David Horne with a quick guide to the best printers on the market.

There is a very large and bewildering choice of printers available for the computer hobbyist and not a great deal of published work regarding the suitability of the machines for specific tasks. It is not possible to look at all the combinations of computers and printers but I hope to give a guide as to what can be expected from printers in each price bracket.

I have also highlighted the points that the user should evaluate when contemplating the purchase of a printer. The factors will be weighted differently depending upon whether the required use is business, educational or hobbyist. For this reason I have simply stated the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

The machines reviewed are all very good value for money and have been chosen on the basis of offering the most facilities within a given price-bracket.

As a general introduction it should be said that ideally a printer should have both Centronics and serial interfaces. It is logical that as the number of homes with more than one computer increases, whether it be one computer per child or just a spare computer, that each computer should be able to share the expensive peripheral devices that are used infrequently.

The annual/biannual cost of upgrading your system can be significantly reduced by purchasing a printer with the common interfaces - RS-232 and Centronics, although just as the last few years have seen an enormous expansion in the areas in which home computing is used, the same is about to happen to the printer.

What this actually means is do not buy a badge-engineered product if it has reduced facilities i.e., either the RS-232 or Centronics interface removed, unless there are overwhelming financial reasons for doing so. It could provide a limitation on your future choice of computers.

The two current main uses of a printer are to obtain listings of a Basic program and to perform word-processing activities. All the printers are suitable for producing listings. Some users may like wide listing paper so that comments may be added to the right of the relevant lines of Basic, but usually these would be added as Rem statements.

The reason normally given for adding comments separately from the listings is either program security - it makes it easier for someone else to follow if a program is correctly annotated - or that the comments can be written in a different colour and therefore stand out much better, enabling the reader to gain a better insight to the workings of the program.

With the limited memory available on many machines, the use of valuable RAM working space on formatting neat program notes for easy reading - if it is not neatly tabulated it will not be very easy to see the remarks - is not something that the user will usually contemplate.

The advent of the very popular four-colour printer plotter enables the user to provide his own listings with remarks coloured for easy viewing. Inserting a pen which has run out of ink into the appropriate colour pen holder - you must not run the mechanism with a pen missing - will provide copies without visible remarks. It took me ages to think of this use for an old dried up pen. Waste not want not.

For word-processing the needs of the enthusiast are not the same as the small business. Generally speed is not that important as the quantity of processed text will be small. The requirement for an A4 print is also not quite such a necessity, as it is just possible to get away with less. For instance, sending text to a magazine in 40 column format will generally be OK as that is how we print it.

Accepting that narrow text is in certain cases permissible, it should only be considered as an interim solution until finances permit the acquisition of a A4, 8 inch wide paper, printer.

Another consideration for word processing systems is lower case descenders. This is the portion of the printed character that is below the general base level of the printed capital letters i.e., the lower case letters g, j, p, q and y. If these sit up on a line the text can become difficult to read, with problems in differentiating between the g, q and 9.

All the printers will work within a normal office environment without creating a significant noise problem, but the dot matrix printers and the ZX printer can cause a disturbance in a domestic environment especially late at night.

In this respect the ink jet and thermal printers are the most suitable, but clearly do not have the capability of producing multiple copies from multi-part paper. I know it's obvious but with the colour matrix printer, only the original is coloured, the carbon copies are black and white.

One of the main uses to which printers will be put in the very near future is electronic mail. Messages can be transmitted to suitably equipped sites at 1200 baud, usually at less cost than posting a first class letter, which should arrive the next day, or of sending the message orally over the telephone.

Think of all the post that you send and how much of it could be serviced in this manner including the payment of bills using a credit card facility. It could be seen in today's climate as a way of greatly reducing costs in a very labour intensive industry.

The development of electronic mail is dependent upon the advent of very cheap Modems, which are also responsible for holding back the demand for access to large database networks. We really are very close to the electronic communications age, not just for big business but also the general public, with all its obvious advantages and sometimes not so obvious perils.

I hate to think what is actually going to happen to the network when the 'enthusiast' gets hold of it with an intelligent terminal; with the new electronic exchanges I can not see how it will be stopped.

A printer uses what is euphemistically called consumables. These affect the ability of the user to actually print hard copy output, tn an office, if the printer runs out of paper, either to to the stationery cupboard and get another box or get some from a local stationery stockist.

