FUNDAMENTALS A computer usually displays its answers on a screen. If you want the computer to copy the answers onto paper, attach the computer to a printer, which is a device that prints on paper. The typical printer looks like a typewriter but lacks a keyboard. To feed information to the printer, you type on the computer's keyboard. The computer transmits your request through a cable of wires running from the back of the computer to the back of the printer. A computer's advertised price usually does not include a printer and cable. The cable costs about $8; the typical printer costs several hundred dollars. Printers are more annoying than screens. Printers are noisier, slower, cost more, consume more electricity, need repairs more often, and require you to buy paper and ink. But you'll want a printer anyway, to copy the computer's answers onto paper that you can give your computerless friends. Another reason to get a printer is that a sheet of paper is bigger than a screen and lets you see more information at once. Printer dealers To get a printer cheaply, phone these mail-order discount dealers: Harmony Computers & Electronics 1801 Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn NY 11210 800-441-1144 or 718-692-3232 USA Flex 135 N. Brandon Dr. Glen Ellyn IL 60139 800-USA-FLEX or 708-351-7172 Midwest Micro 6910 U.S. Route 36 East Fletcher OH 45326 800-423-8215 or 513-368-2309 Harmony has the lowest prices but doesn't offer any technical help. Midwest Micro offers the greatest variety of printers, a free 56-page catalog, and toll-free technical help; but its prices are higher than the other two companies. USA Flex's prices and service are midway between the other two companies. You can also get good prices from chains of discount superstores, such as Comp USA (which sells all kinds of computer equipment) and Staples (which sells all kinds of office supplies and some computer equipment). Another way to get a printer cheaply is to phone 800-873-7766. That gets you the Accessories Division of a major computer manufacturer, Epson. Say that you're interested in buying an Epson printer that's factory-reconditioned (which means ``used but fixed up by the manufacturer to be like new''), and that you'd like a catalog explaining which ones are available. They tend to be older models, at prices that are ridiculously low. You get a 30-day money-back guarantee and 2-year warranty. Consumers who have phoned that number and received those printers have been thrilled. Three kinds of printers Three kinds of printers are popular. A dot-matrix printer looks like a typewriter but has no keyboard. Like a typewriter, it smashes an inked ribbon against the paper. Like a typewriter, it's cheap: it typically costs about $175. An ink-jet printer looks like a dot-matrix printer; but instead of containing a ribbon, it contains tiny hoses that squirt ink at the paper. It prints more beautifully than a dot-matrix printer and costs more. It typically costs about $250. A laser printer looks like a photocopier. Like a photocopier, it contains a rotating drum and inky toner. It prints even more beautifully than the other two kinds of printers. Like a photocopier, it's expensive: it typically costs about $650. Special requirements As you progress from a dot-matrix printer to an ink-jet printer to a laser printer, the quality tends to go up, and so does the price. But here are exceptions. . . . Color If you need to print in color (instead of just black-and-white), get an ink-jet printer. (Dot-matrix printers produce colors too crudely and slowly. Color laser printers cost too much ___ about $10,000.) Ink-jet printers that can print in color cost about $400. Mailing labels Although you can print mailing labels on all three kinds of printers, the easiest way to print mailing labels is on a dot-matrix printer. Multi-part forms If you want to print on a multipart form (using carbon paper or carbonless NCR paper), you must buy a dot-matrix printer. Old accounting software Some old accounting software requires that you buy a dot-matrix printer. It also requires that the printer be an expensive kind that can handle extra-wide paper. Cost of consumables After you've bought the printer and used it for a while, the ink supply will run out, so you must buy more ink. In the typical dot-matrix printer, the inked ribbon costs about $5 and lasts about 1000 pages, so it costs about a half a penny per page. That's cheap! In the typical ink-jet printer, the ink cartridge costs about $20 and lasts about 500 pages, so it costs about 4 cents per page. That's expensive! In the typical laser printer, the toner cartridge costs about $80 and lasts about 4000 pages, so it costs about 2 cents per page. That's expensive, but not as expensive as the ink in an ink-jet printer. Those prices assume you're printing black text. If you're printing graphics or color, the cost per page goes up drastically. For example, full-color graphics on an ink-jet printer cost about 50 cents per page. For all three kinds of printers, you must also pay for the paper, which costs about 1 cent per sheet if you buy a small quantity (such as a 500 sheets), or a half a cent per sheet if you buy a large quantity (such as 5000 sheets). For low prices on paper, go to Staples. You must also pay for the electricity to run the printer; but the electricity's cost is negligible (much less than a penny per page) if you turn the printer off when you're not printing. Warning: if you leave a laser printer on even when not printing, its total yearly electric cost can get high, since the laser printer contains a big electric heater. (You might even notice the lights in your room go dim when the heater kicks on.) Daisy-wheel printers Although the most popular kinds of printers are dot-matrix, ink-jet, and laser, some folks still use an