A New Spin on Dot-Matrix Printers

For some, the dot-matrix printer is a relic from the Stone Age of personal computing.

For others, it is an office workhorse, hammering out multi-part invoices, checks and assorted other forms, or simply churning out spreadsheet or word processing files.

Whatever your need, Epson America, (800) 922-8911, has a new pair of dot-matrix printers that bring a little innovation to an old-fashioned device.

The 24-pin Epson Action Printer 3250 ($299) and its nine-pin sibling, the 2250, ($199) come with paper cassette trays so that you can print on regular sheets of 8 1/2-by-11-inch bond paper instead of the continuous fan-fold paper usually used with dot-matrix printers.

Without the bulky supply of fan-fold paper, the printer takes up much less space than we’ve been used to devoting to printers, whatever the variety.

Epson took full advantage of that freedom by designing the 3250 and 2250 so that they can be positioned two ways. Placed horizontally, the paper tray extends from the front and printed sheets exit the top of the fully enclosed machine.

Placed vertically, the printer rests on what would normally be its back. The printer tray then extends vertically upward and printed sheets roll out just above the desktop. Unfortunately, in the vertical position the printer is prone to crooked paper feeds or paper jams. So most people may choose to place the printer horizontally.

The 24-pin model I tested gave excellent print quality in any of six type styles. With a good ribbon, it takes a magnifying glass to tell the three letter-quality fonts--Roman, Sans Serif and Prestige--from laser or ink jet printing. The nine-pin printer is OK for personal use but won’t yield a professional-quality look to your pages. They are simple, inexpensive yet high-quality printers meant for short text-only documents.

The print mechanism is fully enclosed by a plastic housing, which makes the Epson quiet for a dot-matrix printer. Even so, it makes more noise than I’d like to have nearby while talking on the telephone.

The speed of these printers is typical of other low-cost, dot-matrix printers, which are a lot slower than laser printers. A full page of letter-quality text took about 100 seconds, while in draft mode the same page was completed in 60 seconds.

If your software has the proper driver for the latest family of printers from Epson, you can print with scalable fonts that can range from eight to 32 points in size in two-point increments.

If you want to print on fan-fold paper or multi-part forms, Epson has an accessory tractor drive for $50. A special feature of the printer allows it to advance the last page of fan-fold paper to allow it to be torn off. It then rewinds the next sheet so the printing will begin at the top.

Ribbons, which last 1,000 pages on the 24-pin and 1,500 pages on the nine-pin printer, cost $10.

These printers aren’t aimed at people who print files from Windows programs with lots of graphics or large-size type fonts. They are too slow. A four-page, graphics demonstration file from AmiPro 2.0 took 38 minutes to print.

August is a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but here’s something to watch for.

PaperDirect, a mail-order supplier of printer paper, plans to publish blank holiday greeting cards on which you can produce personalized messages. But you’ll need a laser printer to do it.

PaperDirect teamed with Avery Dennison, the label maker, to create the $66 Custom Laser Greetings Card Kit. It includes a set of 15 cards, software to help print them with popular PC and Macintosh word processing programs, Avery’s LabelPro or MacLabelPro software and clear laser labels for addressing the envelopes. You’ll find it in PaperDirect’s September mail-order catalogue, (800) 272-7377.

Additional sets of 15 cards with color-coordinated envelopes are available for $21.95. The glossy-coated designs feature secular holiday themes and come in several styles. Most word processing software will handle the message and label design tasks without the software templates and label-making software in the card kit, so you could save money by purchasing just the cards and the labels separately.