It is not quite that easy in the evening at home, a hobbyist is unlikely to carry a large range of spares so it is worth considering what levels of spares is required. A ribbon can dry out if left for any length of time unused and exposed. In such cases, wind the ribbon back and forth to wet it from adjacent inked portions of the ribbon.

Always cap ink pens when not in use. If these run out then you're stuck. Users of the four-colour printer mechanism may prefer to purchase replacement pens from a Sharp stockist who provides packs of four pens - one of each colour.

Ensure that if the equipment is battery operated, the batteries have sufficient charge to produce a clear print, otherwise use the main adaptor. As a general rule, roll paper as supplied is less likely to contain creases and is also less likely to jam. If you use fan fold paper, there may be a requirement for a form feed, otherwise printing over the perforated tear may occur, which besides being difficult to read, creates a lot of printing noise.

The space requirements of fanfold paper is much greater than that of roll paper behind the printer, think very carefully about how and where you intend to install your printer. It is not usually a problem.

PRICE: £170
SPEED CHARS/SEC: 17
NO. CHARS/LINE: 75
TYPE OF PAPER: Plain/Thermal
PAPER WIDTH: A4
PAPER LENGTH: -
NO SHTS: N/A
COST: £2.85 for 100
COST OF PENS: N/A
COST OF RIBBONS: £5.70 for 5

PRINT CAPABILITY (Yes/No)
UPPER/LOWERCASE: Yes
GRAPHICS: No
SCREEN DUMP: No
COLOUR: No

INTERFACES
RS232: Yes
CENTRONICS: No

A portable printer that can be used as a typewriter, a calculator and as a word processor, capable of storing approx one page of A4 text with the power switched off. Currently the cheapest 'wide' paper printer. I would have liked to use it to enter data into the computer but nonetheless a very good printer. The keys are a trifle 'light' with no audible feed beck. The 16 character LCD display shows what is being typed in and allows a measure of text correction. This is a new concept in printers. There are no lower case descenders.

CONTROLS
CHR$ 8 Backspace
CHR$ to Linefeed
CHR$ 13 Carriage return (as selected)

Following last month's look at the up-market Epson FX-10S, Jason Ball looks a the equally expensive Brother 1509 NLQ printer.

On July 23, 1985, the first British electronic typewriter was produced by Brother. Later that year the company took a bold step into the medium priced dot matrix printer market, introducing the M-1509. Capable of 180 characters per second and featuring near letter quality printing, the 1509 has tractor feed and supports 136 columnsperfect for spreadsheets or draft reports.

Released in December, the 1509 will have to compete in a sector of the market already dominated by the likes of Epson, Canon, Juki and Kaga. In terms of specifications the obvious rival to the 1509 is the Epson FX-105. Both take the same width of paper but the two printers are very different. The Brother 1509 is ironically compact compared to its daisywheel printers, attributed, perhaps, to developments like the TC 600 miniature word processor.

CHINESE PUZZLE

In comparison the Epson FX-105 printer is 30mm. taller, 49mm. deeper and 104mm. wider, so it would take up 6,000 sq. cm. more desk space. Unfortunately, that advantage is marred by the Brother's complexities; like some kind of Chinese puzzle it has about 10 detachable parts which are susceptible to loss or damage.

In use, the 1509 performs like a dream. Five push-button controls, situated on top of the printer, are used to select On Line, feed the paper and choose NLQ or draft printing. The final button selects the type of paper used, with three modes for continuous form, single sheets or a cut sheet feeder. That obviates the need to change the dip switches whenever the tractor feed is removed but the mode must be re-selected whenever the printer is switched on.

The most important aspect, of course, is the print quality and to a lesser extent print speed. In terms of speed, the Brother has the advantage: at 180cps in draft mode it is 20cps faster than the FX-105 and 13 characters faster when printing correspondence (NLQ) at an impressive 45cps.

Unfortunately in obtaining that extra speed sacrifices had to be made and, in terms of print quality, the Epson printer has the edge. Close inspection reveals that dots created by the Epson 18x18 matrix are defined more clearly and fractionally smaller than those of the Brother 9x9 matrix. That makes Epson characters taller and much clearer but leaves each dot visible. On the other hand, Brother's larger, hazy dots are indistinguishable from the characters they create but the resulting character is not as clearly-defined. The result? A word printed in NLQ mode is read more easily when printed by the Epson, although Brother's characters more closely resemble those of a daisywheel, using an old cloth ribbon.