older kind of printer, called a daisy-wheel printer. It's cute! Here's how it works. . . . Like a typewriter and a dot-matrix printer, a daisy-wheel printer smashes an inked ribbon against paper. To do that, the daisy-wheel printer contains a device called a daisy wheel, which is an artificial daisy flower made of plastic or metal. On each of the daisy's petals is embossed a character: a letter, a digit, or a symbol. For example, one petal has the letter A embossed on it; another petal has B; another petal has C; etc. Notice that each character is embossed. (The word ``embossed'' is like ``engraved'', but an ``embossed'' character is raised up from the surface instead of etched into the surface.) To print the letter C, the printer spins the daisy wheel until the C petal is in front of the inked ribbon. Then a hammer bangs the C petal against the ribbon, which in turn hits the paper, so that an inked C appears on the paper. The printer can print each character extra-dark or regular. To print a character extra-dark, the printer prints the character, moves to the right just 120th of an inch, and then reprints the character. Since the second printing is almost in the same place as the original character, the character looks darkened and slightly fatter. Those darkened, fattened characters are called boldfaced. You can remove the daisy wheel from the printer and insert a different daisy wheel instead. Each daisy wheel contains a different font. For example, one daisy wheel contains italics; a different daisy wheel contains Greek symbols used by scientists. The printer holds just one daisy wheel at a time. To switch to italics in the middle of your printing, you must stop the printer, switch daisy wheels (a tedious activity that requires your own manual labor!), and then press a button for the printer to resume printing. Manufacturers The most famous daisy-wheel printer manufacturer was Diablo, founded by Mr. Lee in California. He sold the company to Xerox, then founded a second daisy-wheel printer company, Qume (pronounced ``kyoom''), which he sold to ITT. In 1988 he bought Qume back. Other companies (such as Brother and Juki) invented imitations that claimed to be Diablo & Qume compatible. Variants of the daisy wheel Over the years, many variants of the daisy wheel have been invented. For example, Nippon Electric Company (NEC) invented a ``wilted'' daisy wheel, whose petals are bent. The wilted daisy wheel is called a thimble. Computerists like it because it spins faster than a traditional daisy and also produces a sharper image. It's used just in NEC's Spinwriter and Elf printers. Another variation of the daisy wheel is the plastic golf ball, which has characters embossed all over it. IBM calls it a Selectric typing element. IBM uses it in typewriters, typesetting machines, and printers. It produces better-looking characters than daisy wheels or thimbles. Since it spins too slowly and needs too many repairs, IBM is discontinuing it. Gigantic printers used by maxicomputers and minicomputers have characters embossed on bands, chains, and drums instead of daisies. Those printers are fast and cost many thousands of dollars. Look closer Now let's take a closer look at each of the three popular kinds of printers: dot-matrix, ink-jet, and daisy-wheel. . . . DOT-MATRIX PRINTERS A dot-matrix printer resembles a daisy-wheel printer; but instead of containing a daisy wheel, it contains a few guns, as if it were a super-cowboy whose belt contains several holsters. Each gun shoots a pin at the inked ribbon. When the pin's tip hits the ribbon and smashes the ribbon against the paper, a dot of ink appears on the paper. Then the pin retracts back into the gun that fired it. Since each gun has its own pin, the number of guns is the same as the number of pins. 9-pin printers If the printer is of average quality, it has 9 guns ___ and therefore 9 pins. It's called a 9-pin printer. The 9 guns are stacked on top of each other, in a column that's called the print head. If all the guns fire simultaneously, the pins smash against the ribbon simultaneously, so the paper shows 9 dots in a vertical column. The dots are very close to each other, so that the column of dots looks like a single vertical line. If just some of the 9 pins press against the ribbon, you get fewer than 9 dots, so you see just part of a vertical line. To print a character, the print head's 9 guns print part of a vertical line; then the print head moves to the right and prints part of another vertical line, then moves to the right again and prints part of another vertical line, etc. Each character is made of parts of vertical lines ___ and each part is made of dots. The pattern of dots that makes up a character is called the dot matrix. That's why such a printer's called a 9-pin dot-matrix printer. Inside the printer is a ROM chip that holds the definition of each character. For example, the ROM's definition of ``M'' says which pins to fire to produce the letter ``M''. To use the ROM chip, the printer contains its own CPU chip and its own RAM. Manufacturer s When microcomputers first became popular, most dot-matrix printers for them were built by a New Hampshire company, Centronics. In 1980, Japanese companies took over the marketplace. Centronics went bankrupt. The two Japanese companies that dominate the industry are Epson and Panasonic. Epson became popular because it was the first company to develop a disposable print head ___ so that when the print head wears out, you can throw it away and pop in a new one yourself, without needing a repairman. Also, Epson was the first company to develop a low-cost dot-matrix impact printer whose dots look ``clean and crisp'' instead of looking like "fuzzy blobs''. Epson was the main reason why Centronics went bankrupt. Epson is part of a Japanese conglomerate