🚀 go-pugleaf

{In article <1990Aug20.173504.23028@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>, jcd@ecersg.ncsu.edu (Joseph C. Davis) writes:
>    I am thinking about buying an HP Deskjet+ inkjet printer for my IBM PC.
> However, i would like to hear the networks opinions on this particular printer,
> before i take the plunge. I will be using it for graphics and cad as well as
> word processing.  I know that a laserprinter would be best, but i just can't 
> afford it.
> 
> How about it folks, what are the opinions on this printer?
> 
-- 

I have one and I like it.     I bought the Tmms Roman font cartridge (extra
$70)   and my printer produces output which is every bit as good looking as
that produced  by my department's Xerox 4045 (better, in fact, since the dept.
hasn't yet bought the extra font sets needed to make the laser output look
good).  Printing *is* slow -- I'm apt to get not much better than 1 page per
minute (2 tops) -- but for me that's not a big deal.   I've been churning 
out an average of 10-20 pp. a day (sometimes *much* more -- 50-100) with 
no maintenance problems (machine's been in service for a year).

CAD results have been disappointing , but this might be the package not the
printer.  I use DesignCAD, which only has a printer driver for the Desk Jet and
not the Desk Jet Plus (this could be a source of difficulty: I believe the +
offers higher resolution).  In very high resolution print lines are almost too
fine to reproduce, and one can see the  fine dots; in medium resolution, the
print lines are jerky, especially for circles and ellipses.  A friend
brought some scanner files (produced from his hand-held scanner) and they
looked quite good on the HP (much better than anything you'd get from a
24-pin).  

The RAM cartridge/soft font system seems to be a waste of money.  I bought the
RAM cartridge because I needed it for a scientific word processing package
I sometimes use  - but almost everything I do could be performed with Word or
Word Perfect and a font set which does not come with the "soft fonts" ( you
have to buy a regular cartridge anyway).  Downloading soft fonts is a pain (I'm
sure laser owners who download  fonts with a package which will not run in the
"background" can empathize with this).  When I wrote HP to ask them if they had
an OS/2 version of the download program/utility, I received a terse "we have no
plans to do so" response.  

Ink cartridges are a bit pricy -- I pay $17, but it may be possible to get them
for a bit less.   they generally last fairly long -- I've used about 5 or 6
over the past year, not counting 2 "duds".   These duds are the genuine item
(HP-manufactured) which started screwing up within a week of installation
[as if they had run out of ink].  I observed all of the usual storage
precautions, and the cartridges were well within the expiry dates on the
labels.  I understand other users have experienced similar problems -- HP
appears to need to get its act together in the quality control dept. here .
I'd also like to see third party vendors get into the business -- perhaps then
the price might come down a bit and/or the qulity will go up.
With heavy duty printing (hundreds of copies every day), I suspect the price of
ink cartridges  would make a laser printer more cost effective.  but for
intermittent use, I don't think this machine can be beat (unlike lasers
with expensive-to-replace cartridges, most wear and tear problems are solved
every time one throws out the ink cartridge and replaces it with a new one).

One more thing -- the ink is not waterproof.  If you walk with a lot of
documents through the rain, this could be a problem , though I'm told a cheap 
solution is to spray such documents with artists' fixative.

-- Hope this info. is of some help.



---------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas Baer, 
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada N6A 5C2
Internet: BAER@UWO.CA  bITNET: baer@uwovax.bitnet