DUAL INTERFACES

The 1509 is slightly unusual in that its tractor feed pushes paper through the printer but that does not present any difficulty. If a fault occurs, the printer stops and a check light appears instead of the usual ear piercing shriek.

Once assembled, the 1509 is neat in appearance but I dread to think what the three-tone colour scheme is designed to complement. One excellent design feature is the accessibility of the dip switches. Situated beneath a small plastic cover, they lie in the path of the printhead, which is moved to one side. Remember that flicking switches with the printer switched on not only risks the electronics - you also risk your fingers.

The manual provided with the 1509 is well-documented and presented but suffers from a non-existent index. It contains both serial and parallel interfaces as standard, one of the only printers to do so. Combined with full IBM and Epson compatibility, the 1509 will work with almost any computer to which you can connect it.

Other features include a facility for down-loadable character sets, although the buffer is only compared to Epson's 8K. It will produce the usual bold, underlined, italic, condensed and enlarged print, as well as proportional spacing, but unlike the Epson they are only software-controlled and cannot be selected manually.

That sorely-missed facility is justified by a slot for one of two printed circuit boards which will control NLQ fonts on added type styles. One of the cards also provides a 16K input/download buffet foi extensive chancier sets. That also saves a good deal of time, storing data from the attached computer and allowing other applications to run while printing continues.

In retrospect, there are comparatively few faults with the 1509. Apart from the criticism of its many pieces, the stationary printer ribbon can be difficult to install. Also the parallel, serial and power connectors are situated on the sides of the machine towards the front, not at the back, so the cables stand out like a cat's whiskers. The only advantage of the unusual design is that continuous form paper entering and leaving the rear of the printer is free from interference.

In terms of features and price, the Brother 1509 is one of the best printers of its kind. Those who have used a spread sheet or database with a micro will find the 1509 invaluable. It will cope with paper widths as small as any other printer labels, for instance vet allow you to get all your finance figures on to one piece of paper. You can even use it to fill in forms,

QUALITY AT A PRICE

The printing quality is reasonably good, if you can cope with the smaller-than-average figures, and the printer design is compact to the extreme. At 4kg. lighter than its Epson rival it represents a much neater printer and the optional ROM/RAM cards are a innovation. At a recommended retail price of £569 but available for about £459 from stockists, the 1509 is not cheap. If you think you will need NLQ printing or the extra width, you have to pay for it. Bear in mind the extra wide platen immediately adds £150 to the price and the 1509 is still approximately £70 cheaper than the Epson FX-105.

Epson has long been well-known for its high-quality dot-matrix printers - starting with the MX and FX series on which it made its name and moving through the many letter-quality jobs on which it makes much of its current money.

Late last year the company moved to update the ageing FX and MX ranges with the introduction of new FX machines (the FX-85 and FX-105) and a new low-cost model, the GX- 80. We've already told you about the new GX machine (Your Computer, December 1985), so you might be interested in more on the FX range - specifically the wide-track FX-105.

The first thing that you should know about it is that it's not cheap - at £654 the FX-105 is a substantial investment for any micro user and should be considered very carefully. It does, however, offer a pretty impressive range of features.

The extra-wide platen is perfect for printing spreadsheets, ledgers and pre-printed forms, while the hardware-driven Near Letter Quality printing mode makes it an attractive vehicle for writing business letters which don't look as though they've been written on a computer. The Near Letter Quality is made possible by a new Epson print head - which increases print density from a 9 x 9 matrix to an 18 x 18 matrix in NLQ mode.

The FX-105 also offers a choice or tractor or cut-sheet feeding - giving you a choice of paper and seeming to eliminate sonic of the "paper-chewing" habits of the MX range. DIP switches are also easy to set (although they don't pass the 'screwdriver test' - one is still required to get at them) and are located beneath a cover at the top of the machine.

Speed is impressive - 160 cps (Characters Per Second) in draft mode and 32 cps in NLQ. The latter rate is still a good deal faster than many high-speed daisywheel printers.

An 8K on-board RAM buffer gives you a de facto print-spooling system and space in which to store your own user-definable characters - including perhaps a standard letter-heading or your own graphic design.

Speaking of graphics, the FX-105 is pretty good at printing them. Eight different modes allow densities from 60 to 240 dots per inch. These graphics can also be combined with text within a document.