called the Seiko Group, which became famous by timing the athletes in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. To time them accurately, the Seiko Group invented a quartz clock attached to an electronic printer. Later, the quartz clock was miniaturized and marketed to consumers as the ``Seiko watch'', which became the best-selling watch in the whole world. The electronic printer, or ``E.P.'', led to a better printer, called the ``son of E.P.'', or ``EP's son''. That's how the Epson division was founded and got its name! Epson's first 9-pin printer was the MX-80. Then came an improvement, called the FX-80. Those printers are obsolete; they've been replaced by Epson's newest 9-pin wonders, the FX-870 ($268) and the FX-1170 (which can handle extra-wide paper and costs $349). Epson's cheapest and slowest 9-pin printers are the LX-300 ($164) and the Action Printer 2250 ($124). You can get those prices from USA Flex. For a 9-pin printer, I recommend buying the Panasonic 1150 instead, because it prints more beautifully and costs just $126 from discount dealers such as Harmony. Too bad it can't handle extra-wide paper! If you want to print on extra-wide paper, you must pay over twice as much: try the Panasonic 1695, which Harmony sells for $349. One reason why the Panasonic 1695 costs so much is that it's extra-fast. Besides Epson and Panasonic, four other Japanese companies also popular: NEC, Oki, Citizen, and Star. Printers from all six of those Japanese companies are intended mainly for the IBM PC, though they work with Apple 2 and Commodore computers also. The most popular printers for the Mac were the Imagewriter and the Imagewriter 2. They were designed by Apple to print exact copies of the Mac's screen. They even print copies of the screen's wild fonts and graphics. Apple stopped marketing them, but you can still buy a refurbished Imagewriter for $127 and a refurbished Imagewriter 2 for $199 from Computer Town in New Hampshire at 603-898-3200. (Refurbished means ``used but fixed up to be as-good-as-new''.) 7-pin printers Although the average dot-matrix printer uses 9 pins, some older printers use just 7 pins instead of 9. Unfortunately, 7-pin printers can't print letters that dip below the line (g, j, p, q, and y) and can't underline. Some 7-pin printers print just capitals; other 7-pin printers ``cheat'' by raising the letters g, j, p, q, and y slightly. 24-pin printers Although 9 pins are enough to print English, they're not enough to print advanced Japanese, which requires 24 pins instead. Manufacturers The first company to popularize 24-pin printers was Toshiba. Its printers printed Japanese ___ and English ___ beautifully. 24-pin Toshiba printers became popular in America, because they print English characters more beautifully than 9-pin printers. Epson and all the other Japanese printer companies have copied Toshiba. Now the cheapest wonderful 24-pin printers are the Epson Action Printer 3250 ($172), the Epson Action Printer 3260 ($194), the Panasonic 2023 ($189), the Panasonic 2123 ($224), and the Epson LQ-570+ (which is sturdier, easier to operate, and costs $239). The cheapest 24-pin printer that handles wide paper is the Epson LQ-1070+ ($364). You can get those prices from Harmony and USA Flex. In a typical, cheap 24-pin printer (such as the Epson Action Printer 3250), the even-numbered pins are slightly to the right of the odd-numbered pins, so you see two columns of pins. After firing the even-numbered pins, the print head moves to the right and fires the odd-numbered pins, whose dots on paper overlap the dots from the even-numbered pins. The overlap insures that the vertical column of up to 24 dots has no unwanted gaps. In fancier 24-pin printers (such as the Panasonic 2023 and 2123), the 24 pins are arranged as a diamond instead of two columns, so that the sound of firing pins is staggered: when you print a vertical line you hear a quiet hum instead of two bangs. Beyond 24 pins The fastest dot-matrix printers use multiple print heads, so that they can print several characters simultaneously. Why the daisies died During the 1970's, daisy-wheel printers were popular, but they've died out. Computerists have switched to dot-matrix printers instead, for the following reasons. The mechanism that spins the daisy is expensive, slow, and frequently needs repairs. Dot-matrix printers can easily print graphics by making the pictures out of little dots. Daisy wheels cannot. Although the first dot-matrix printers had just 7 pins and printed ugly characters, the newest 9-pin and 24-pin printers from Epson and Panasonic print prettier characters than the average daisy wheel. Moreover, you can make the typical 9-pin printer imitate an 18-pin printer by doing 2-pass printing, in which the printer prints a line of text, jerks the paper up very slightly, and then prints the line again so the new dots fill the gaps between the old dots. If you have a daisy-wheel printer and want to change to a different font (such as italics), you must spend your time manually switching daisy wheels. If you have a dot-matrix printer instead, just tell the printer which font you want (by pressing a button on the printer or on your computer's keyboard), and the printer will automatically switch to different patterns of dots to produce the different font, since the printer's ROM contains the definitions of many fonts. To make a daisy-wheel printer print so many fonts, you must buy several dozen daisy wheels, costing a total of several hundred dollars. So daisy-wheel printers died because of competition from dot-matrix printers ___ and from ink-jet and laser printers, which print even more beautifully! Let's examine those super-beautiful printers now. . . . INK-JET PRINTERS An ink-jet printer resembles a dot-matrix printer but contains hoses instead of guns. The