From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!info-vax Newsgroups: fa.info-vax Title: re: inexpensive laser printers Article-I.D.: ucbvax.222 Posted: Sat Dec 4 17:26:49 1982 Received: Sun Dec 5 09:57:02 1982 >From LUCAS@CMU-PSY-A@CMUA Sat Dec 4 17:07:08 1982 Mail-From: ARPANET host SANDIA rcvd at 1-Dec-82 0745-PST Mail-From: ARPANET site CMU-CS-A rcvd at 1-Dec-82 0841-MST Mail-From: CMUFTP host CMU-PSY-A received by CMU-10A at 1-Dec-82 10:39:47-EST To: INFO-VAX@SANDIA@CMU-CS-A Remailed-Date: 4 Dec 1982 1047-PST Remailed-From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Remailed-To: Info-VAX@SRI-CSL: ; We have just begun a trial lease of a Xerox 2700 and, while it leaves much to be desired, I feel that Brian Reid's criticisms of the machine are a bit overstated: --It is true that the 2700 is not nearly as flexible as the 9700, but it WILL accept down loaded fonts (on a page-by-page basis if necessary) and allows up to maybe 3 or 4 fonts to be stored simultaneously and arbitrarily mixed on a page. Text may be positioned at arbitrary absolute positions, and it can draw vertical and horizontal lines of nearly any width (no diagonals, though). It's resolution of 300 dots/inch is identical to the 9700's. --At 12 pages/min, it is rather more than marginally faster than a double-daisy printer. It is also faster than the Canon LPB-10 which is spec'd at 10 pages/min. --At $19K, I believe it is the least expensive of the currently available choices. More interestingly, it can be leased it for about $600/month, plus a page charge after 5000 copies. This includes the same kind of quick-response maintenance that Xerox provides for their copiers. On the other hand, here are our most serious complaints about the 2700: --Xerox refuses to provide detailed technical information about such things as font file formats. (If anybody manages to figure out how to create new fonts, we'd sure like to hear about it.) --The apparent inability to download bitmap graphics is most unfortunate. --The limits on number of fonts/page and overall page complexity imposed by the device's memory limitations may turn out to be a problem, but we're not sure yet. As for advice: I completely agree that now is not quite the time to buy a bottom of the line laser printer. In this regard, the ability to lease the 2700 and to have Xerox maintain it is the best thing that machine has going for it. After surveying our options, our decision was to lease a 2700 on a fairly short-term basis, and to wait until something better comes along. -Pete Lucas