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Equipment Review Epson’s new Stylus 800 InkJet printer If you’re tired of your old noisy dot-matrix printer but can’t afford to upgrade to a laser printer, you should take a good look at Epson’s new Stylus 800. With 360dpi graphics cap­ability & quiet operation, it has most of the features of a laser printer but at a lower cost. Review by DARREN YATES Inkjet printers combine the simplicity and economy of dot-matrix printers with the resolution and whisper quiet operation of the laser, without the high initial cost. As well, one of the major benefits of the inkjet printer is access to the same high quality graphics as a laser printer. Epson has recently released the Stylus 800 inkjet printer which is designed as a first-buy printer for homes and small businesses. But don’t think that means that it’s small on features. The Stylus 800 is claimed by Epson to be a revolutionary printer thanks mainly to its Multi-Layer Actuator printing head. If you’ve had a look at inkjet printers in the past, you may have seen evidence of smearing around the edges of the characters. This occurs because of the way in which the jet of ink is sprayed onto the paper at a precise position. However, Epson has developed a new head to “spit” and “cut” the ink droplet so that it doesn’t spray. It helps to improve the output and make it nearly indistinguishable from a laser printer. This makes it suitable for high-definition graph­ics as well as standard text. The Stylus 800 uses a small ink cartridge which is claimed to last around 700 pages at 1000 characters per page and, unlike laser printer cartridges which are quite expensive, replacements are available for only $28, including tax. This makes running an inkjet printer about as cheap as a dot-matrix printer. Epson has redesigned the printhead section from their SQ-870/1170 series so that the Stylus 800 has a permanent print head which requires replacement of the ink supply cartridge only. If you run in economy mode, which effectively uses less ink, the cartridge life can be further extended. This mode is ideal for draft printing work and is quite adequate for most letters, essays, school assignments and so on. Features Epson’s Stylus 800 inkjet printer is quite a compact unit which is capable of producing good quality graphics. It has seven resident fonts & can produce superscripts, subscripts, outlines with & without shadow, & underlining. 72  Silicon Chip For people with a shortage of desk space, one of the at­tractive features of the Stylus 800 is its size – it’s only 435 x 264 x 154mm which is not much larger than Epson’s old LX-400 9-pin printer. All controls except the power switch are on the front panel for easy access as well as all the status indicators. There’s even an “ink low” indicator to tell you when it’s time for a new cartridge. Inside, it has seven resident fonts including Courier, Script, Prestige and Roman but Epson’s new ESC/P2 printer control language also gives GW QUALITY SCOPES 100MHz PLUS FREE DMM A self-test function is built into the Stylus 800 & is activated by holding down the FONT button while the power is turned on. Above is just part of the resulting print out, shown about 75% of actual size. access to scalable fonts from 8 to 32 point, as well as enhanced graphics. Other printing enhancements include superscripts and subscripts, outlines with and without shadow, and underlining. Although the printer is so new that few pro­grams as yet will have a direct Stylus 800 printer driver, it operates extremely well using the LQ-870 ESC/P2 driver available in Windows 3.1. This means it can be used with a large number of drawing, CAD and desktop publishing programs with laser-like performance whilst retaining dot-matrix compatibility. It also has a 100-sheet paper tray and automatic sheet feeding, as well as single sheet manual feeding from the rear. The one thing Epson has left out which we would have liked is a tractor feed option. Because it is designed as a high-quality graphics printer, it doesn’t have a high-speed draft mode. However its speed is still a respectable 180 cps at 12cpi and 300cps at 20cpi. And of course, its whisper quiet operation makes it a delight to have sitting next to the computer. Connection to your PC is via the standard Centronics port, but if you use Epson Connect!, you can also run it from an Apple Macintosh. Impressions Our overall impressions of the printer are quite favour­ able. In just the short time we have had the Stylus 800 here in our editorial offices for review, it was quickly pressed into service once we realised its potential. On the noise-level front, it is just so much quieter than a dot-matrix printer that the cost of slightly reduced printing speed is worth the peace and quiet! It’s also quite a good deal smaller than a laser printer yet more than capable of producing high-definition graphics, including circuit diagrams and front panel artworks! The Stylus 800 retails for $649 plus sales tax where appli­cable and, as we mentioned above, ink cartridges are available for $28. For more information about the Stylus 800 and other InkJet printers, contact Epson Australia, PO Box 410, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Phone SC (02) 452 0666. 40MHz ESCORT EDM-1133 20MHz • • • • • • 3¾ Digits Autoranging 8 Functions DC V, AC V DC A, AC A Ohms Valued at $127! GOS-6100 GOS643 GOS622 4 Channels 2 Channels 2 Channels 100MHz BW 40MHz BW 20MHz BW 500uV - 5V/DIV 1mV - 5V/DIV 1mV - 5V/DIV Dual Timebase to 2ns/DIV Dual Timebase to 2ns/DIV Timebase to 2ns/DIV Dual Timebase Trig Audio Trigger Level Lock Audio Trigger Level Lock Variable Hold-Off Variable Hold-Off Variable Hold-Off 20kV Accel. Voltage 12kV Accel. Voltage 2.2kV Accel. Voltage EMONA INSTRUMENTS NSW (02) 519 3933 VIC (03) 889 0427 QLD (07) 397 7427 Also available from: WA (09) 244 2777 SA (08) 362 7548 TAS (003) 31 6533 November 1993  73