Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!sco!allanh
From: allanh@sco.COM (Allan J. Heim)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: LaserJet or Postscript printer:  Help me choose
Summary: Depends on what you do with it....
Message-ID: <1735@scolex>
Date: 17 Nov 88 03:28:36 GMT
Reply-To: allanh@sco.COM (Allan J. Heim)
Organization: Ministry of Defence, Kingdom of Zurschland
Lines: 35

It really boils down to a question of what you want to do with it.

The HP LaserJet series of printers were intended as all-purpose,
general office use printers.  Their low cost (compared to the Apple
printers) reflects this.

The Apple LaserWriters, on the other hand, are optimized for working
with graphics and fancy text manipulation.  Since such work requires
more from the printer's compute engine, the engine has to be more
capable, and thus costs more.

If you aren't planning on doing much graphics work, and just need
something to spit out forms, letters, and the occasional graphics
bitmap, get an HP.  LaserJets make fine daisywheel-replacement,
text-oriented printers.

If you're going to be making much use of Ventura and want to do nice
graphics, or have a program that does sophisticated text work (that
uses a lot of fonts, and does kerning and other things), get an Apple
LaserWriter II NT.

Speaking from my own experience, the Apple NTX printers are absolutely
wonderful.  We do a lot of typesetting work on our printers, and we
import a lot of graphics, so we really need the extra power the NTX
provides.  We've had two for a few months now, and the beggars just go
and go.  They jam once a week or so, they don't break, are light, look
good, and never stop.  If you can afford one, get one.  If you can't,
get an NT;  I assume an NT is as good, if somewhat less capable.
 
But if you're just looking for a fast, quiet text printer, get an HP.

al
-- 
Allan J. Heim @ The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.	(408) 458-1422
(allanh@sco.com ; ...{decvax!microsoft,ucbvax!ucscc,uunet}!sco!allanh)