Simtel MSDOS 1992 September/Simtel20_Sept92.cdr/msdos/ventura/nov88_ps.arc/SEYBOLD2.TXT

Text File | 1988-10-17 | 12KB | 255 lines

@CENTER UNDER = HARDWARE & MISC.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@ARTICLE TEXT = <B>LASER PRINTERS<D>

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI><N>JASMINE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: <D><N>

@ARTICLE TEXT = Jasmine is a firm that sells a variety of add-on products
for the Apple Macintosh including high capacity hard disk drives,
2400 baud modems and tape backup devices.  They chose to unveil a
new product known as DirectPrint at  the show.   <B>DIRECT PRINT<D>
is a new laser quality printer based on a Casio liquid crystal shutter
(LCS) print engine that includes a Postscript compatible  (read clone)
controller and the new Weitek XL-8200 laser printer co-processor.
These features are claimed to make the printer fully PostScript compatible,
five times faster than an equivalent Apple LaserWriter printer Postscript
laser printer and more maintenance free.  DirectPrint will be available
in the next 60 days at a list price of approximately $5,000.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>QMS, INC.:<D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = QMS is a well known supplier of Canon-based laser
printers and laser printer supplies including the ``Jet-Script'' add-in
card that brings PostScript to the HP Laser Jet Series II printer.  At
last year's show they unveiled the world's first color printer to
use the color edition of Postscript: the QMS  ColorScript 100.    The
<B>COLOR SCRIPT 100<D> printer was again the center of attention at
the QMS booth as it printed a beautiful, multi-color art poster drawn
in Micrografx Designer, a PC based drawing program that runs under
Microsoft  Windows.

@ARTICLE TEXT = And the big news?  QMS proudly announced that the
recent easing in the memory chip shortage has allowed them to lower
the price of this printer  from $24,995 to $21,995.  It may not be
an affordable product for most users but once again it was easily
the most impressive printer at the show.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>TEKTRONIX<D>:

@ARTICLE TEXT = In addition to a well known line of high quality graphics
terminals, Tektronix sells a high quality color printer known as the
<B>4693D COLOR IMAGE  PRINTER<D>.  Using thermal wax technology and
specially coated paper and plastic transparency film, this printer
produces output that was exceeded at the show only by the QMS ColorScript.  Sample
output pro-duced by Aldus Persuasion and  Zenographics Mirage was
indeed vivid and sharp.  And the price?    A somewhat reasonable $8,990!

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@CENTER UNDER = LASER PRINTER ENHANCEMENTS

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>KROY, INC.: <D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = Now here's an interesting product.  Kroy is best known
for it's lettering machine that is widely used by engineers and architects.  Their
newest product allows you to add spot color to pages from a standard
black  and white laser printer.   <B>KROY COLOR PLUS<D> is a two part
system which consists of a $895 color transfer machine and a series
of colored sheets which cost 65 cents each.  To add color to a laser
printed page, you simply put a colored sheet over the  printed page
and run both through the processor.  The processor heats the  colored
sheet and the desired color replaces the black image left by the  laser
printer's toner.

@ARTICLE TEXT = Kroy sales staffers showed several variations on this
theme by using the device to add several different colors to one page.  This
can be done by arranging strips of different colors under a clear
sheet of film.  Not quite as nice as the QMS or Tektronix printers,
but at $895 a very clever product.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>THE PRINTER WORKS: <D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = The Printer Works is a local ``value added retailer''
(VAR) that specializes in laser printers, supplies and accessories.  At
the show, they were showing three products that will be of interest
to many of you.    <B>

@ARTICLE TEXT = <B>BUSINESS LASER PRINTER<D> is a new laser printer
from General Computer based on the Ricoh 6000 engine used in several
printers such as the Okidata  Laserline 6.  The printer includes a
genuine PostScript controller that includes the latest release of
Adobe's well known fonts (rev 49.0).  Even though this printer will
eventually sell for $4,295, the Printer Works is selling it for $2,995
until their supplies run out.  While I'm not a fan of the Ricoh engine,
this offer may be to good for some of you to pass up.

@ARTICLE TEXT = <B>PLP FONT DISK<D> is a $795 hard disk based controller
that plugs into the Business Laser Printer and adds up to 7Mb RAM
in print spooling and 20 Mb in  additional fonts.  The price on this
one sounds a bit hard to believe so I'd call Printer Works before
getting too excited about the product!

@ARTICLE TEXT = <B>SUPER CARTRIDGE 1<D> is a font cartridge from IQ
Engineering of Sunnyvale that adds 55 fonts to a HP Laser Jet, Laser
Jet II or 100% compatible laser  printer.  The cartridge is said to
come with the necessary instructions and  software drivers as well
as enhanced font quality over the HP originals.  If it works, this
cartridge would be a great way to enhance the older HP laser printers
which only have one font cartridge slot.  It sells for a list price
of $645 and is being sold by the Printer Works for $595.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@CENTER UNDER = OPTICAL CHARACTER READERS (OCR)

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>CAERE CORPORATION:<D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = Caere announced two versions of OMNI PAGE, a new product
that works with OCR devices from Apple, Canon, Dest, DataCopy and
Hewlett Packard.  The  Macintosh version of Omni Page is a software
only product that ships next  week at a price of $795.  It requires
a Macintosh II with 2Mb of RAM memory  and uses the Mac's internal
68020 CPU to take a graphic image of a scanned  page with text of
sizes up to 72 point and translate it into a file ready for use with
a Mac word processing program.

