Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!UMD2.UMD.EDU!ZBEN From: ZBEN@UMD2.UMD.EDU (Ben Cranston) Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers Subject: Re: Imagen support Message-ID: Date: Tue, 10-Jun-86 18:22:15 EDT Article-I.D.: UMD2.M1986$017333.016118BEN.ZBEN Posted: Tue Jun 10 18:22:15 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 19-Jun-86 19:32:31 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 54 Approved: laser-lovers@washington.arpa > From: phil@RICE.EDU (William LeFebvre) > Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers > Subject: Imagen customer service (was QMS PS-800) > Date: 2 Jun 86 20:17:16 GMT [LeFebvre is quoting someone ELSE here... -zben] >> Imagen makes reasonable printers, but I would have to say that they >> are one of the worst companies to deal with when something doesn't >> work right. Imagen seems to think they know all the answers and that >> their customers should learn to accept what is "best" for them. > I have said this before in this forum and I will say it again now. I > have heard several complaints about Imagen's customer service, yet I > continue to find them a very pleasant and helpful company to deal with > when "something goes wrong"... > Now, granted, all of our problems have been hardware problems. I have > never had the necessity to deal with the "applications support" people. On the two occasions I had to talk to the "applications support" people, both times I talked to sympathetic knowledgable people who took the time to talk things out. As it turns out, in the LBP-10 to 8/300 conversion they broke a few things upon which I was relying (glyphs bigger than about 500 by 500 or so, as reported to the net at the time, and the DGLY stuff). Nothing that couldn't be programmed around... >> One advantage (debatable) that Imagen claims to have is direct >> connection to Ethernet. I don't see this as much of an advantage >> since host computers have to have fonts, filters, and formatters >> anyway. The network connection also increases the price of their >> hardware. > True, the network connection increases the cost. But it does have a > distinct advantage. Since the host has to have, as you said, all the > "fonts, filters, and formatters", more data than just the document and > the formatting instructions gets shipped to the printer---the font > bitmaps get shipped as well. This can be a considerable amount of > data. The ethernet has the potential to move this data much faster > than a 9600 baud serial line does. My own experience is that adding the font bitmaps just about doubles the size of the data transfer. If the limiting factor is the 8 pages per minute of the engine, I don't think the line speed is much of a factor. One would think that when doing pictures the opposite would be true... > William LeFebvre > Department of Computer Science > Rice University > Ben Cranston Computer Science Center The University of Maryland