 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Inkjet printers Major Keary |
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Inkjet printers are often dismissed as a poor man's laser, an undeserved description often used by laser sellers anxious to separate the gullible from their money.
The development of dot matrix printers has settled back to a 24-pin plateau following the release of 48-pin models (Epson even had a flat-bed version) a few years ago. The reason, no doubt, was the appearance of cheap and effective inkjets. Nevertheless, dot matrix printers remain the most cost-effective in cents-per-page terms and are certainly the most robust of all types of printer.
Enter the inkjet
Inkjet printers are lightweight, quiet, and have the advantage of being able to handle heavy paper stock and card. The standard resolution is 300 dpi - higher resolutions are offered by some manufacturers - which produces good quality output. Of course, if the print is examined under a magnifying glass output from even a 300 dpi laser is cleaner. But who looks that closely? Price-for-quality, inkjets are a sensible solution for users with limited volume requirements.
Transporting laser printers is difficult; if the toner spills inside the machine it can result in highly expensive repairs, and they are generally heavy things to lug about. Inkjet printers transport easily - they are remarkably light - and don't have anything to spill.
Inkjet limitations
Inkjets do, however, have limitations. Paper feed is one, and cost-per-copy is another. Tractor feed paper may be unfashionable, but is convenient for many applications. The absence of tractor feed as an option on popular inkjet printers is probably to do with cost and weight. Some manufacturers provide an automatic sheet feeder, which is better than hand feeding.
A significant disadvantage can be running costs arising from the cost of printhead replacement and ink replenishment.
The wearing part: printheads
Manufacturers vary in how they handle ink refills and print head replacement. Early models required replacement of the whole print head assembly when the ink ran out. Epson introduced refillable print heads and most vendors have now followed suit. Even so, print heads have a limited life. Before deciding to buy an inkjet printer you should enquire if the print head accepts ink refills; if you have to replace the whole assembly think carefully about high running costs.
The next question is, how often does the print head have to be replaced? Another point to clarify is whether the print head can be cleaned and how many times. The Olivetti JP150, for example, allows the print head to be cleaned - but advises that it be done only once in the life of a print head.
Problems of infrequent use
Infrequent use can reduce print head life. A gooey substance forms on the tip of the ink jets - and can even spread elsewhere - if the printer is used only occasionally. To avoid that problem make sure the printer is used at least once a week. If left idle for a long period of time it may be necessary to clean the nozzles, something likely to reduce print head life.
Well-designed inkjet printers have startup and power-down routines; when the power is turned on internal checking is carried out and the print head positioned; when the host computer is switched off a power-down sequence should clear the ink nozzles. Some printers have a delay mechanism that enables nozzle clearance to be carried out after the power is switched off at the printer; others seem to perform power down when the host computer is switched off. Turning the power off at its source rather than using the printer or host computer's power switch may lead to dirty nozzles. It is something worth clarifying at the time of purchase.
Running costs
Cost-per-copy figures vary, both actual and claimed. The claimed figure can be set low (by people selling inkjets), or set high (by people selling laser printers). It is not easy to estimate the cost of running a given model before putting it into service. Keeping some kind of usage log is the only way of arriving at an accurate figure, but that's not much help until after purchase.
There are usage factors that have to be taken into account. A colour inkjet used to print graphics can have quite a high per-copy overhead. Monochrome can also consume a lot of ink if used for large, high density graphic images.
It is easy, however, to compare running costs of different makes and models of inkjet printers. The best yardstick is the manufacturer's specification, which should include a figure of so many characters per ink cartridge. Obviously the capacity of a cartridge will influence the number of characters, but regardless of that you can establish a cost per n thousand characters. Of course, characters can be of infinite sizes and degrees of boldness. Printer manufacturers still measure fonts in typewriter terms, characters per inch (or pitch), which makes it difficult to equate with, say, TrueType fonts. It is probably reasonable to assume their figures relate to the equivalent of a 10 point, normal weight font.
Most word-count programs return both the number of words and characters, so you should be able to check the number of characters per page for yourself. A wide variation in characters per page will occur between usage patterns; for example, where printing output is largely single page documents as against long multi-page documents.
You will, of course, also need to know how often the print head should be replaced and the cost.
Olivetti joins the market
The Olivetti JP 150, widely accepted in Europe as the most economical inkjet to run, is now available here. Its ink cartridges, according to the specifications, are rated at 400,000 characters. The local price is $12 per cartridge, representing a cost of 0.003 cents per character (to which has to be added a cost for printhead replacement).
The JP 150 is available with an optional automatic sheet feed (ASF) that docks quite easily with the printer; the price with ASF is around $375. Instead of the fiddly DIP switches found on most equipment, Olivetti uses a bar, easily accessible, with large tabs that are pulled up or pushed down according to the desired settings for font selection, print resolution (150 or 300 dpi), graphics density (75 or 300 dpi), character sets, ASF, landscape mode, and so on. A handy template, attached to the inside of the top cover, saves looking up the manual for essential setting information.
For those who want to use the printer's own fonts, styles, and character sets an on-board character generator can produce some fifty character sets for language-specific versions of Windows 3.1 (Turkish, Greek, Cyrillic, East European, and ANSI), the important ISO sets, a number of European languages, JIS ASCII (Japanese kana), Hebrew, UNIX International, line draw, pi, and four math sets.
Drivers, emulations, and font cards
Drivers are supplied on-disk, but new enhanced versions for Windows invariably turn up. Finding suitable drivers is not a problem; the JP 150 emulates HP DeskJet Plus (for which many applications provide drivers, even under DOS). Optional cards can be used to emulate IBM Proprinter 4207 and Epson LQ850. Additional fonts are also available on optional memory cards, but running a printer in a window environment has made on-board fonts virtually redundant.
Before the introduction of graphical and object-oriented user interfaces it was often necessary to use software to control the printer. Windows' Graphics Device Interface has by-passed the need for that, but it is nice to know you can exert control from within DOS. The manual contains all the necessary information about codes for font access, formatting, graphics modes, etc.
Suitable software, such as GoScript (a commercial product) or GhostScript (freeware), can be used to print PostScript files.
A cost-effective solution
Inkjets are a cost-effective solution to low-to-medium volume printing, printing on heavier-than-normal paper or light card, or where better resolution is required than that offered by dot matrix machines. However, some inkjet printers are more cost effective than others and intending buyers should compare the cost of refills and print heads.
Reprinted from the July 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