hoses squirt ink at the paper. The hoses are called nozzles. There are no pins or ribbons. When you use an ink-jet printer, you hear the splash of ink squirting the paper. That splash is quieter than the bang produced when a dot-matrix printer's pins smash a ribbon. If you like quiet, you'll love ink-jet printers! The most popular ink-jet printers are made by Hewlett-Packard (HP). Recently, Canon and Epson have started making ink-jet printers also. Epson's print head contains 48 nozzles; HP's contains 50 nozzles; Canon's contains 64 nozzles. How does the ink get out of the nozzle and onto the paper? In most ink-jet printers (such as the ones by HP and Canon), a bubble of ink in the nozzle gets heated and becomes hot enough to burst and splash onto the paper. Epson uses a more precise technique in its Stylus 800 printer: the nozzle suddenly constricts and forces the ink out. Mainstream printers On the whole, the best ink-jet printers to buy are the HP Deskjet 520 ($289), the Epson Stylus 800+ ($279), and th Canon Bubble Jet BJ-200e ($279 minus $30 rebate, bringing your final cost down to $249). Those are the prices from discount dealers. All three printers are excellent, and people who use them are all happy. Here are the minor difference between the printers. . . . Quality of graphics printed The Canon is the best (because it has the most nozzles). The Epson is the worst. Speed The Canon is the best (up to 248 characters per second). The Epson is the worst (because it lacks a ``high-speed quick-draft'' mode). Size The Canon is the best: it's small, cute, and weighs just 6.6 pounds! The HP is the worst: it's too big and bulky. Cost of ink The HP is the best: its 1000-page cartridge costs $25, giving 2.5› per page. The Epson is almost as good: its 700-page cartridge costs $18, giving 2.6› per page. The Canon is the worst: its 450-page cartridge costs $23, giving 5.1› per page. Those are the prices charged by discount dealers such as USA Flex. Those page counts are approximate: the actual number of pages that the cartridge prints depends on how many characters and graphics you put on each page. Quality of text printed Each printer has its own advantages: the Epson has the best kind of nozzle, the Hewlett-Packard has the most precise dot location (600 positions per inch horizontally), and the Canon's ink handles the widest variety of paper well. If you won't let me say ``it's a tie'', then call the Epson the best, the Canon the worst. Paper If you buy an ink-jet printer, experiment with using different brands of paper. Some brands absorb ink much better than other brands. If you choose the wrong brand, the ink will bleed (spread out erratically through the strands of the paper's fiber). Start by trying cheap copier paper, then explore alternatives. The brand of paper you buy makes a much bigger difference with ink-jet printers than with dot-matrix or laser printers. Water-based ink Canon's ink is water-based. The bad thing about water-based ink is that if you print on a sheet of paper or envelope that accidentally gets wet (from rain or a sweaty thumb), the ink will run and smear. But if you're careful to keep the paper dry, Canon's ink smears very little. Cheapest printers The cheapest decent ink-jet printers are Epson's Stylus 400 ($244), Epson's Stylus 300 ($199), and Canon's BJ-100 ($249 minus $30 rebate). They're cheap because they print slowly. The Stylus 300 is super-cheap because it also prints less beautifully and requires an ink cartridge that's more expensive. Portable printers For the executive-on-the-go, Canon and HP have invented portable ink-jet printers which weigh very little (about 4 pounds). Unfortunately, they print more slowly and require you to insert each page manually, one page at a time: no automatic paper feed! Those portable printers are the Canon BJ-10sx ($234) and the HP Deskjet 310 ($299). Old printers Some people still use older models. For example: The old model of Epson's Stylus 800+ was the Stylus 800. The old model of Canon's BJ-200e was the BJ-200. The old model of Canon's BJ-10sx was the BJ-10. The old model of HP's Deskjet 520 was the Deskjet 500. Wide printers Epson and Canon make wide printers that can print on extra-wide paper. Epson's is called the Stylus 1000 ($449); Canon's is the BJ-230 ($389 minus $30 rebate). Color printers HP, Canon, and Epson make printers that print in color. Epson's is called the Color Stylus ($569). Canon's is called the BJC-600 ($549 minus $30 rebate). They're both slightly nicer than HP's Deskjet 560C ($559). HP also makes a super-fast model (the Deskjet 1200C for $1389) and older, worse models (the Deskjet 550C for $419 and the Deskjet 500C for $389). Mac printers All those ink-jet printers I described are IBM-compatible. If you have a Mac instead, you must buy a Mac printer ___ or a Mac version of an IBM-compatible printer. IBM-compatible printer Mac version and its price Canon BJ-10 Apple Stylewriter 1 Canon BJ-200 Apple Stylewriter 2 $280 Canon BJC-600 Apple Color Stylewriter Pro $600 HP Deskjet 520 HP Deskwriter 520 $299 HP Deskjet 560C HP Deskwriter 560C $575 The Stylewriters are built by Canon but marketed by Apple. The Stylewriter 1 has been discontinued; for the other printers, I've shown the prices charged by discount dealers. LASER PRINTERS A laser printer, like an office photocopier, contains a drum and uses toner made of ink. The printer shines a laser beam at the drum, which picks up the toner and deposits it on the paper. For the IBM PC, the most popular laser printers are made by Hewlett-Packard (HP). HP's first laser printer was the Laserjet. Then came an improvement (the Laserjet Plus), a second improvement (the Laserjet 2), a third improvement (the Laserjet 3), and a fourth (the Laserjet 4). They've all been replaced by the Laserjet 4 Plus, a cheaper ``personal'' version called the Laserjet 4P, and an even cheaper ``lower-cost'' version called the Laserjet 4L. Laserjet 4 Plus The Laserjet 4 Plus is the best of all those printers. Here's how it works. . . . It can print 12 pages per minute (12 ppm). It can print 600 dots per inch (600 dpi); and it uses a trick called Resolution Enhancement Technology (RET), which can shift each dot slightly left or right and make each dot slightly larger or smaller. Its ROM contains the definitions of 45 fonts. Each of those fonts is scalable: you can make the characters as big or tiny as you wish. If you want extra fonts, insert a font cartridge that contains extra ROM chips, or do this: buy a floppy disk containing definitions of extra fonts, put that disk into your computer, copy those font definitions to your computer's hard disk, then tell your computer to copy those font definitions to the printer's RAM. So altogether, the printer can handle three kinds of fonts: the 45 internal fonts that were inside the printer originally; the cartridge fonts that you added by inserting a cartridge; and soft fonts that are copied into the printer's RAM from the computer's disks. The printer contains 2 megabytes of RAM, so it can handle lots of soft fonts and graphics on the same page. Moreover, the printer uses a trick called data compression, which compresses the data so that twice as much data can fit in the RAM (as if the RAM were 4 megabytes). The printer costs $1399. That's the price charged by discount dealers (such as Harmony), and it includes a toner cartridge. Cheaper printers If you can't afford a Laserjet 4 Plus, buy a cheaper printer instead: Laser printer ResolutionRAM Fonts Speed Price HP Laserjet 4 Plus 600 dpi + RET2M + compression 45 scalable 12 ppm $1399 HP Laserjet 4P 600 dpi + RET2M + compression 45 scalable 4 ppm $959 HP Laserjet 4L 300 dpi + RET1M + compression 26 scalable 4 ppm $659 Epson Action Laser 1500 300 dpi + RET1M 13 s + 14 b 6 ppm $649 Panasonic KX-P4400 300 dpi 1M 28 bitmap 4 ppm $429 In the cheapest laser printer (by Panasonic), the ROM's fonts are bitmap, which means ``non-scalable'', which means you cannot make those fonts bigger or smaller: to get bigger or smaller fonts, you must buy different fonts (font cartridges or soft fonts). Its $429 price (from discount dealers such as Harmony) is actually $479 minus a $50 rebate. In Epson's mid-priced laser printer (the Action Laser 1500), 13 of the fonts are scalable, and 14 are non-scalable (bitmap). Print engines Each HP laser printer contains a photocopier print engine manufactured by Canon. In fact, each HP laser printer is just a modified Canon photocopier! In Epson's laser printer, the print engine is made by Minolta instead of Canon. Panasonic and Sharp make their own print engines. Older Laserjets Many offices still use older Laserjets. Here's how the famous old Laserjets compare with modern ones: Printer ResolutionRAM Fonts SpeedCheaper version Laserjet 2 300 dpi «M bitmap 8 ppmLaserjet 2P is 4 ppm Laserjet 3 300 dpi + RET1M scalable 8 ppm Laserjet 3P is 4 ppm, «M Laserjet 4 600 dpi + RET2M + compressionscalable 8 ppmLaserjet 4P is 4 ppm Laserjet 4 Plus 600 dpi + RET2M + compressionscalable 12 ppm The Laserjet 2 contains just a few bitmap fonts ___ and they're all ugly! If you have a Laserjet 2, I recommend that you add extra fonts to it by getting a font cartridge. The most popular font cartridges for the Laserjet 2 are the Microsoft Z cartridge (manufactured by HP) and the 25-in-1 cartridge (manufactured by Pacific Data). For example, this entire Secret Guide, which you're reading now, was produced on a Laserjet 2 with the Microsoft Z cartridge (except for the cute pictures and largest headlines). If you have a Laserjet 3, 3P, 4, 4P, 4L, or 4 Plus, don't bother buying font cartridges, since those Laserjets include many good scalable fonts already. PCL versus Postscript When your computer wants to give the printer an instruction (such as ``draw a diagonal line across the paper'' or ``make that scalable font bigger''), the computer sends the printer a code. HP laser printers understand a code called Printer Control Language (PCL). It was invented by HP. The newest version of PCL is called PCL 5e. It's understood by the Laserjet 4 (and by the Laserjet 4 Plus, 4P, and 4L). Older HP printers understand just older versions of PCL and can't perform as many tricks. Most IBM-compatible laser printers (such as the ones by Epson, Panasonic, and Sharp) understand PCL, so that they imitate HP's laser printers, run the same software as HP's laser printers, and are HP-compatible. But most of them understand just old versions of PCL and can't perform as many tricks as the Laserjet 4 series. Some laser printers understand a different code, called Postscript, which was invented by a company called Adobe. Back in the 1980's, PCL was still very primitive. Postscript was more advanced. The fanciest laser printers from HP's competitors used Postscript. The very fanciest laser printers were bilingual: they understood both Postscript and PCL. Now that PCL has improved and become PCL 5e, it's about as good as Postscript. PCL 5e printers cost less to manufacture than Postscript printers. In Postscript, each command that the computer sends the printer is written by using English words. Unfortunately, those words are long and consume lots of bytes. In PCL, each command is written as a brief series of code numbers instead. Since PCL commands consume fewer bytes than Postscript commands, the computer can transmit PCL commands to the printer faster than Postscript commands, and PCL commands can fit in less RAM. Mac printers For the Mac, the most popular laser printer is Apple's Laserwriter, which comes in many versions. Now the most popular version is the Laserwriter Select 320. Discount dealers sell it