software package from Pacific Software is very
interesting. I have some brochures and print samples about this
product and I'm impressed. Apparently, Fancy Font and an Epson
printer with Graptrax can together print a number of fonts
in a number of sizes with several variations in facing (e.g.
regular, bold, italic, etc.). The "News Release" from Pacific
software sort of implies that all samples were printed unreduced
(i.e. the samples were copies of pages which came "straight from the
presses"). During a phone conversation with Mr. Overman of
Pacific Software, I believe he said that the "News Release" itself
had been reduced. Well, that's probably just a nit. The package
can certainly produce beautiful pages using multiple fonts.
Don't expect to produce voluminous documents in breathtakingly
exciting olde english font however. Print speed is advertised
as about 6 lines per minute.
Thanks to all who responded to the query.
Jeffrey Stone
Menlo Park, CA
p.s. My hytype I daisywheeler is back from the shop and I'm $129.55
lighter. But -- its worth it. The old clunker once again makes
neat, clean marks on paper. Maybe I'll stick with it for another
year. In any case, I'll certainly order Graftrax ROMs for my
Epson and will either purchase Fancy Font or roll my own.
the responses to the printer query follow -->
Date: 31 August 1982 17:54-EDT
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC>
Subject: correspondence printer query --> correspondence service bureau
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
I wish somebody with a printer would open a private business
which accepts electronic mail and prints it on paper and stuffs
it in an envelop (or has it printed inside a sealed envelop the
way bank deposit slips and paychecks are done) and puts postage
on it (or meters it) and posts it, so I can send mail to
non-compute people without having to write or print longhand or
make a trip to campus to pick up my listing and mail it myself.
This would be sort of like ECOM except it'd be for small
customers, or like what NIC used to do about 10 years ago for
free until they ran out of funds.
Date: 31 Aug 1982 1627-PDT
Sender: SCHNUR at USC-ISI
Subject: Re: letter quality printer query
From: SCHNUR at USC-ISI
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
Message-ID: <[USC-ISI]31-Aug-82 16:27:06.SCHNUR>
In-Reply-To: Your message of 30 Aug 1982 0739-PDT
Jeffrey, My wife has used a nec 7700 printer for about 1 year now
in our home translating business. She has typed well over a
million words in that time frame. the printer has performed
flawlessly. Since the thimbles can take 128 characters it is
possible to get some fairly versatile print fonts. As of yet
however Nec does not produce one that has both a Full roman set
and enough Greek and scientific characters to be perfect for use
in all occasions. At Nrl we also have the two headed Qume top of
the line printer. This printer breaks down every month or two
and its proportional print is poor. The nec can produce
excellent copy with a good text writer,e.g. Vectors memorite
III, Micropro's wordstar. So I would go for the NEC over the
Qume. I do not know much about the new Diablo. Joel (NRL 6510)
Date: 31 August 1982 05:11-EDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ at MIT-MC>
Subject: letter quality printer query
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
Hi, Jeffrey, welcome back to the net. You might try sending your
inquiry to INFO-PRINTERS@MC - you're more likely to get a reply
there, I think. I would enjoy seeing what you get back from this
query. Thanks.
--Keith
Date: 31 August 1982 21:07-EDT
From: Leor Zolman <LEOR at MIT-MC>
Subject: printers
To: jeffrey at OFFICE-2
I just bought a Diablo 630, and love it! Especially when combined
with Mark of the Unicorn's "final Word", which knows all about
what the Diablo can do. I'm doing all my C docs on it. A BIG win.
-leor
Date: 31 August 1982 21:17-EDT
From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM at MIT-MC>
Subject: correspondence printer query
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
cc: INFO-PRINTERS at MIT-MC
Jeffrey,
I noticed you have an Epson printer. That reminded me
that there is a most interesting new software package that has
just been introduced called Fancy Font. This set of programs
takes advantage of the Epson graftrax rom resolution (apparently
higher than most if not all other printers in its price class) to
print a variety of typfaces. The author has included a selection
of several styles of type in each of several sizes (I have a
preliminary version, so this may differ slightly from what is now
being offered), a text formatter which handles the dozen or so
fonts, the Epson standard character sets, justification, margins,
headers, etc. with both command line options and imbedded
controls, as well as a program to edit the supplied fonts and one
to create those of your own. The latter looks like a real big job
to me, so I think I'll pass on it!
Anyway, the point of all this is that the print quality
is fantastic. I can't wait for the reaction when I send my next
memorandum in old English!
The price of Fancy Font is I believe around $180, and in
my opinion it is well worth it. Source is:
Softcraft
8726 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 1641
Los Angeles, Ca. 90045
213-641-3822
Date: 5 September 1982 20:05-EDT
From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM at MIT-MC>
Subject: correspondence printer query
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
cc: CSTROM at MIT-MC
Sounds like you are as impressed as I was [editor's note: Charlie
is referring to Fancy Font]. I do not think you
will be disappointed with the formatter. It allows justification,
centering, variable margin size, headers, footers, etc., and up
to ten fonts/document. I am currently playing around with the
definition of fonts of my own using the Hershey Character set as
a basis. This looks like a most simple proposition.
Regards,
Charlie Strom <CSTROM@MC>
Date: 31 August 1982 21:48-EDT
From: Dan Blumenfeld <DAN at MIT-ML>
Subject: High Quality Printers
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
Jeffrey,
If you're currently looking at diablo-type printers (and you're
willing to pay $3-4K), I suggest that you give SanTek (formerly
Sanders Technology) a call. They manufacture a "high-density"
dot-matrix printer which uses a multi-pass technique to produce
high quality output. I've been using one recently, and it's
really a nice unit.
