LaserWriter. If you simply need fast and crisp 600 dots per inch (dpi) greyscale output and do not require tabloid (11” x 17”) printing or colour, this puppy will more than please you.
The 16/600 PS is Apple’s replacement for the workhorse LaserWriter Pro 630. About the only factor that is similar between the two is the case design. Look closely, and you will spot a number of new ports, and a different name. Opening the lid or peering into the manual reveals a completely new face.
The 16/600 PS’s immediate discerning feature is the page per minute (ppm) count. The printer pumps out up to 17 letter-size documents per minute. The only imme- diate drawback to this is that the printer only ships with its 100-page multipurpose tray and its 250-page cassette—printing at this speed eats up paper faster than a fireplace. Purchasing the optional 500-sheet paper bin will allow you to print from one of three paper sources, as well as load up to 750 sheets of paper at a time. If you plan on printing volumes or you run frequent proof prints, you will find that you are going through a ton of paper. So much for environmental responsibility.
Plug & Play. The 16/600 PS certainly subscribes to that over-used catch phrase. If you have a mixed platform network and want one printer for a number of different types of computers, the 16/600 PS will accept a cable from all of them, simulta- neously. The printer senses which port is associated with the current job and places other protocol print jobs in a short queue. The printer ships with Macintosh and MS-Windows driver disks—a nice touch on Apple’s part. The printer comes with Ethernet, LocalTalk and Parallel ports; the Ethernet port supports EtherTalk, Novell NetWare IPX and TCP/IP protocols.
A really great thing about this printer is that it can be used to alleviate high printing traffic areas on your local area network (LAN). If you have spots on the LAN where staff complain of lengthy print spooling times, or waiting periods, then chances are you can alleviate this problem with a printer that can handle the extra load. A LAN with two LaserWriter Pro 630’s can probably be replaced with one LaserWriter 16/600 PS.
Following Apple print standards, the LaserWriter 16/600 PS is FinePrint and PhotoGrade capable. This is slightly misleading, however: though you can turn on the FinePrint technology simply by using the LaserWriter Utility, you must purchase another 4MB memory module (to bring the printer to 12MBs of RAM) before the printer can use PhotoGrade. FinePrint is an Apple resolution-enhancement technology for line art and fine print. Photograde was a great enhancement to earlier 300dpi laser printers as it enabled high-quality greyscale output. With the 16/600 PS, however, we failed to notice much difference between greyscale output printed with and without PhotoGrade. The image printed on a 12MB PhotoGrade-enabled 16/600 PS showed only minimal added greyscale detail and contrast. The only added boost provided by the extra RAM was better spool rates of large and complex documents.
If you’re a gadget freak, and always buy the latest of the latest, then you’ll be interested to know that the printer runs on a RISC processor. The 16/600 PS uses a speedy 25-MHz AMD 29030 RISC (reduced instruction set computing) for pro- cessing and it is helped by a 80C186 to increase through-put. This dual processor printer zips through the most complex print spools faster than your Mac’s video RAM can calculate it on-screen (well, maybe not that fast, but you understand our point). The printer ships with an 8MB 72-pin SIMM and one open memory socket. Increasing the memory to 16MB of RAM means buying one additional 70ns 8MB SIMM. However, pumping it up to 32 means that you have to replace both memory cards and buy two 16MB SIMMS. This is still a costly operation; unless you have an older Macintosh with an open memory slot, selling the memory is the only real option to help cover costs.
The printer ships with 35 Adobe Type 1 fonts, and an additional 29 TrueType fonts are provided on the installer disks. However, if you’re one of those ‘power users’ and have to have a complement of 128 font families on your Mac, you may be disappointed in the fact that it only has 35 in ROM. Loading up the additional fonts in the 16/600 PS RAM may take forever, and you will need to leave the printer on at all times. One power brown-out or failure, and —poof!— all the fonts are zapped from RAM.
But you need not worry too much about this. Apple anticipated that problem and figured it into the 16/600 equation. Looking at the other ports on the back of the printer reveals an odd, yet familiar looking port. It’s an HDI-30 SCSI connector, identical to the ones found on most PowerBooks. All you have to do is purchase an external hard disk and a Apple HDI-30 cable. The drive can range from 80 MBs and up, and needs to be formatted with the included Apple LaserWriter Utility. Fonts then can be loaded up on the drive from a Macintosh. This helps you to eliminate the resident fonts on your Mac’s hard drive and greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to process font-intensive documents.
If you’re a ‘clean-freak’ and dislike seeing external boxes and cables hanging off the printer, attaching an internal hard drive is possible. The manual clearly explains how to install the drive yourself. However, this option is more costly than adding an external drive as you need to buy a smaller and more costly drive. A third-height, 2.5” internal drive is required (like those used in PowerBooks), and these are generally about 40% more costly on a per megabyte basis. Installation can be tricky if you are screwdriver-shy; we recommend you have an authorized service provider install the drive for you.
Probably the best optional feature about this printer is its ability to send and receive faxes. The last questionable port found on the back of the printer is a standard telephone jack. Purchasing the optional 16/600 PS Fax Card ($309 US., $429 Cdn.) allows you to convert your printer to a networkable plain-paper Group-III fax machine. Any Macintosh, DOS, or Windows user on the network will have access to this fax printer. If someone sends a fax to the 16/600 PS with the Fax Card installed, the 16/600 PS will take advantage of the internal Level 2 PostScript and print the document as if you spooled a print job from a computer. It will hold the same crisp sharpness and resolution as the original. This is a handy idea if you want to send examples of your proof designs or artwork to clients who also own 16/600 PS Fax Printers. If you’re not in to receive faxes, the optional hard disk will store all incoming faxes.
A greatest feature of the 16/600 PS is that with all options and slots filled, it can become a real office workhorse, folding a great number of other expenses into one tidy package. The printer is very quiet (especially in Energy Star sleep mode), and emits very little ozone—making it very convenient for small and cramped office spaces. Now let’s hope demand doesn’t exceed supply!
