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From: cbbrowne@watnot.UUCP (Christopher Browne)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari8
Subject: Re: Atari 1027 Printer
Message-ID: <11982@watnot.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Sep-86 11:23:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: watnot.11982
Posted: Wed Sep  3 11:23:14 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Sep-86 21:50:53 EDT
References: <8608262050.AA00294@ENTERPRISE.BBN.COM>
Reply-To: cbbrowne@watnot.UUCP (Christopher Browne)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 43

In article <8608262050.AA00294@ENTERPRISE.BBN.COM> rgenter@ENTERPRISE.BBN.COM (Rick Genter) writes:
>	*) Atari has not made the 1027 in 7 months.  Their current printers
>	   are the XMM801 and XMM804, neither of which is letter quality.
>
>The search continues.  I'd like to ask the entire community: what do you use
>for letter quality output?  Remember, I am looking for something to connect
>to my 850 interface, and it should be usable from AtariWriter+.  I'm about to
>drop the word CHEAP from my qualifications, though a LaserWriter or LaserJet
>is out of the question :-).
>--------
>Rick Genter 				BBN Laboratories Inc.
>(617) 497-3848				10 Moulton St.  6/512
>rgenter@labs-b.bbn.COM  (Internet new)	Cambridge, MA   02238
>rgenter@bbn-labs-b.ARPA (Internet old)	linus!rgenter%BBN-LABS-B.ARPA (UUCP)

     How about one of the near letter quality printers?  Panasonic makes a
series that seem quite popular around here.  They are sold as the Panasonic
1010, 1111, and maybe other numbers (the higher the better), also under the
brand name Roland.  They are in the $400 price range (Canadian) which 
probably translates to about $300 US (I think).  At any rate, they are in the
same price range as the Geminis and Epsons and Mannesman Tally and ...
They produce very nice looking print in the NLQ (near letter quality) mode,
which actually looks better upon photocopying.  The nicer editions include
a modest buffer (2K I think).  The ribbon costs about twice as much as an Epson
ribbon, but seems to last a lot longer (hopefully twice as long).  I have not 
heard of any problems relating to these printers, and I was very happy to see
a deluxe (15" carriage, super-fast, with a very nice sheet feeder) edition at
work.  It's pricey - probably $600-700 US (we got it for $800 CDN - but we got
a real deal) but it is superior to any Epson that I have used.  It's faster than
our FX-100, has more features, and prints much more legible print.  I would take
it as a second choice after a laser printer, if quality was the only concern.
 

-- 
            Christopher Browne
            University of Waterloo
            Faculty of Mathematics

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