The printer has many features worth mentioning. First of all,
the key to the flexibility of the printer is that it accepts up
to six ROM cartridges (similar to the Atari Game Cartridges),
each one containing either one or two fonts. By sending the
printer commands (it has lots of them), you can switch between
fonts, etc. It sure beats changing Daisywheels.
Another very useful feature of the printer is that it has
different print qualities (which is does by changing the number
of passes per line). When preparing drafts, you can use the draft
("Epson") quality which in itself looks pretty good. The nice
thing about this is that the printer zips along at over 300 cps
bidirectional. The highest quality output is printed at about 75
cps or so, which blows away Diablos. There are also intermediate
quality settings which require less time to print. All of this
is also under software control.
As far as fonts go, SanTek has a catalog which has everything
from Helvetica to Cyrillic to Hebrew, as well as Presentation
Fonts, Greek/Math Fonts, etc. They also have a dot-plot ROM to so
that one can turn out graphs and charts.
The printer lists for about $4K which is much more cost effective
than the double daisywheel diablo. The only drawback of the
printer is that it is not the most quiet printer I've seen. Then
again, for 300+ cps, I can tolerate a bit of noise. Hope this
helps out...
Dan
Date: 1 Sep 1982 (Wednesday) 0827-EDT
From: ATHEY at LLL-MFE
Subject: printers
To: jeffrey at OFFICE-2
Well - there are lots of printers available. Since you already
have an EPSON that tells me that you don't want something really
expense like a Sanders or Malibu - and that you don't need a dual
mode printer. Diablo and QUME are probably the most popular with
the Diablo being my preference BUT there is another one on the
market which lists for half the price of the Diablo - it is the
Daisywritter. This nice machine sells for $1495.00 with a 48K
buffer and $1095 with a 16K buffer(I think). The actual print
speed is 30 cps BUT it has a fast slew rate of 200 cps, which is
used for 1 to n spaces...effectively giving it a throughput of 50
- 90 cps for average letters..the Diablo 16xx print at 55 cps
max. Better yet with the 48K buffer which can be downloaded in
approx. 30 secs. the printer will continue to print for about 30
min....leaving your machine free to do what it will. If this
isn't enough there is one more capability...it handles all of the
Diablo/Qume/Centronics data protocols as well as having 4(not 1)
interfaces: IEE 488, Serial, Centronics Parallel, and I forgot
what the fourth one is. You don't pay extra for these --- it
comes with all 4. Sounds like this would get you the most for
your money as well as doing the job you need to get done. If
your requirements are not what I assumed let me know and I'll see
if there isn't something around to fill them.
Chuck Athey - ATHEY@LLL-MFE
Date: 1 Sep 1982 1023-PDT
From: Jim Moore <MOORE at USC-ISIB>
Subject: Re: letter quality printer query
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2, info-cpm at BRL
In-Reply-To: Your message of 30 Aug 1982 0739-PDT
Jeffrey,
We have been using a Diably o 630 (ksr), and are completely
satisfied with it. Excellent quality printing & reliability.
Only problem (minor) is that to use it w/ Wordstar, two of the
"smart" chips have to be pulled. Seems that too much
intelligence is not a good thing.
I would be interested in your replies.
Good luck,
Jim
Date: 2 Sep 1982 1406-PDT
From: Jim Moore <MOORE at USC-ISIB>
Subject: Re: letter quality printer query
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
In-Reply-To: Your message of 1 Sep 1982 1806-PDT
Jeffrey,
I got mine (2) [editor's note, Jim is referring to a Diablo
630] for about $2500, w/ a hefty which included a hefty
discount. If you use wordstar, you will want to pull out the
chips in sockets F23 and F32. You might be able to save $$s by
buying a 630 w/o these chips initially. They make the 630 "too
smart" for WS to deal with.
I got a b-i-dir. tract. feed and a cut-sheet feeder (from someone
else). I am very pleased w/ both. The feeder is expensive, so
unless you plan to do A LOT of typing on cut sheets and
envelopes, I reccomment that you pass on this one.
Good luck.
Jim Moore
Date: 3 Sep 1982 (Friday) 2001-EDT
From: HUNEYCUTT at WPAFB-AFWAL
Subject: Quality printer..
To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2
Hi,
If you're not worried about speed and want to go the 12-1500 $
range now available, the F10 (C.Itoh) can't be beat. 40 CPS and
all the bells and whistles you could want with fully-formed
characters. In fact, this moose has features that none of the
word processing packages can currently take advantage of, like
down-loading printwheel specs, etc...
Doug
Date: Saturday, 4 September 1982 23:59-EDT
Sender: ZVONA.GYRO at MIT-OZ
From: ZVONA.GYRO at MIT-MC
To: Jeffrey at Office-2
Subject: letter quality printer query
We use a Diablo 630 with excellent results. These are not as
reliable as the older Diablos (e.g. 1650) but are much less
expensive. If you get a non-630 Diablo, just be sure it uses
metal printwheels -- the plastic ones wear out too fast.
If you really feel extravagant you can buy a Wang/Diablo on the
surplus market (I can get you one for $2800 but you probably want
to buy it out in CA) and a Morrow Mult I/O (by far the best S-100
card for controlling one of these). A friend of mine has had one
of these for three years, and except for when he plugged the
interface in backwards, @i<nothing> has ever gone wrong with it
-- these babies are @i<solid>.
-- Scott
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