The FX-105 is certainly a machine which lives up to the Epson reputation and heritage - but unfortunately also lives up to the old Epson price. Unless you need the higher speed or the wide carriage, you should probably be looking at the sub-£500 Epson GX-80 or at one of the many Epson compatibles currently available.

One of the biggest decisions which faces anyone considering the purchase of a printer is whether to opt for dot-matrix or daisywheel technology.

Dot-matrix printers are usually cheaper, and offer higher printing speeds and a variety of easily accessible typefaces. The quality of print is inevitably poorer than the average daisywheel printer - although the availability of 'Near Letter Quality' modes on some modern printers has slightly alleviated this problem.

Daisywheel printers, on the other hand, produce high-quality typewriter-style print (indeed many daisy wheels can be used as typewriters with the addition of an add-on keyboard) and offer a huge variety of typefaces - although they are difficult to access because you must physically change the daisywheel on the print-head. Daisywheel printers are often used by people who don't necessarily want the person receiving their letters to know that they were produced on a computer (such as those writing hundreds of personalised 'form' letters).

A difficult decision, but one which you may no longer have to make. Brother, one of the leading Japanese manufacturers of printers, typewriters, calculators, sewing machines, etc, has now come up with a printer that incorporates both dot-matrix and daisywheel printing technology.

The resulting machine is known as the 'Twinriter' - a big, powerful printing beast with two print heads and a control panel which looks as if it would be more at home in the cockpit of a 747 than sitting beside your micro.

According to Brother, 'the Brother Twinriter 5 (Model HR-35DD) is an innovative combination - a two-in-one daisywheel/dot matrix printer. The two print elements are installed on a single carriage, offering the best features of both - high resolution graphics in six selectable densities can be mixed with letter quality text in the same document'.

In short, the machine is not simply an el cheapo daisywheel with a poor quality dot matrix head strapped on top of it. The print heads can, in fact, even operate together on the same line when non-standard characters are Near Letter Quality (NLQ) printed with the dot matrix to complement the main Letter Quality (LQ) printout from the daisywheel.

Graphics printing is also excellent so that, for example, you can print a business letter from VIEW on your Beeb and then switch into the AMX mouse painting software and print some dot-matrix graphics to go along with it.

During our test, the Twinriter performed faultlessly - switching from daisywheel text to high-resolution dot-matrix graphics with ease. It was also surprisingly quiet in its daisywheel mode (Brother rates it at under 60 Db) and the speed was respectable (between 30 and 36 cps, depending on which daisywheels you're using).

The dot matrix printing is ironically slower than the slowest daisywheel operation when Near Letter Quality mode is used (although I personally can't see many reasons for using NLQ mode when daisywheel printing is available to you) - churning text out at only 17 cps. Ordinary Epson- compatible 'draft' printing, however, is a far more respectable 140 cps.

The printer is supplied with a parallel interface, although a serial interface is available as an extra option. You should have little trouble connecting it to your micro - we tried it with both a BBC micro and a QL without any problems. DIP switch settings for line feeds, form feeds, line spacing and other esoteric preferences are easily controlled by a bank of switches at the back of the printer. The Twinriter passes the 'screwdriverless DIP switch setting' test as no covers, panels or other bits of plastic have to be removed to get at them.

There are, however, three banks of DIP switches - each assigned to cover different tasks. One controls the settings for the optional serial interface (baud rate, data bits, parity, etc.). another the character sets (for both daisywheel and dot matrix operation) and the third decides which modes will be the 'default' setting.

Also at the back is a DIN plug for either a cut-feed or tractor-feed mechanism. Our review model came without either of these, and seemed to suffer from slight paper 'drift' as a result.

On the whole, however, I can think of no reason not to recommend the Twinriter 5 - except for the (ouch!) price. At £1295, it is not really the sort of machine which is budgetted to sit beside your Spectrum or Amstrad CPC - but it does portend a far more flexible future for printer buyers.

THE DAISY DIFFERENCE

The two printers featured here both offer an impressive performance but equally they are rather expensive.

Unless you have an immediate requirement for the up-market specification offered by the Epson FX- 105 and Brother HR-35DD our advice would be to wail awhile.

The price of printers is set to fall dramatically during 1986 - there are going to be plenty of bargains around later this year.