Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!crdgw1!vdsvax!trub!perley From: perley@trub.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: Printers (24 pin) Message-ID: <11155@vdsvax.crd.ge.com> Date: 6 Feb 90 18:33:30 GMT References: <28eZ022c84EN01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <17640@mango.athertn.Atherton.COM> Sender: news@vdsvax.crd.ge.com Reply-To: perley@trub.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley) Distribution: na Organization: GE Corp. R & D, Schenectady, NY 12345 Lines: 65 My mail reply to Don White's mail message bounced, and I figured it might be of enough general interest to post, so: In-Reply-To: Don White's message of Wed, 31 Jan 90 11:50:55 PST <9001311950.AA08102@zehntel.uucp> Subject: Printers > The NECP2200? How good is the output for graphics? Does it compare > with LASER JET stuff (even a little?) First a little background, most of which should be applicable to all 24 pin printers. Even though they can print "360x360 dots/inch" the pin diameter is approximately 1/120 inch. If you print a continuous line of dots they will overlap considerably. This is good, because there won't be any white space between dots, and the edge of your line will be smooth; actually it should be smoother than a 300dpi laser printer. It does mean, though, that you can't really print a detail that is 1/360 inch wide. Adding to this, there is a limit to how fine a detail you can print through a cloth ribbon. The clean edges you get from the overlapping pin strikes tend to fuzz up just a little. If you get a printer that can take a carbon film ribbon that will make edges smoother (and give darker blacks), but at a higher per page expense. Since the P2200 is NEC's low end pinwriter, it only takes cloth ribbons :-(. They have models that do take carbon and multicolor ribbons for more money. It would be worth checking the other brands for this feature. As far as bottom line graphic quality, I haven't used a laser jet, but I do use a postscript apple laserwriter on the suns at work, so I will assume the output is equivalent to that. Line graphics, or things like pie charts with a crosshatch or stipple fill compare well, especially with a new ribbon. The laser writers "ink" is a little darker black. Halftones, printing iff pictures and generally things with "filled area" don't do so well. With so many pinstrikes the paper puckers up somewhat because you are beating it to a pulp. The amiga print driver doesn't seem to account well for the fact that the pins overlap so much, so areas that are supposed to be light grey look almost as dark as things that are supposed to be black. There are visible variations in the tone that show the passes of the print head (called banding). I haven't done a lot of this type of graphic printing, so there may be some adjustment in preferences that will give better contrast. I know there is an adjustment on the printer so the pins don't strike as hard (supposed to be for paper thickness adjustment) which should at least help with the puckering. You also might find that the picture looks better printed at a lower density. I think the laser printer (at least postscript) wins in this kind of printing. For something intermediate in price, you could try a cannon bubblejet or hp deskjet, but that will still be over 2 times the cost. If the NEC ever dies, I would consider one of these. They are a lot quieter too. Text is equivalent to a good electric typewriter using a cloth ribbon (plus of course the flexibility of font choice, proportional spacing, etc). -don perley perley@trub.crd.ge.com