PRINTING ON A BUDGET

For most of us all we require from a printer is that it will cope with our listings and do a reasonably legible job of printing out wordprocessed documents. Curiously enough speed is rarely nominated as a highly significant factor.

In this survey we have deliberately limited ourselves in two ways. First, none of the printers here costs more than £175. Second, all of them are fairly widely available either through high street chain stores or the larger specialist shops.

The idea is to give a simple guide to relatively straightforward printers for those with a limited budget.

All the printers here will do the job, but any considerations that may be a particular plus or minus are highlighted.

CHOOSING A PRINTER - VITAL QUESTIONS

Ask yourself the following questions:

Q: Will I be using it for formal letters?
A: You probably need a printer with a near letter-quality (NLQ) mode or equivalent

Q: Will I be using it with a program or programs where a high degree of Epson compatibility could be important or particularly useful?
A: Epson compatibility can be significant because some programs have special features that will only work using Epson character code conventions eg screen dumps

Q: Does speed matter?
A: it probably won't unless you intend using it quite intensively for business

Q: Serial or parallel?
A: Seemingly obvious but many people don't realise that if you already have an Interface One you already have a serial interface suitable for connection to some of the printers here. You may not want to buy a new one. Most commercial Spectrum interfaces however, are Centronics ie parallel as are the majority (marginally) of printers

Q: Normal paper?
A: Thermal printers are often cheap and quite effective but they require special paper which, aside from having to be bought specially, may not be suitable for letters

Q:Special ribbon?
A: Some printers use unconventional kinds of print ribbon that you may find difficult to replace except from the original manufacturers. This may be very inconvenient

Q: Dot-matrix versus daisywheel - does it matter?
A: A simple generalisation: even a simple daisywheel will almost certainly have a better text print quality than most dot matrix (even those with NLQ). But a daisywheel will probably be slower and it definitely won't be able to cope with any sort of graphic dumps. If you want graphics you must choose dot-matrix.

SHOP AROUND

There are good bargains to be found if you know where to look and don't mind having a model that has been superceded (which usually only means slightly improved and put in a different box).

The following printers are available at various prices. We indicate a target price found in a weary trek up the Tottenham Court Road. You may be able to do better by keeping your eyes open.

Brother HR-5 - an early printer from Brother with standard dot-matrix features. Good enough for most purposes. Target price: £69.99

Citizen 1200 - good all-round dot-matrix from a company fairly new to the market. Tractor Feed as standard. Target price: £169

Seikosha GP500A - bulky but effective dot-matrix. Target price: £115.95

Centronics GLP printer - recently superceded, neat little dot-matrix. Target price: £125

Quendata Daisywheel - unusual in that it's a daisywheel. Slow (18cps) but neat print. Target price: £135

Sinwa CPA-80 - 80-column dot-matrix with NLQ. Target price: £145

Juki 6000 - another daisywheel. Slow (10cps) but sturdy and reliable. Target price: £170

Star Gemini 10X - dot-matrix with impressive spec (120cps). Includes tractor feed and is Epson compatible. Target price: £150

Mannesann Tally MP80 + - good general purpose dot-matrix. Target price: £175

Epson P40 - small thermal, small-width printer. OK for listings. Target price £45.

Make/Model: Star STX-80
Typical Price: £79
Print speed (char/sec): 60
Print quality: Average dot-matrix
Interface: Centronics
Printing style: Thermal
Founts: Standard ASCII/International/Block graphics
Other Features: Programmable line spacing, excellent manual
Verdict: A very high quality thermal printer, which is to say that it has lots of special features but it still isn't suitable for any but the most informal letters. It uses a continuous roll of special thermal paper. Imagine a Rolls Royce version of the ZX Printer and you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

If you can accept using special paper then the STX-80 is really very good value for money. It can do most of the clever things Epsons can, including print at different heights and widths. It also has various special character sets accessed through dip switches which give, amongst other things, special graphic shapes and the possibility of customising your own fount designs.

Make/Model: Saga LTR-1
Typical Price: £139.95
Print speed (char/sec): 12
Print quality: Letter quality
Interface: Centronics
Printing style: Daisywheel
Founts: Elite only
Other Features: Simple RS232 interface included
Verdict: A very cheap printer with quite a few unusual features. It uses a special form of daisywheel printing in which an embossed roller is linked via an ink roller. The end result is as good as most daisy-wheel printers. It has no special features like international character sets or tractor feed but can nevertheless be recommended where print quality has a fairly high priority but other factors, like speed, are unimportant.

Make/Model: Star Delta 10
Typical Price: £161.50 (available at this price from Flightpath, 43 Hithermoor, Staines, Middx TW19 6AH)
Print speed (char/sec): 160 (10 & 12 chars/inch), 137 (17 chars/inch)
Print quality: Good dot-matrix
Interface: Centronics & serial RS232
Printing style: Dot-matrix 9x9 pin
Founts: Various
Other Features:Wealth of other options and facilities accessible via control codes.
Verdict: An impressive dot-matrix machine - it's an absolute bargain if you can get hold of it. It is a full featured dot-matrix with external controls for Line-feed, Form-feed, On/Off line etc. A large number of alternative character sets include block shapes and international letters, customised character set facilities which can be downloaded into special printer Ram, variable line settings and so on. There are three density (characters per inch) settings. Print quality is certainly good enough for almost all purposes although there is not an NLQ setting as such. The printer has both RS232 serial and parallel Centronics interface ports and easily accessible dip switches. The manual is excellent.

