In this web section, printers are lumped into a few categories;
then, categories are described, and a recommendation is
made. The recommendations can be checked three ways:
* Compare the following recommendations to printer reviews
in magazines.
* Look at the ads in magazines and see which printer models
are most often advertised.
* Ask your local computer consultant. Choose someone who
is impartial (no salesmen).
When you check the following recommendations, you will
discover they are conservative hot-rod printers from unknown
companies are not recommended.
The moment a printer model number is written down, it is
old. Even the categories of printers are changing fast.
The models, categories, and recommendations of a good consultant
will change radically as the months pass. Fortunately, the
printer market is starting to stabilize. In 1989, no daisywheel
printers, significant new features on dot-matrix printers,
or LCS or LED lasers were released. This fact means that
the following recommendations (written on November 1, 1989)
will still be true by the time you read this book.
The price of a low-end, dot-matrix printer is between S
165 and S 175 dollars. Printers are not likely to become
cheaper than this though features of the more expensive
printers will be moved down to this price level. For the
last three years, the printers to recommend in this category
have been Panasonic and Epson printers. The current model
of the Epson in this category is the LX-810, and the Panasonic
is model KX-1180. The Epson is a little faster, but the
Panasonic has a proportional font included. Many printers
exist at this price level. The Epson and Panasonic have
paper parking utilities as well as cut-sheet feeders that
can be purchased.
The market leader for low-cost, 24-pin dot-matrix printers
is also Epson. The LQ-510 is the current recommendation
with a street price of $319. Unfortunately, 24-pin printers
are slower and noisier in draft mode than 9-pin printers.
However, the letter-quality output is faster and marginally
better. In graphics mode, the resolution is higher than
a laser printer: 360 dpi both horizontally and vertically.
But, the output does not look as nice as that of a 300-dpi
laser because of the impact with the paper surface. A 24-pin
printer is terribly slow at 360 dpi.
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In the links below you will find pages that lists other
sites offering office computers, printers and scanners |
Ink
& Toner, Shredders | Ink
& Toner, Shredders (additional 1) | Ink
& Toner, Shredders (additional 2) | Computers
| Computers-1
| Computers-2
| Printers,
Scanners | Printers,
Scanners (additionals) | Printers,
Scanners (additionals 2) | More in the Learning
Center
