Are you tired of looking at your crummy dot-matrix printer output? Upgrading to a 24-pin matrix printer can improve the output quality, but it still looks too computer-ish. What you want, is laser printer quality output. Although the price of laser printers has dropped to the $1000 mark, when you consider the cost of $100+ replacement toner cartridges, owning and operating a laser printer can still be quite expensive. Is there something out there that can produce laser quality output at a reasonable cost? Yes. It’s the DeskWriter printer by Hewlett Packard.
The DeskWriter is an ink-jet printer specifically designed for the Macintosh, including a built-in AppleTalk interface and 4 high-quality bitmap fonts. Although the DeskWriter is a non-postscript printer, it can process Macintosh QuickDraw output effortlessly. The output from the DeskWriter printer has amazing clarity and is near-laser quality. The price of the DeskWriter had dropped to $679, with the replaceable ink cartridges priced at $18, giving you a printer with near-laser quality output at a reasonable price. The minimum system requirements for using the DeskWriter includes having at least 1 Mb of system memory, a hard drive, and using System version 4.1 or later and Finder version 5.5 or later.
The DeskWriter has an output resolution of 300 dpi, which is the same as many Apple Laser printers currently in use.The DeskWriter’s printer driver allows for features similar to Laser printer drivers, such as Portrait/Landscape orientation, reduction/enlargement, font substitution, and precision-bitmaps. The scalable high-quality fonts included with the DeskWriter are Times, Helvetica, Courier, and Symbol. The DeskWriter can print using other fonts you may have, (such as Chicago), but the output may not look as sharp compared to using the supplied high-quality fonts. Hewlett Packard also has 7 additional high-quality fonts available for the DeskWriter, (Palacio, Century Schoolbook, Bookman, Avant Garde Gothic, Triumvirate Condensed, Zapf Chancery, and Zapf Dingbats) .The DeskWriter is also capable of printing outlined fonts by using the Adobe Type Manager (ATM) software. These fonts can be scaled to any size, printing smoothly and clearly. QuickDraw graphics generated by programs such as MacDraw, will also print out on the DeskWriter in near-laser quality.
The DeskWriter is a non-postscript printer, meaning that the printer itself is incapable of translating and printing postscript commands. This is normally not a problem for the typical mac user, who wishes to print from applications such as Word, MacWrite, MacDraw, MacPaint, and Excel. For those you who absolutely need to print postscript files, there are software packages available that will translate the postscript commands to a QuickDraw format, which then can be printed using the DeskWriter. Such software packages are, Freedom of Press by Custom Applications, and UltraScript by QMS. Note, that using these translators requires a substantial amount of processing time on the Macintosh system.
Connecting the DeskWriter and installing the printer driver was a snap. The DeskWriter can be connected to an AppleTalk network, or to a single Macintosh machine via a typical ImageWriter II cable. The printer driver is “dragged” from the supplied software disk to the system folder, and the printer/screen fonts are loaded into the system file by using the DA/Font mover utility. Once this is done, the DeskWriter can be accessed by any of your favorite mac programs. The manuals that are supplied with the DeskWriter are excellent, offering tips on how to efficiently use the HP printer.
The DeskWriter can use a variety of paper types, although the manual suggests high-quality photocopy paper in the 16-24 lb range. The paper is loaded in a 100 page tray located at the bottom of the printer. The DeskWriter is also capable of printing on No.10 size envelopes. The ink cartridge, containing the printer head and ink reservoir, needs to be replaced after about 250-300 printed pages.
The DeskWriter operates silently as compared to the noisy dot-matrix printers. When printing text using the supplied high-quality fonts, the output looks absolutely fantastic! The only problem area for the DeskWriter is printing dense graphic images, which may use up large amounts of ink on a single page. Such output can heavily saturate the paper with ink. This usually isn’t a problem, unless you print graphics containing large areas of black.
Overall, the HP DeskWriter is an ideal printer for individuals wanting near-laser quality output, at a reasonable operating cost. Installation, operation, and maintenance of the printer is a snap. I have used my DeskWriter at home to print letters, documents, and envelopes, and I’m very please with the quality of the output. So, If you’re looking at buying a dot-matrix printer, my recommendation to you, is to checkout the HP DeskWriter at your local Macintosh Store. You won’t be disappointed!
