CFOG's PIP, August 1987, Volume 5 No. 10, Whole No. 58, page 10

Selecting a Printer

by Benjamin H. Cohen

I've had a few printers over the past five years. My first, in 1977, was a Diablo 35 character per second (cps) daisywheel printer, relabelled by Wang, and dedicated to the Wang word processing system in my law office. When I got my Osborne 1 in 1982 I borrowed an Epson MX-100 for a while and later ordered (and then returned) an Olivetti PR2300 ink jet printer. I next got, in 1983, a Transtar 130, a 16 cps daisywheel printer. In 1985 we switched the law office from the Wang WP system to some Osbornes and added a Hewlett Packard LaserJet. About the same time I added a C. Itoh ProWriter that sits on my credenza in my law office. Later that year I picked up an IDS MicroPrism 480 that my older daughter took to college in the fall. In January of 1987 I added a Star Gemini 10-X to the home stable. In the summer of '87 I picked up an Exson LX86 for my younger daughter to take to college. I've learned a few things about printers that you might be able to put to good use when you go to buy one.

These comments apply only to daisywheel and dot matrix printers. Most people are going to be using this technology for a while, though it is reported reliably that Hewlett Packard will have out soon a four page a minute laser printer with a list price of $995. The street price of existing laser printers is under $1,800.00, and the new one should go for about $800.

1. DIP Switches: should be readily accessible without a screwdriver. Some printers require you to perform dissasembly to get at the DIP switches. Avoid them, even though you may never have to get at them. Some have the DIP switches at the back. That's inconvenient. Some have them under the front cover: lift it up and there they are.
   
   
2. Cable and cord location: most of the printers I have are a pain because the cable and cord interfere with a typical setup. Most of my printers are on stands. The paper sits below them and comes up behind the printer, coming forward to enter behind the platen. If the cable and cord come out in back where the paper has to travel it's necessary to fasten them down somehow to get them out of the way.
   
   
3. Ribbons: check into the price of ribbons, especially if you use a daisy wheel printer and want to use carbon ribbons. Some can be out of sight. Some are esay to get at local stores; others you will have to rely on mail order. Check into a ribbon reinker if you use a lot of cloth ribbons. Some ribbons come in an easily openable metal cartridge so you can use the relatively inexpensive spray can reinking systems. Others for you to pop for a $40 to $70 reinking machine.
    
   Some ribbons come on a spool and are a bit messy to change. Newer ones are in cartridges that lift in and out quite easily. Try it out. Some ribbons can't be removed without lifting the cover on the printer. Some printers won't print without a ribbon in place. If you use carbon ribbons make sure the printer will Stop when you get to the end of the ribbon (and don't forget when it squeals that you have to check to see if there's any ribbon left!).
   
   
4. On daisy wheel printers, do you have to remove the ribbon to change daisy wheels? Do you have to lift up the cover? On some printers you can slip the daisy wheel in and out without touching the cover or ribbon. If you want to stick italics in and out, lifting the cover and removing the ribbon will just add to the incentive to stick with underscoring.
   
   
5. How much do extra daisywheels cost? Where do you get them. Is there a large caps typeface like "Orator"? What choice is there and what do you need?
   
   
6. Is the tractor feed built in? If not, an addon tractor may costs extra. Does the tractor push or pull the paper? If it pushes the paper you can gencrally print on the first page of the continuous form paper. If it's a pull type, you have to pull the first page through the platen and up to the tractor and you're going to waste a lot of paper. If they are printed forms it could be expensive.
    
   How much adjustment can you make in the tractor? Pin feed usually refers to fixed position pins that feed paper from only one position, usually 9.5 inches wide. If you want to print labels that are on a 4 inch carrier strip, you may find that putting them on the pins on one side only doesn't work too well. On the C. Itoh ProWriter the left hand feeder can only be moved about an inch; though the right hand feeder allows you to deal with anything from labels to 9.5 inch wide paper. On some printers both feeders are adjustable all the way across.
   
   
7. What about a cut-sheet feeder? This is a bin that sits on top and lets you feed in regular paper. That way you can have ordinary letterheads, colored paper, whatever you want, without paying the fancy price for continuous paper. If a cut-sheet feeder isn't available inexpensively when you buy the printer you may never be able to get one. And when you do it may cost as much as the printer!
    
   How far down on the page can you print with the cut-sheet feeder? Often the first and last inch of the page is lost when you use a cut-sheet feeder.
   
   
8. Switches on the front. Some newer printers have all kinds of switches on the front panel. If you can set single, 1.5, and double spacing, 10, 12, and 15 pitch, top of form, reset top of form, line feed, page eject, and other items from the printer panel you'll save a lot of coding in spreadsheets and other programs or avoid the necessity of running a printer setup program for every change you want to make. Sure you can do it from software and in many instances you will, but some of your programs won't support the printer directly and these switches will save a lot of work.
   
   
9. Paper handling. I've never had a printer that would print on post cards, index cards, rolodex cards, etc., reliably for a long run. There are some that will. Look for a paper path that doesn't look like a half circle. If there's a round platen and top paperfeed, you may well have problems with these heavy stocks. Look for a bottom feed, where the paper comes up and only has to follow the platen for a short distance before exiting. There are some other designs that avoid the typical typewriter-like paper path that is death on card stock.
   
   
10. Noise. Impact printers make noise. It's inherent in the process: a pin hits a ribbon and pushes it against the paper or a hammer hits a character and pushes it against the ribbon and paper. That's vibration. That's noise. But some dot matrix printers are quieter than others. And some daisy wheel printers are quieter than others. Non-impact printers, such as ink-jet printers or thermal printers, are quieter. They generally require or work best with special paper that costs more, but if noise (or silence) is a big priority, consider an ink-jet printer. Sound hoods can redure the noise level, but cost from $40 to $300 or more.