New DeskJets, LaserJet and DesignJets on offer

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Not unlike your other peripheral devices, printers nowadays get old as fast as the lettuce on the supermarket shelves. Printers become old not because their parts wear out or their print quality deteriorates, but because their successors arrive with new features and new capabilities that make them pale in comparison. Worse, the new models arrive before you have the chance to get the expected return for the investment you have made on your existing one.

My HP 1600C is a case in point. I bought this superb printer last year in anticipation of a potential desktop publishing job. Unfortunately the prospective client balked, and I was left with an expensive printer in addition to my faithful and still capable LaserJet IIIP. Now, before I could land a big job to pay for it, HP introduces new printers with features that make you think you must have them.

But that's just the way technology advances. Fierce competition gives vendors no choice but to keep innovating. Last week, Hewlett-Packard, the printer maker that controls more than 90 percent of the market in Indonesia, introduced two new DeskJet printers and one new LaserJet that might just suit your job and your style.

This new mid-range DeskJet does not look much different from the older 600C model. However, there's certainly more to be found under the hood. First, you can take out the black ink cartridge, snap in the optional Color Photo cartridge, put specially made HP Photo Paper in the tray, and Hewlett Packard promises that you'll be able to get a photo-quality printout. Not a bad idea. The company calls the new application PC photography.

Photo-realistic printouts from DeskJet 690C are made possible by the inclusion of the new HP Color REt feature (REt stands for Resolution Enhancement technology). What it does is basically mix and match two more colors in addition to the standard cyan, magenta, yellow and black. As you would expect, printing a 5 by 7 inch portrait will take up to four minutes to complete.

Another new feature is the ability to print on both sides. And, using a special type of paper, you can also print a colorful banner up to 5.5 meters in length. That's perfect for creating decorations for your child's birthday party. You can also print out iron-on transfers, so that you can show off your PC-based graphics creativity on T-shirts.

With such an impressive list of features, this printer looks like the ideal one for home use. Clearly everybody in the family can make use of it.

Professional

For small and medium sized offices, as well as for professionals who would like to get high quality color printouts, HP has just added the DeskJet 870Cxi to their line of DeskJet printers. Although still not quite as versatile as my DeskJet 1600C, it offers the Color REt and RealLife Imaging Systems that the latter lacks.

In addition, the printer comes with 110 built-in TrueType fonts for Windows, 27 fonts for Macintosh, and 26 built-in scalable typefaces for DOS applications. Furthermore, like DeskJet 850C, the one that it is replacing, this printer can also be connected to a Macintosh. If you work in a network environment, you can also connect it to a network with an optional HP JetDirect EX print server.

Take a look at the new LaserJet 6P, which you'll find on the right in the accompanying picture, and you might not believe it's the latest generation of the LaserJet Series. With its boxy look, it looks a little bit out of date, doesn't it? What is interesting about this printer is that the price is promised to be lower than the model it replaces, LaserJet 5P.

What does it have that the older model didn't? It still prints eight pages per minute, has a 600 dpi resolution, and can be upgraded as the users' requirements grow. Upgrades include additional memory, network capability and use of different printing languages.

The LaserJet 6MP, as the name indicates, incorporates Macintosh as well as Windows Postscript printing language. That's good news for desktop publishers and graphics designers. As you may recall, last year we got worried as HP announced their intention not to incorporate Postscript in their future printer products. Hopefully the inclusion of Postscript in LaserJet 6MP is the sign that the relationship between HP and Adobe has improved.

Although LaserJet 6P has a low profile, it has a total input capacity of 350 sheets. You can place 250 sheets in the lower cassette tray and 100 sheets on the multipurpose input tray. At the back there is also an output tray, which allows for a straight-through printing path. This mode is best for printing on labels or thicker paper stock.

You can add an optional Flash SIMM memory, which will add what HP calls "intelligent printing" to LaserJet 6P and 6MP. You can store document formats -- such as forms, stationery, company logos and even signatures -- in this non-volatile Flash SIMM module inside the printer, and you can print them on ordinary paper to produce highly professional looking forms and stationery.

Connectivity is exemplary, too. The printers have two parallel ports -- one comes in the form of the large standard B-type port and the other the new and smaller C-type connector you usually find in Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) or subnotebooks. In addition, there are the LocalTalk port for Macintosh users and an infra-red port for users who don't want to worry about cables. The printers automatically switch from one port to another as data streams in.

Printouts

In addition to the new desktop printers, HP also introduced two new large format printers. The DesignJet 750C Plus, which replaces DesignJet 750, is a color inkjet printer that can print CAD drawings in the D- or E- sizes depending on the model that you have. The DesignJet 700, which is a monochrome printer, replaces DesignJet 600.

These large format printers used to be called plotters, but as the technology that was used to create the drawing changed from pens to ink cartridges, HP started to call them printers.

What is noteworthy is perhaps the new ZoomSmart scaling technology incorporated in the software driver of these new printers. Now you can create your business presentation using a standard Windows program, then print it out with a length of up to 25 feet. That's neat, isn't it? Imagine being able to print your own billboards using CorelDRAW!.

It is interesting how quickly the DeskJets replace the LaserJets, particularly ever since color became a part of the equation. As you yourself might realize, nowadays it's really hard to find rationale to buy a low-end laser printers, as inkjet printers can easily rival them in terms of print quality.

One thing is obvious. If you print a lot and you need to print quickly, you should go with fast laser printers (16 pages per minute, for instance). If you need color, you should opt for inkjet printers. Otherwise, you might as well flip a coin.