True colors: lower prices put inkjet color printers within anyone's reach - Buyers Guide

Entrepreneur, May, 1996 by Jill Amadio

Hewlett Packard: With a reputation for quality, the newest inkjet color printers from Hewlett Packard are the DeskWriter 680C for Macintoshes and the DeskJet 680C for PCs. Both handle letters, envelopes, cards, labels and transparencies on custom-sized paper.

A faster model is the DeskJet 855Cse, compatible with PCs and Macintoshes. The 855Cse is one of the quickest on the market, printing out black-and- white sheets at six pages per minute and color at one and a half pages per minute--two pages per minute using the Econofast feature. A useful feature: On-screen messages show you printer status and possible errors, such as "Empty Paper Tray" and "Switch to Black Cartridge."

Hewlett Packard's DeskJet 820Cse is designed exclusively for Windows users. It uses a ColorSmart technique to automatically adjust color settings.

Lexmark: Any company that volunteers to provide printers for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games faces the scrutiny of 15,000 journalists, 11,000 athletes and 50,000 miscellaneous personnel. Lexmark's inkjet printers should be up to the task. The 2070 prints one page per minute in color and six pages per minute in black and white. Perfect for spreadsheets, text and graphics, it holds two ink cartridges for both black-and-white and color printing.

If you're truly budget-conscious, Lexmark's 1020, one of the most reasonably priced and high-quality color printers on the market, sells for just $199. It has separate cartridges for black and color inks, printing out two black-and-white pages a minute and one color page in two minutes. The paper tray handles 100 sheets, plus labels, envelopes and index cards. Bonus with both the 2070 and 1020: the CorelDraw graphics program on CD- ROM.

Lexmark's sleek, space-saving Win Writer 150c, priced at $299, is popular with small and homebased offices. It has an automatic paper feeder for 150 sheets and most of the features listed above for Lexmark's other printers.

Okidata: If you need to print your next company brochure in 16.7 million colors or 256 shades of gray, consider the Okijet 2010 at $499. It prints two black-and-white pages in one minute and a color page in two minutes.

The 2010 requires a 386 or faster PC with Windows 3.1 or higher and Windows applications software. It prints heavy card stock, labels and overhead-projector transparencies for sales presentations. The 150-sheet-capacity paper tray automatically feeds in letters and envelopes.

Two beneficial features: a "Low Ink" indicator and a program called "Overnight Exchange Warranty," available for the first two years you have the printer, that provides a replacement while your printer is being repaired.

Jill Amadio is a writer in Newport Beach, California, and ghostwriter of Help! I've Hired a Lawyer! (Emptypockets Venture).

RELATED ARTICLE: Shopping List

APPLE (800) 538-9695

Model Color StyleWriter 1500

Average speed (page per minute) B/W: 3; Color: 1:3

Paper capacity 100 sheets

Print Resolution (dots per inch) Color: 360 x 360; B/W: 720 x 360

Software/Extra features Desktop Printing, 64 TrueType fonts, watermarks