for $795. It uses Postscript. HP makes Laserjets that are modified to work with a Mac: The Mac version of the Laserjet 4is the Laserjet 4M. The Mac version of the Laserjet 4 Plusis the Laserjet 4M Plus. The Mac version of the Laserjet 4Pis the Laserjet 4MP. The Mac version of the Laserjet 4Lis the Laserjet 4ML. Each understands both PCL and Postscript. Each attaches to bothe the IBM PC and the Mac. The cheapest (the 4ML) contains 4M of RAM; the others each contain 6M of RAM. BEST BUYS The cheapest nice IBM-compatible printer is the 9-pin Panasonic 1150 ($124). The next major step up is the 24-pin Panasonic 2023 ($189). For a true workhorse, get the 24-pin Epson LQ-570+ ($239). For prettier printing, try an ink-jet printer such as the Canon BJ-200e ($249). But remember that ink-jet printers are more finicky about what kind of paper you insert, and the ink is expensive. The next major step up is to get a laser printer, such as the Panasonic KX-P4400 (300 dpi, 4 pages per minute, $429), Epson Action Laser 1500 (300 dpi + RET, 6 pages per minute, $649), the HP Laserjet 4P (600 dpi + RET, 4 pages per minute, $959), or the HP Laserjet 4 Plus (600 dpi + RET, 12 pages per minute, $1399). PRINTER TECHNOLOGY Now let's plunge into the technical details of printer technology! Impact versus non-impact A printer that smashes an inked ribbon against the paper is called an impact printer. The most popular kind of impact printer is the dot-matrix printer. Other impact printers use daisy wheels, thimbles, golf balls, bands, chains, and drums. They all make lots of noise, though manufacturers have tried to make the noise acceptable by putting the printers in noise-reducing enclosures and by modifying the timing of the smashes. A printer that does not smash an inked ribbon is called a non-impact printer. Non-impact printers are all quiet! The most popular non-impact printers are ink-jet printers and laser printers. Other non-impact printers are thermal printers (whose hot pins scorch the paper), and thermal-transfer printers (which melt hot colored wax onto the paper). Each has its own disadvantages. Thermal printers require special ``scorchable'' paper. Thermal-transfer printers require expensive ribbons made of colored wax. Resolution If a printer creates characters out of dots, the quality of the printing depends on how fine the dots are ___ the ``number of dots per inch'', which is called the print resolution. 9-pin printers usually print 72 dots per inch vertically. That's called draft quality, because it's good enough for rough drafts but not for final copy. It's also called business quality, because it's good enough for sending memos to your coworkers and accountant. If you make a 9-pin printer do 2 passes, it prints 144 dots per inch. That's called correspondence quality, because it's good enough for sending pleasant letters to your friends. It's also called near-letter-quality (NLQ), because it looks nearly as good as the letters produced on a typewriter. The typical 9-pin printer has a switch you can flip, to choose either 1-pass draft quality (which is fast) or 2-pass correspondence quality (which is slower but prettier). A 24-pin printer prints 180 dots per inch. That's called letter quality (LQ), because it looks as good as the letters printed by a typical typewriter or daisy-wheel printer. It's good enough for writing letters to people you're trying to impress. A standard laser printer prints 300 dots per inch. That's called desktop-publishing quality, because it's good enough for printing newsletters. It's also called near-typeset-quality, because it looks nearly as good as a typesetting machine. A standard typesetting machine prints 1200 or 2400 dots per inch. Those are the resolutions used for printing America's popular magazines, newspapers, and books. HP's Laserjet 2P Plus, 3, 3P, and 4L all print 300 dots per inch; but the 3, 3P, and 4L produce prettier output than the 2P Plus by using this trick: they can print each dot at 5 different sizes (ranging from ``normal'' to ``extra tiny'') and nudge each dot slightly to the right or left. HP's Laserjet 4 and 4P print 600 dots per inch. Ink-jet printers by Canon and Epson usually print 360 dots per inch. HP's ink-jet printers usually print 300 dots per inch. Character size To measure a character's size, you must measure both its width and its height. Width Like an old-fashioned typewriter, a traditional printer makes each character a tenth of an inch wide. That's called ``10 characters per inch'' or 10 cpi or 10-pitch or pica (pronounced ``pike uh''). Some printers make all the characters narrower so you get 12 characters per inch. That's called 12 cpi or 12-pitch or elite. The typical dot-matrix impact printer lets you choose practically any width you wish. For example, the Epson LQ-850 can print 5, 6, 7«, 8þ, 10, 12, 15, 16þ, and 20 cpi. The widest sizes (5, 6, 7«, and 8þ cpi) are called double-width, because they're twice as wide as 10, 12, 15, and 16þ cpi. The narrowest sizes (16þ and 20 cpi) are called condensed or compressed; they're 60% as wide as 10 and 12 cpi. Some printers make each character a different width, so that a ``W'' is very wide and an ``i'' is narrow; that's called proportional spacing. It looks much nicer than uniform spacing (such as 10 cpi or 12 cpi). The typical modern printer lets you choose either proportional spacing or uniform spacing. Uniform spacing is usually called monospacing. Height The typical sheet of paper is 11 inches tall. If you put one-inch margins at the top and bottom, you're left with 9 inches to print on. After printing a line of type, the typical typewriter or printer jerks up the paper a sixth of an inch, then prints the next line. As a result, you get 6 lines of type per inch, so the entire sheet of paper shows ``9 times 6'' lines of type, which is 