New laser-printer choices: HOC reviews three low-cost HP-compatibles

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1990 by Henry F. Beechhold

Roughly a year ago, Hewlett-Packard set the PC-printer market on its ear with its introduction of the LaserJet IIP (see the January 1990 issue, page 57), which brought the street price of laser printers under $1,000--close enough to the price of high-quality dot-matrix and ink-jet printers to make many people seriously consider the laser alternative for the first time. Since then, a number of manufacturers (including Brother, Fujitsu, and IBM, whose products are reviewed here) have entered the low-cost laser market that HP created, giving PC users an ever wider range of printer choices.

Yet the question "Is a laser printer the right choice for me?" isn't much easier to answer now than it was a year ago. First, all types of printers have improved. Second, prices for all types of printers have dropped. The cost difference between dot-matrix and laser printers used to be measured in thousands of dollars; now it is measured in hundreds. Top-quality dot-matrix units currently sell for between $350 and $500 (street price). HP-compatible laser printers fetch between $800 and $1,800; PostScript lasers can be bought for $2,000 and up.

Let's examine and answer some of the inquiries that go into answering the big question: "Is a laser printer the right choice for me?"

How do I choose between dot-matrix and laser printers? Both types of printers are capable of producing text and graphics in a wide variety of applications, but each can do some jobs that the other can't, and each has some characteristic advantages.

The distinctive advantages of dot-matrix printers are lower purchase price, lower operation cost, ability to print continuous forms, ability to print multipart forms, and the ability (of some models) to print color.

The distinctive advantages of laser printers: higher print quality, faster printing speed, ability to produce a vast variety of type styles and sizes, and quiet operation.

A business that needs to produce presentable reports and correspondence can accomplish this satisfactorily with almost any 24-pin dot-matrix printer. However, a business that needs to send out professional-looking reports, correspondence, presentation graphics, desktop-published brochures, ads, or price lists, really needs a laser printer. Besides handling all these tasks, a laser printer is faster and quieter than most dot-matrix printers. Of course, the other factors--typographical versatility, noise level, color, or multipart-form capability--can also be deciding factors.

How do I choose among the different types of laser printers? What are the types? First, there is a distinction between the two different control languages employed: Hewlett-Packard Printer Control Language (PCL) and Adobe PostScript. PCL (and PCL- or HP-compatible) printers cost less than those using the more versatile PostScript language. Second, although the lines are blurring, there is a division between slower (4- to 6-page-per-minute), light-duty, low-cost models and faster (8- to 11-page-per-minute), heavy-duty, full-featured printers. For businesses that do a lot of printing, speed and mechanical ruggedness are crucial factors, and a full-featured laser printer is the logical choice. Anyone doing extensive or elaborate desktop-publishing work should also lean toward full-featured printers, particularly PostScript models, which are highly versatile.

By and large, the quality of printed text is not a big issue in choosing a laser printer. Although you may detect differences in the appearance of text output from one printer to another, print quality is virtually identical, since all print at the same 300-dot-per-inch resolution. The one exception is the HP LaserJet III, which has higher effective resolution. With graphics, you may find significant quality differences, especially in the rendering of shaded areas in charts and graphs.

Here is a breakdown of other features to consider in selecting a laser printer:

* Built-in emulations and fonts. Most laser printers emulate (operate as if they were) Hewlett-Packard LaserJets. Most software packages published within the last four years or so have drivers for LaserJet printers, and HP-compatible printers will work with all of them. Some manufacturers also provide emulations of older, nonlaser models. This lets you print with a laser even if your software doesn't support them.

A wide selection of fonts is clearly a plus. You may not choose to use all of them, but it's nice to know they're there. So-called proportionally spaced fonts--the ones that look (almost) like professional typesetting--are increasingly important. Most up-to-date printers offer at least one or two proportional fonts.

* Paper handling. Some low-cost lasers come with a paper "tray" holding a maximum of 50 sheets. It's possible to work with this, but a bigger paper bin (cassette) is an advantage because you'll have to refill it less frequently. This might seem a minor point, yet in practice it's significant. Full-featured printers have cassettes holding between 150 and 250 sheets; some have two cassettes. Most laser models have adjustable feed guides for nonstandard paper sizes and envelopes.