SUMMARY: A good color postscript printer

From: Upkar Singh Kohli (upkar@wsu-eng.eng.wayne.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 13 1991 - 06:27:47 CST


 
I am extremely sorry for the delay in summarizing all the responses
I received regarding my query on a good color postscript printer. I
had been tied up for a while... anyway here they are:

Original question:

> There has been a sudden urgent need for a color postscript printer
> (laser quality) at our site. If anybody has references to one (for
> use with Sun and other servers) please respond.

> Thanks (I will summarize if asked by "many")

A couple of experienced sun managers made me realize that I had to
provide a summary anyway according to this list's charter. My apologies
for the confusion. Besides, there were a large number of requests
for the summary.

Many thanks to all responders whose names and addresses are printed
below their respective messages...

The following printers were mentioned by the responders; their own
words are printed later: (I hope I did not miss anybody; please
forgive me if that is the case)

Tektronix PostScript level 2 Color printer
tektronix phaser ii sx model 4694sx (same as above?)
Tektronix Phaser III PXi
Seiko Colorpoint printer
QMS ColorScript
Mitsubishi CP-210U and the S340
OCE color printer
Dupont 4CAST

-------------------
The good Color PostScript Printer, and only one I saw, was the
Tektronix PostScript level 2 Color printer they recently released. I
do not have specs, but I saw that at show, and it was quite
impressive. 300dpi, Can print on regular paper, using four ink wax
(black, blue, yellow, red) and its $10000. I told the guy who is
demonstrating the printer that it is very good price, he said "It is
extremely cheap." I agreed.
 
As I remember, Take up to eight minuites per copy. (depends on quality.)
 
Shigeya Suzuki
shige@foretune.co.jp
        
-------------------
I saw a Tektronix Phaser III PXi at Interop, (they also have a model II
which is thermal wax, and not nearly as nice) which will print on anything
from card stock to tissue paper as well as transparencies, it produces
really nice output, it's basically an inkjet type printer, there is wax
in the ink, it hardens "instantly". Anyhow, the list price is somewhere
around $10,000. There is an 800 number for more info: 800-835-6100.
 
Sheila Hollenbaugh
shollen@cs.wright.edu
 
-------------------
We have a Seiko Colorpoint printer, which was the least expensive to
purchase and least expensive to run of the color printers we evaluated
about a year ago. We're pretty happy with it, except for a
higher-than-hoped page jam frequency. It's postscript and connects
via serial line, just like our other printers.
 
Peter Baer Galvin
pbg@cs.brown.edu
 
-------------------
The 2 that I have heard of are the Tektroniks Phaser PXi and the
QMS ColorScript.
 
Brett Chapman
chapmanB@med.ge.com
 
-------------------
We have a QMS ColorScript100 and are pleased with it. It uses thermal wax, so I
don't know if that is what you call "laser quality". For better resolution, you
need to go with continuous tone printers (e.g. dye difussion) such as the Mitsubishi. However, I don't know if any of them yet have PostScript RIP's yet. The one we have here has driver software that reads various grpahics formats (e.g. TIFF, TARGA) but not languages.

Bill Selig
selig@centaur.msfc.nasa.gov [128.158.10.96]

-------------------
I bought a Seiko ColorPoint PS and am quite happy with it.

J. Eric Townsend
jet@uh.edu

-------------------
Tektronix has a very nice one that is very inexpensive.
you can call 1-800-835-6100 for more info.

Fereydoun Tavangary
ft@sparky.labs.tek.com

-------------------
We've had a QMS 100 for about a year. The printing is of reasonable quality;
aside from a few printcap problems, the only problem we had was that the
paper sensor had to be replaced a few days ago. We dump out an average of
15 to 20 images a week.
 
Doug Kelley
kelley@ucsfss2.ucsf.EDU

-------------------
we use a tektronix phaser ii sx model 4694sx
 
we use it with NeWSprint
 
the newsprint works well, but the supplies for the printer
are very expensive, like $1.50-2.00 per page. also the print
area is smaller than on a laser writer, so everybody ends up
getting there image cropped and having to print several copies
to get it right.
 
i wich we had gone with a color ink jet printer + NeWSprint,
because then we could afford to let the students use it.
 
James Ganong
jeg@ced.berkeley.edu

-------------------
We looked at the one from OCE. Lokks VE
Looks very good (OCE color printer)

Kerry Kinnersley
kkinners@ios.bc.ca

-------------------
Dupont 4CAST will have Postscript (NeWS based) soon, but I suspect it is
higher quality than you need.
 
Kevin Sheehan
kevin.sheehan@fourx.aus.sun.com
 
 
-------------------
i'd like to suggest the new Tektronix Phaser IIIPXiN.
leave me your fax # and I'll forward you whatever you need.

michael lash
highland digital 415-493-8550 x205
lash@inet-gw-1.pa.dec.com

-------------------
Apunix Computer Services sells two different Mitsubishi color
dye sublimation printers for use on the Sun platform. Apunix
has developed a NeWSprint driver so that postscript files can be
accepted and printed on these printers.
 
The Mitsubishi printer models are the CP-210U and the S340.
Both printers produce photographic quality images since each
pixel that is printed can be any one of 16.7 million colors!
 
I would be happy to provide you with additional information
if you are interested. You can either call me or email me
back with your phone number and address.
 
Deborah Glick
Account Manager
Apunix Computer Services
5575 Ruffin Road, Suite 110
San Diego, CA 92123
800 827-8649 ext. 103
apunix!deb@ucds.edu
 
-------------------
We purchased a QMS ColorScript 100 ("p10") from QMS which we
are happy with. It is farily slow, but that may be in part
that we have only 4 MB of memory. The print quality is pretty
good, though (no streaks). Sometimes some of the colors come
out rather blotchy with tiny black dots if you look close, but
I have only noticed this on pictures as opposed to text or
slides.

We have been able to use this both from UNIX and from Macs;
it comes with an upgrade to the Mac printer driver which allows
for grayscale/color. But it does not do automatic switching
between the Macs and UNIX (that is, to switch back and forth
one needs to physically change a cable and also make an adjustment
on the front panel).

I think it was about $6K, though you might be able to find it
cheaper. We did not purchase maintenance. Supplies make the
cost of printing about $1.00 per page.

Kennedy Lemke
lemke@MITL.COM

-------------------
The latest and IMHO the best color postscript printer on the market is the
Tektronix Phaser III printer
It uses blocks of colored wax as ink instead of rolls of wax on plastic
and can print on ANY type of paper you want to put in it.

the demo I saw had people putting paper towel through the printer
AND IT WORKED!

The color is great and maintnance is a breeze with the wax blocks...
There are 4 slots on the top of the printer. When the ink gets low,
just drop in another block of the right color wax and pull a lever.
PRESTO! the ink is reloaded.
 
It retails for ~$9900.00, but I think it is worth every penny.
PS... It has apple, serial, parallel, and I think SCSI interfaces for it.
 
Frank F. Rizzo
Frank_Rizzo@eng.wayne.edu



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