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- What to look out for...
-
- A page printer is simply a printer that accepts standard A4-size cut
- sheet paper like you would put in a photocopier and outputs printed
- material a page at a time.
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- Usually when we talk about page printers we mean laser printers, but
- OKI's range of machines use an array of LEDs to create the image on
- the toner drum, and of course, they claim that it is more accurate and
- more reliable. So, page printers are not just laser printers.
-
- Personal page printers are usually 4 - 6 page-per-minute machines and
- these are suitable for use on your own PC. You'll need a large desk
- though, as these machines are quite big. Departmental page printers
- are faster at 8 - 12 pages-per-minute and are best linked to a local
- area network or printer sharing device.
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- The pages-per-minute quoted speed might not be what you actually get
- in practise. For instance, Windows can take quite some time to get its
- act together before sending any data to the printer, particularly on a
- slow PC. It might take Windows on a 12MHz 286 PC two or three minutes
- of disk churning before it even sends one byte of data to the parallel
- port when you ask it to print a complex graphical picture.
-
- Some printers have more than one port and in an office with both PCs
- and Macs it might be worth getting one with both parallel and
- Appletalk interfaces.
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- Nearly all page printers can emulate the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II
- (HP LJ II). You don't get many fonts, but you can plug in font
- cartridges or use Windows TrueType or Adobe Type Manager to get extra
- fonts. PostScript usually come with 35 or so fonts and offer the most
- flexible output options.
-