Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.ima.isc.com (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: HP DeskJet printer Summary: unbeatable at the price Message-ID: <3078@ima.ima.isc.com> Date: 20 Dec 88 23:14:42 GMT References: <29843@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Reply-To: johnl@ima.isc.com (John R. Levine) Organization: Segue Software, Inc. Lines: 59 In article <29843@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> you write: >I consider buying a HP DeskJet printer for my pc and would appreciate any >comment about that printer. In particular, I want to know how it compares >with the more expensive HP LaserJet II in terms of quality and speed. >Also, do I need to get a memory expansion in order to print whole-page >graphics? Thanks in advance. I have a Deskjet sitting here right next to my PC. It's really great. The print quality is not quite as good as that of a Laserjet, due to the ink smearing a little bit, but (after reading an interesting article in the HP Journal on what they learned about "plain" paper while designing the Deskjet) I am experimenting with different kinds of paper; it seems that better paper gives you better results. It is undeniably slower than a Laserjet, as it moves the paper slower, and the print head physically whizzes back and forth across the paper. If you print your text in draft mode, which is still pretty nice, it feels a little faster than my old FX-85 printer. You can print a full page at 300 DPI with the base printer, although it will take a while. It's really a serial printer, and makes no attempt to buffer a full page. Although it can back the paper up, it is not a good idea to do so very much both because it's slow and because the paper won't be aligned exactly right, so your graphics program had best print the image from the top of the page to the bottom. After limited experimentation, I have found that nearly every program that prints Laserjet graphics does so from top to bottom, so they work OK on the Deskjet. I was also pleased to find that the thing prints 300 DPI with absolutely no window-shade effect. Like the Laserjet, it comes with a built-in Courier (typewriter) font. Unlike the original Laserjet, it has a full PC character set without needing any mysterious "Y" cartridge. You can get both ROM font cartridges with character sets similar to the Laserjet's and RAM cartridges into which you can download fonts using their font utilities. To get a complete set of Times fonts in ROM you have to buy three cartridges, and there's only two slots. I have the soft font kit which includes Times and Helvetica in sizes from 4 to 14 points and one RAM cartridge which is adequate for the document printing I do. With a second RAM cartridge, there'd be room for more fonts at once, but even with one I can produce really ugly pages with too many fonts. (I only download 96 char ASCII, if I wanted full character sets to print, e.g. foreign languages, I'd need a second cartridge). Note that the RAM cartridges are used only for storing fonts; they have no effect on graphics performance. Also, the cartridges are not the same as the ones for the Laserjet. Apparently the fonts are slightly redesigned for this printer. Downloading a set of fonts takes about the same time it takes to run down the hall first thing in the morning to get a cup of coffee, which is when I do it. In sum, I think this is a fantastic printer for $700. It's quiet, reasonably fast, and produces beautiful output. The supplies are also cheap -- it uses any old paper and the ink refills are $18 each. Also, until Jan 31 HP has an offer under which they'll pay you $100 for any old PC printer you send them if you buy a deskjet, and there's supposed to be a discount deal on the soft fonts starting next month. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 { bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something You're never too old to have a happy childhood.