Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ncar!gatech!udel!udccvax1!muzak
From: muzak@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Stephen F Felicetti)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Canon FP-510, Color Printers
Keywords: Color Printers
Message-ID: <2424@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Date: 30 Nov 88 22:59:55 GMT
References: <2638@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: muzak@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Stephen F Felicetti)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 53

In article <2638@ihlpm.ATT.COM> nevets@ihlpm.ATT.COM (Steven R Ringwood) writes:
>I have been trying to decide on a new color printer for some time
>and have some questions and also some notes on a new Canon printer.
>
>1)	Has any bodyheard of/used a Canon FP-510?
I've heard about it, but that's about all.  
I just bought an HP-PaintJet for my amiga in September and I am VERY
SATISFIED with it -- I took it right out of the box, connected it
to the computer, selected the 1.3 PaintJet driver, and proceeded to print
out a nice HAM (4096 color) image from a Sculpt-3D animation using GRABBIT --
it came out BEAUTIFULLY (and fairly quickly)!
I then, of course, began madly printing screens from all my games just to
see how they would turn out -- and they all printed wonderfully!  (One thing
I DID notice right away, however, was that the blues were coming out 
relatively darker than the other colors; this could be lessened by color-
correcting the blues from the preferences screen, but they still remained
slightly darker than they should have been.  Otherwise, the PaintJet produced
an EXACT replica of the screen on paper.)
By the way, the 1.3 driver uses the PaintJet's 180 dpi mode, but performs 
dithering in 2x2 'blocks' of pixels in order to properly reproduce the
amiga's colors, resulting in an effective resolution of 90 dpi.  Needless to
say, it still does a fine job despite the slight loss of resolution.  The
1.3 driver is obviously well-written overall, and printing amiga fonts with
anti-aliasing yields excellent results.
>	(I currently am using a JX-80).  My price range
>	is $1000 - $2000.  Any suggustions on a printer.
I bought my PaintJet (new) for $800, but that was through my university
computer store (i.e. greatly discounted).  I believe it normally sells for
around $1100 (?). 
>3)	If i decide on the Canon FP-510, does anyone know
>	of a printer driver (1.3) for it?.
I don't know myself, but if there isn't currently a driver for the Canon,
you *may* be able to find a PD driver for it.  (I'll let you know if I
encounter one.)

                  [Canon printer specs deleted.]

Overall, you can probably tell that I'm very pleased with my PaintJet.  800
bucks was a lot of money for me to spend on a printer, but I don't regret it
one bit!

Oh...I almost forgot: I don't know whether the Canon requires special paper,
but with PaintJet, you'll do best using HP's special paper.  I wasn't sure
whether I'd want to spend the extra money for their 'special' paper, but
I was so pleased with the quality (NO smearing, DEEP colors, blacks are *BLACK*)
that I don't mind the extra expense.  (I've even had people comment on the
paper's overall 'neat' look and texture, wondering what brand of paper I was
using!)  And, of course, you can always keep a stack of cheepo, run-of-the-mill
fan-fold paper for printouts in which quality isn't important (text prints
a bit lighter and somewhat 'fuzzy,' but the quality varies quite a bit
depending on the paper's thickness, texture, etc.)

Hope this information (read: plug for the PaintJet! ;-) helps!