@ARTICLE TEXT = The MS-DOS version of Omni Page consists of the software
running under Microsoft Windows and a 68020 based co-processor card
that handles the image  conversion and allows Omni Page to run as
a background application.  This version supports 16 different MS-DOS
word processing formats including Word  Perfect, Word Star 2000, Wang
PC, Microsoft Word, DisplayWrite 3 and 4,  Multimate, Samna and DCA.  The
MS-DOS version will ship in October at a price of $2,495.

@ARTICLE TEXT = Caere claims that Omni Page is the most advanced product
of its type on the market.  A demonstration of the product showed
Omni Page successfully scanning and converting a page from Business
Week magazine that included color, graphics, text and a photograph.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>CALERA RECOGNITION SYSTEMS: <D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = Formerly known as Palantir, this vendor also announced
a product that allows current OCR devices to recognize proportional
and printed text.  Known as the <B>TRUE SCAN<D> series, this is a
PC based product that combines software and a Motorola 68020 based
co-processor card.  Calera recommends that users have a  PC AT or
compatible (80286 or 80386 CPU) to run the product.

@ARTICLE TEXT = Like the Caere Omni Page product, the Calera True
Scan can read a variety of documents and typestyles including the
obligatory page from Business Week.  (Must be a new industry benchmark!)  Calera
distinguishes itself from the competition by several features including
the ability to convert images directly into Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets
and top PC based desktop publishing programs (Pagemaker, Ventura Publisher
and PC Paint-brush), converting images from a PC Fax board in the
same micro and rotating scanned  pages.  True Scan has two versions:
True Scan Model S ($2,495) and True Scan  Model E ($3,495).  (The
Model E operates at higher speeds and has the image rotation feature
which explains its higher price).

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = CTA   c/o Trans-National Trade Development Corporation
:

@ARTICLE TEXT = <B>TEXT PERT<D>: EXPERT TEXT READER is a Mac based
product from a Mac software house in Spain known as CTA.  Available
in several versions (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and
Swedish) the product uses the native processor in a Mac SE or Mac
II with 1Mb of RAM to translate image files from an Apple  OCR device.  Text
Pert can handle typestyles up to 36 pitch from any document and distinguishes
itself from the competition by including basic text editing commands
in the product.  Looks like an interesting product although I wonder
how they will support the product since the technical staff is still
based in Spain!

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>DEST CORPORATION:<D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = As its answer to the Xerox/Kurzweil product, Dest
announced an enhanced version of their high-end OCR unit.  <B>WORKLESS
STATION II<D> will support Mac and PC based systems as well as dedicated
word processors from DEC and Wang.  The product handles proportionally
spaced type as well as traditional typefaces at a projected price
of $10 - $12,000.  Despite their leadership in the OCR field, I suspect
that most users who need this capability will go for the more powerful
co-processor systems described above if they work as advertised instead
of this new product from Dest.

@CENTER UNDER = VIDEO MONITORS & CARDS

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>IBM CORPORATION:<D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = Shortly before the show IBM entered the world of full-
page, high-resolution black and white monitors with the announcement
of <B>THE 8507 DISPLAY SYSTEM<D>.  The 8507 Display System consists
of a 19" full page monitor and a video graphics card.  Text quality
on the monitor was nice although I can't honestly say that it bettered
any of the other full page systems at the show.

@ARTICLE TEXT = <N>IBM also had a variety of desktop publishing systems
on display, all of which had printers that were using <B>HAMMERMILL
LASER PRINT PAPER<D> for output.   I don't know if this makes Hammermill
the ``official paper'' to be used with  IBM printers but we use it
with HP Laser Jet II and Desk Jet printers and find it to be one of
the best products available for laser and desk jet use!

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>MONITERM CORPORATION: <D>

@ARTICLE TEXT = Moniterm is a well-known manufacturer of full page,
high resolution monitors for the Macintosh and PC compatible microcomputers.  At
the show they unveiled a new display system for the Mac II.  Known
as the <B>VIKING G/S<D>,  this product features a 19" grey scale monitor
and video controller board  that offers 256 shades of grey and a resolution
of 1024 x 768 for high  quality desktop publishing and related applications
on the Mac II.  List price for the Viking G/S system is $4,195.

@ARTICLE TEXT =

@COMPANIES = <BI>WYSE  TECHNOLOGIES:

@ARTICLE TEXT = Adding to its line of monitor systems for desktop
publishing and CAD use, Wyse announced the <B>WY-7190 DISPLAY SUBSYSTEM<D>.  Billed
as the first high  quality display subsystem that supports multiple
graphic modes (CGA, MDA,  Hercules, VGA and WY-700), this product
features a 19" monitor with a  resolution of 1280 x 960, true paper-white
phosphor (P-193) and a 16-bit, AT compatible graphics controller card
based on the Texas Instruments TI 34010 graphics processor.

@ARTICLE TEXT = This monitor features very sharp resolution and has
one of the brightest white phosphors I've seen.  I should also note
that WYSE offers an optional anti-glare screen from Sun Flex that
fits behind the monitor frame for users  who are willing to trade
some clarity and brightness for anti-glare protection.  The WY-7190
will be available in volume in November at a suggested list price
of $2,195.  An optional VGA adapter board (required for the monitor's
VGA mode) will be priced at $399.   <188><N>

@ARTICLE TEXT =

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@ART SB 8 =