Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!jvc!jonathan
From: jonathan@jvc.UUCP (Jonathan Hue)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: color printer recommendations?
Keywords: color printers, Xerox4020,HP Paintjet
Message-ID: <317@jvc.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 89 06:12:44 GMT
References: <1931@tank.uchicago.edu> <12357@gryphon.COM> <10205@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: JVC Laboratory of America
Lines: 40

In article <10205@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, c152-cb@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Vince Lee) writes:
> In article <12357@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
> >
> >The one that I really like is the Tektronix 4692. Beautiful colours.
> >I think it's at least $1500, maybe more. You don't see them much though.
> 
> If its that wonderful printer I saw awhile back, I believe $8000 is more
> accurate, with about $1.50 cost per page.

From the '88 Tek catalog, since my memory fails me (really bad considering
I've used all three of these printers!) :

The 4692 lists for $7795 with an RS-232 interface, and is a 154 dpi
color inkjet printer.  This thing has been around forever.

The 4693 lists for $7795 with a parallel interface, and is a 300 dpi
color thermal printer.  This is probably the one Vince saw.  $1.50 a
page seems a little excessive.

The 4696 lists for $1795 with an RS-232 interface, and is a 120 dpi
color inkjet printer.

You can add rasterizers, RGB video, and multiplexer options to most Tek
printers.

The best color printer I know of (I'm talking about things that print on
paper, so I'm ignoring film recorders and color proofers, even those that use
Poloroid instant proofing film) is the JVC color printer, which
is a 300 dpi continuous tone thermal printer.  We never need to halftone
or dither since we have 256 density levels per pixel at 300 dpi.  You
*rarely* see these, there was one at SIGGRAPH in '87 in the Quantel booth
(with a Dai Nippon label slapped on it).  Price?  About $50K to OEMs.
Most people are floored when they see the output of this thing.  Takes
about 34MB for an A-size print.

The best color inkjet printer I know of is the IRIS (the company in
MA, not the computer from SGI).  I don't know the specs of their latest
model, the last one I saw was 240 dpi, with about 8 levels of density,
achieved by printing multiple dots on top of each other.  I think these
were around $20K-$30K.


-Jonathan Hue		uunet!jvc!jonathan