54 lines. The fanciest printers, such as laser printers, can make characters extra-tall or extra-short. The character's height is measured in points. Each point is 1/72 of an inch. A character that's an inch tall is therefore called ``72 points tall''. A character that's half an inch tall is 36 points tall. Like a typewriter, a printer normally makes characters 10 points tall. (More precisely, it makes the top of a capital ``Y'' 10 points higher than the bottom of a small ``y''.) It also leaves a 2-point gap above the top of the ``Y'', to separate it from the characters on the previous line. That 2-point gap is called the leading (pronounced ``ledding''). That technique is called ``10-point type with 2-point leading''. Since the type plus the leading totals 12 points, it's also called ``10-point type on 12'' (or ``10 on 12'' or ``10/12''). Fonts You can make a capital T in two ways. The simple way is draw a horizontal bar and a vertical bar, like this: T. The fancy way is to add serifs at the ends of the bars, like this: T. A character such as T, which is without serifs, is called sans serif, because ``sans'' is the French word for ``without''. Monospaced fonts The most popular monospaced fonts are Courier (which has serifs) and Letter Gothic (which is sans serif). Letter Gothic was invented by IBM in 1956 for typewriters. Courier was invented for typewriters also. Proportionally-spaced fonts The most popular proportionally spaced fonts are Times Roman (which has serifs) and Helvetica (which is sans serif). Times Roman was invented by The Times newspaper of London in 1931. Helvetica was invented by Max Miedinger of Switzerland in 1954. (The name ``Helvetica'' comes from ``Helvetia'', the Latin name for Switzerland.) Samples Here are samples from the 300-dot-per-inch laser printer that printed this book (an HP Laserjet 2 printer with Microsoft Z cartridge): Here are samples from a 24-pin dot-matrix printer, the Epson LQ-570: Here are samples from an ink-jet printer, the Canon BJ-200e. In these samples, the Canon is pretending it's the Epson LQ-570. The Canon's imitative printing looks better than Epson's original, since Canon's printer is an ink-jet instead of a dot-matrix. Look at how pretty Canon's printing is: Canon doesn't imitate Epson's OCR-B or Script C. Paper Laser printers and most ink-jet printers accept a stack of ordinary copier paper. You put that paper into the printer's paper tray, which is also called the paper bin and also called the cut-sheet paper feeder. Dot-matrix printers Though some dot-matrix printers handle stacks of ordinary copier paper, most dot-matrix printers handle paper differently. Here's how. . . . To pull paper into the printer, dot-matrix printers can use two methods. The simplest method is to imitate a typewriter: use a rubber roller that grabs the paper by friction. That method's called friction feed. Unfortunately, friction is unreliable: the paper will slip slightly, especially when you get near the bottom of the sheet. A more reliable method is to use paper that has holes in the margins. The printer has feeder pins that fit in the holes and pull the paper up through the printer very accurately. That method, which is called pin feed, has just one disadvantage: you must buy paper having holes in the margins. If your printer uses pin feed and is fancy, it has a clamp that helps the pins stay in the holes. The clamp (with its pins) is called a tractor. You get a tractor at each margin. A printer that has tractors is said to have tractor feed. Usually the tractors are movable, so that you can move the right-hand tractor closer to the left-hand tractor, to handle narrower paper or mailing labels. A dual-feed printer can feed the paper both ways ___ by friction and by pins ___ because it has a rubber roller and also has sets of pins. The printer has a lever to the left of the roller and pins: if you pull the lever one way, the paper will pass by the roller, for friction feed; if you pull the lever the other way, the paper will pass by the pins, for pin feed. Most dot-matrix printers have dual feed with movable tractors. Paper that has holes in it is called pin-feed paper (or tractor-feed paper). Like a long tablecloth folded up and stored in your closet, pin-feed paper comes in a long, continuous sheet that's folded. Since it comes folded but can later be unfolded (``fanned out''), it's also called fanfold paper. It's perforated so you can rip it into individual sheets after the printer finishes printing on it. If the paper's fancy, its margin is perforated too, so that after the printing is done you can rip off the margin, including its ugly holes, and you're left with what looks like ordinary typing paper. The fanciest perforated paper is called micro-perf. Its perforation is so fine that when you rip along the perforation, the edge is almost smooth. Paper width Most printers can use ordinary typing paper or copier paper. Such paper is 8« inches wide. On each line of that paper, you can squeeze 85 characters at 10 cpi, or 170 characters at 20 cpi, if you have no margins. Pin-feed paper is usually an inch wider (9« inches wide), so that the margins are wide enough to include the holes. Some printers can handle pin-feed paper that's extra-wide (15 inches). Those wide-carriage printers typically cost about $130 more than standard-width printers. Speed The typical printer's advertisement brags about the printer's speed by measuring it in characters per second (cps) or lines per minute (lpm) or pages per minute (ppm). But those measurements are misleading. Dot-matrix and ink-jet printers For example, Epson advertised its LQ-850 dot-matrix printer as ``264 cps'', but it achieved that speed only when making the characters small (12 cpi) and ugly (draft quality). To print characters that were large (10 cpi) and pretty (letter quality), the speed dropped to 73 cps. Panasonic advertised its KX-P1091 dot-matrix printer as ``192 cps'', but it achieved that speed only if you threw an internal switch that made the characters even uglier than usual! For dot-matrix and ink-jet printers, the advertised speed ignores how long the printer takes to jerk up the paper. For example the typical ``80-cps'' printer will print 80 characters within a second but then take an extra second to jerk up the paper to the next line, so at the end of two seconds you still see just 80 characters on the paper. Daisy-wheel printers To get an amazingly high cps rating, one daisy-wheel manufacturer fed its printer a document consisting of just one character repeated many times, so the daisy never had to rotate! Laser printers To justify a claim of ``8 pages per minute'', Apple salesmen noticed that their Laserwriter 2 NT printer takes a minute to produce 8 extra copies of a page. They ignored the wait of several minutes for the first copy! Like Apple, most other laser-printer manufacturers say ``8 pages per minute'' when they should really say: ``1/8 of a minute per additional copy of the same page''. Keep your eyes open Don't trust any ads about speed! To discover a printer's true speed, hold a stopwatch while the printer prints many kinds of documents (involving small characters, big characters, short lines, long lines, draft quality, letter quality, and graphics). Interfacing A cable of wires runs from the printer to the computer. The cable costs about $8 and is not included in the printer's advertised price: the cable costs extra. One end of the cable plugs into a socket at the back of the printer. The other end of the cable plugs into a socket at the back of the computer. The socket at the back of the computer is called the computer's printer port. If you open your computer, you'll discover which part of the computer's circuitry the printer port is attached to. In a typical computer, the printer port is attached to the motherboard; but in some computers (such as the original IBM PC), the printer port is attached to a small PC card instead, called a printer interface card, which might not be included in the computer's advertised price. When the computer wants the printer to print some data, the computer sends the data to the printer port; then the data flows through the cable to the printer. Serial versus parallel The cable contains many wires. Some of them are never used: they're in the cable just in case a computer expert someday figures out a reason to use them. Some of the wires in the cable transmit information about scheduling: they let the computer and printer argue about when to send the data. If the computer's port is serial, just one of the wires transmits the data itself; if the computer's port is parallel, eight wires transmit the data simultaneously. Parallel ports are more popular than serial ports, because parallel ports transmit data faster, are more modern, and are easier to learn how to use. Unfortunately, parallel ports handle only short distances: if the printer is far away from the computer, you must use a serial port instead. When you buy a printer, make sure the printer matches the computer's port. If your computer's port is parallel, you must buy a parallel printer; if your computer's port is serial, you must buy a serial printer instead. If your computer has two printer ports ___ one parallel, one serial ___ you can attach the computer to either type of printer; but I recommend that you choose a printer that's parallel, because parallel printers cost less, and because many word-processing programs require that the printer be parallel. Standard cables The typical parallel printer expects you to use a cable containing 36 wires. Just 8 of the wires transmit the data; the remaining wires can be used for other purposes. That 36-wire scheme is called the industry-standard Centronics-compatible parallel interface. The typical serial printer expects you to use a cable containing just 25 wires. Of the 25 wires, just 1 transmits data from the computer to the printer; the remaining wires can be used for other purposes. That 25-wire scheme is called the recommended standard 232C serial interface (RS-232C serial interface). Weird cables If your computer is an IBM PC or clone, you'll get a surprise when you try attaching it to a parallel printer (which expects 36 wires): your computer's parallel port contains just 25 wires instead of 36! To attach the computer's 25-wire parallel port to a 36-wire parallel printer, computer stores sell a weird cable that has 25 wires on one end and 36 wires on the other. If your computer is small and cute (such as the Apple 2c, 2GS, Mac, Commodore 64, or Radio Shack Color Computer), you'll get a surprise when you try attaching it to a standard serial printer (which expects 25 wires): your computer's serial port contains fewer than 10 wires! You must buy a weird cable that has 25 wires on one end and fewer on the other. This is Courier, 10 points high and 10 cpi. This is Courier Bold (10 points high, 10 cpi). This is Lineprinter (similar to Letter Gothic), 8.5 points high and 16.7 cpi. This is 8-point Times Roman. It's very tiny, but sometimes nice things come in small packages. This is 10-point Times Roman, Times Roman Bold, and Times Roman Italic. This is 12-point Times Roman, Times Roman Bold, and Italic. This is 14-point Times Roman Bold. This is 8-point Helvetica. It's very tiny, but sometimes nice things come in small packages. This is 8-point Helvetica. It's very tiny, but sometimes nice things come in small packages. This is 10-point Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, and Helvetica Italic. This is 12-point Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, and Helvetica Italic. This is 14-point Helvetica Bold.