I'd like to ask the collective knowledge of the group a few questions
about printing, and HPGL is pretty much at the crux of the issues.
Basically, I'm in a position of needing to purchase 4 printers, and
somehow I have to provide the following capabilities:
1) must do postscript
2) must do HPGL5
3) must have 11"x17" capability
4) must be in the $5K price range
In addition, it would be extremely useful if these capabilities are in
place:
1) duplexing
2) auto sensing of data type in a print job
3) doing this with a miniumum of effort on my part, both to set up and
maintain
4) printer monitoring capability, similar to what DEC has with its
Printserver software.
At this point, we've pretty much eliminated DEC from the list of
contenders - the Printserver 17's and LPS20 we have are nice printers,
but how serious can DEC be about being a serious contender in the printer
market without a $5K printer that does 11x17?
The printers we're looking at are a QMS 1660 for about $5000, (no
duplexing available), and an HP 5siMX for about $4400 (with duplexer and
28MB).
QMS states upfront that the 1660 does PS, HP/GL & PCL5, being somewhat of
a novice about lot's of aspects about printing, it took me quite a while to
run down that PCL5 includes HP/GL-2, I thought it did, but had never used
it. However, it appers that the QMS will autosense a file is in HP/GL
format, where as tests I've done with an HP 4MV require that I add the
sequence <esc>%0B to force HP/GL recognition. Not a real killer, but
something I'd liketo avoid doing on a production basis if I could. Also,
it appears that the QMS will handily choose the appropriate paper size
based on the data sent to it, I haven't been able to tst that on an HP.
If any of you have information you could share regarding this, I would be
extremely grateful. I'm leaning toward the HP, but am a little concerned
withthe downside risk. I looked through the list archives, and while
there is some information there, I found only one reference to
autosensing data type, and it was not definitive on whether an HP would
do that.
I have seen very feww questions regarding QMS printers on this list.
Does that mwean not many of us use them, or they are so simple to use
that no help is required?
TIA,
Stan Huhman
John Deere Engine Works
319 292 8687
Received on Wed Sep 18 1996 - 01:19:51 NZST