WriteImpact and PLP II      24-pin dot matrix and laser for Macs
GCC Gives Macs the WriteImpact and PLP II
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
A feature-rich dot-matrix printer and a low-price laser printer
are now available from GCC Technologies.
 
The WriteImpact is a 24-pin letter quality printer for your
Macintosh. Print resolution is 180 by 360 horizontal dots per
inch. The print engine is Panasonic KX-P1124. The Personal Laser
Printer (PLP) II is a low-priced 4 page-per-minute Quickdraw
laser printer with a 300 dot per inch resolution. No RAM comes
standard, but a RAM module with 1 megabyte is optional.
 
Both printers include six outline font families from Bitstream:
Courier, Symbol, Times, Helvetica, and Bitstream's versions of
Palatino, and Helvetica Narrow. Outline font technology provides
WriteImpact with flexibility to scale and rotate each character
to any size and angle and the PLP II goes one better with the
ability to reduce and enlarge text from 25 to 400 percent in one
percent increments.
 
WriteImpact also features QuickSpool II, for background printing,
QuickEnvelope, which automatically aligns the address on an
envelope and features a database that can hold (and help
you manipulate) up to 1000 addresses. Also standard is one ribbon
cassette which prints about 400 pages and a serial cable. The
WriteImpact measures 6 by 17 by 14 inches.
 
The PLP II gives you QuickEnvelope, Print Manager (for print
spooling without a separate processor), and five print options,
including preview, draft, medium draft, high-quality, and print
later. The PLP II also includes an interactive LCD display panel,
which lets you specify from seven foreign languages, five levels
of print density, printing a test, page, setting the SCSI ID,
monitoring the percentage of consumables used, and viewing the
total number of printed pages.
 
The PLP II is 6 by 18 by 18 inches and weighs 24 pounds. It
includes such paper-handling functions as a built-in exit paper
tray, an output tray for collating, an enclosed toner cartridge,
and a sleep mode for silent operation when the PLP II isn't in
use.
 
Optional WriteImpact and PLP II font packages include Fonts Plus,
Headliners, and Publishers' Choice. Another option on both models
is Bitstream's MacFontware converter which translates Bitstream's
MacFontware fonts into a format which can be used with any of
GCC's QuickDraw printers. The PLP II additionally supports Adobe
Type Manager, giving you access to any of Adobe's PostScript
fonts.
 
Price: WriteImpact, $699, ribbons, $13; PLP II, $1399,
cartridges, $33.
 
Contact: GCC Technologies, 580 Winter St., Waltham, MA 02154,
(800) 422-7777, (617) 890-0880.
 
                              --- Roger K. Adams
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