Make/Model: Epson P-80
Typical Price: £
Print speed (char/sec):
Print quality:
Interface:
Printing style:
Founts:
Other Features:
Verdict: An unusual printer. Thermal, but it prints on a special kind of paper that looks to all appearances like conventional A4. If you don't mind being locked into buying the special paper this could be a good option. It is very neatly designed. The biggest advantage is that, being an Epson, it has certain control code conventions that should make it easy to use with most commercial software. A serial interface version is also available and the printer can also be powered by batteries.

Make/Model: Brother M1009
Typical Price: £
Print speed (char/sec):
Print quality:
Interface:
Printing style:
Founts:
Other Features:
Verdict: Extremely popular low-cost dot-matrix printer, quite well supported by commercial software. Although it doesn't specifically have an NLQ mode it is certainly capable of a print quality more than adequate for most purposes. A large number of special features include various print densities, tab settings, emphasised print, double-width and many other print options. Recommended but at the top of our price range.

INTERFACES

There are two kinds of interface which will enable you to connect your spectrum or QL to a printer.

Make sure you choose the right sort for your printer. For practical purposes there is no special advantage between serial or parallel (RS232 or Centronics) interfaces. An RS232 interface may be more useful for other things - like modems - but Centronics is the rather more common standard.

SPECTRUM
SERIAL (RS232)

Interface One - Sinclair's own.

Networking and Microdrive interfacing as well. The most common RS232 used in commercial programs.

PARALLEL (CENTRONICS)

Kempston - a sophisticated Centronics interface which has the advantage of having all the customising/driving software on Rom ie, there is nothing to load in. Supported by almost all commercial software using printers

Tasman - A neat interface with driving software on tape. Well supported. The standard interface for Tasword wordprocessor and associated packages

Euroelectronics ZXLPrint III - well supported and also provides an RS232 port. No additional software is needed and on quite a wide range of printers standard LPrlnt List and Copy commands will work

S-Print intended specifically for the Kempston Centronics Spectrum 128

QL
Comes with RS232 as standard

PARALLEL (CENTRONICS)

Miracle Centronics interface - one of the first and so quite well supported. No additional software needed

Q-Print - similar to the above. Does not require driving software

GETTING INTO PRINT

ZXC looks at two low cost, high quality printers.

If you use your computer for anything other than beating back never-ending hordes of aliens, a printer is becoming almost an unavoidable necessity. As the QL includes the excellent word-processing package Quill in the price, owning one without the accompanying printer is rather like owning a shotgun without any shells, but its difficult even to take full advantage of the Spectrum without one.

The only problem is that printers of any quality can be horrendously expensive, often costing twice the price of the computer. Fortunately, prices have been dropping recently and even better news a range of low cost, high quality printers looks certain. Basically the idea seems to be to give the buyer high grade print without all the added features that, however desirable they may be, add substantially to the cost. Already two machines of this type have appeared on the market, the Brother M-1009 and the Ibico LTR-1 sold in this country by Saga Systems.

BROTHER M-1009

The brother machine is a lightweight (3kg), compact (330mm x 190mm x 70mm), near-letter quality, nine-pin impact dot matrix printer designed to sell at just under £200. The connector cable costs between £15 and £20 depending upon where you buy it (alternatively you can make your own). There is an optional paper roller available (which costs around £20 las well as a dust cover and a pin feed unit. The operations panel consists of two pad keys (on-line and line feed) and three indicator lamps; power, error and on-line. Printing is via a cassette-type, endless fabric ribbon with an estimated lifespan of a half million characters.

Printing is bi-directional logic seeking with a speed of 50 characters per second. The character set consists of 96 ASCII, 48 European, 16 Greek, 48 graphic and 21 mathematical and other symbols. The number of characters per line varies from 80 in the normal mode to 132 in condensed mode. There is an enlarged mode of 40cpl used mainly for headings and an enlarged condensed mode of 66cpl. Other features include superscript, subscript, italics, emphasized and double-strike modes. These various print modes may be combined to give a strikingly varied output.

The print quality is excellent. As a writer, I try to give editors polished manuscripts (but rarely succeed with a typewriter) and normally this would seem to call for a letter quality printer. But using the M-1009's combination of double-strike and condensed modes is really all any reasonable person could ask for. I suppose one wouldn't use the M-1009 to write a party invitation to royalty but it should for just about everything else including the most picky of editors (Are you trying to tell me something? Ed). It's not so much that the standard of print is radically different from other quality dot matrix printers but rather that you get the same sort of quality for a lot less money.

The emphasized mode itself is perfectly adequate for virtually any day to-day use as is the condensed mode which looks marginally more like an obvious computer print-out. The normal typeface is perfectly good but lacks the near letter quality of the emphasized and (especially the emphasized double-strike modes). The accompanying manual is fairly comprehensive but it could well do with an accomplished Japanese English translator to tidy up the grammar and idioms. My manual came with a set of addenda that was actually longer than the original thing.

The 'R' version of the M-1009 looks to be pretty much the standard issue in this country and is the one most likely to interest Sinclair owners as it comes equipped with both a Centronics (parallel) and an RS232 (serial) interface. While it is perfectly possible to connect most parallel printers to a QL (and with a bit more difficulty, a Spectrum), it requires yet another interface added to the labyrinth of wires at the back. This not only adds to the cost (some of the available interfaces are reasonably cheap but many are fairly pricey for anyone trying to build up a computer system on a limited budget) but it's another piece of gadgetry that can go wrong.

Some of the QL peripherals now being marketed (the Bright Star modem, for example) carry a Centronics interface as an added extra but there is still a clear advantage in choosing a serial printer to link directly into the computer. After all, if the peripheral acts up, you can still use the printer to write a complaining letter to the company. If you need to alter the DIP switch settings, they can be reached with any sort of small tool through a hole provided in the frame. Otherwise, once you get the right cable, everything is ready to go.